Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Judge drops Padilla terror charge

CNN.com - Judge drops Padilla terror charge - Aug 21, 2006

So far, this guy has gone from someone about to use a dirty bomb (right in time for the 2002 election) to some dude who talked to guys who might someday do something.
"MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A federal judge in Miami on Monday dismissed a terror count against Jose Padilla, the U.S. citizen once identified as a 'dirty bomb' suspect and detained as an 'enemy combatant.'

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke said in a written opinion that the charge -- conspiracy to 'murder, kidnap and maim persons in a foreign country' -- duplicated other counts in a federal grand jury indictment handed down last year."
This is part of why he needs to go. This is the rest.
Padilla was arrested in May 2002 returning from overseas at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. He initially was detained as a material witness in the investigation of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

President Bush designated him an enemy combatant the next month and turned him over to the military.
He is, BTW, an American Citizen that was held without charge for a number of years. When the SCOTUS was like, "Hey, uh, Bush, you can't do that. See: Constitution", then Bush had him transferred rather than deal with the ruling. Now he's (officially) even less of a threat.

Where is that Osama guy, BTW?

UPDATE: Why this is important.
This is really HUGE important stuff people. Whatever he may or may not have done or planned to do, these facts are inescapable:

An american Citizen was Arrested on American Soil and held for five years without being charged with a crime, and sent to a Military prison. He was held there without getting to talk to anyone; without access to a lawyer, and without EVER being seen by any shape or form of judicial officer.

All of these thing should be impossible under our Constitution. That they happened should scare the piss out of you no matter what your poltical allegiance.
[via Magorn

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