John
Doe Padilla Convicted Of Conspiracy
By Bob Higgins
21 August, 2007
Countercurrents.org
On
Thursday August 16 2007 A federal jury convicted Jose Padilla of three
counts of conspiracy in a trial that was the culmination of five years
of a criminal proceeding that is among the most shameful in the history
of the United States justice system.
I am not an apologist for
Jose Padilla, I belong to no "Free Jose" organizations nor
am I a member of any "Jose Padilla defense funds," although
maybe I should have been, maybe we all should have been because when
they throw away the keys to Padilla's cell we will also throw away any
pretense to being a nation of laws, a nation that respects human rights,
we will throw away a large measure of what once made us a great and
civilized nation.
I am also not a terrorist,
nor am I a member of any terrorist organization and that declaration
alone, in the modern, mandatory, cocoon of fear within which we are
now required to live by governmental decree, is probably enough to have
a tap placed on my phone and a couple of guys who look like the Blues
Brothers parked in front of my house at odd hours. After all, if I have
nothing to hide, why would I bring it up. Under the new Department of
Justice rule book I must be indictable for something.
Jose Padilla was arrested
over five years ago in May of 2002, picked up in Chicago after returning
from Europe and allegedly carrying over 10 grand in cash. He was held
for about a month as a material witness before Attorney General John
Ashcroft delayed a trip to Moscow in order to announce that the US had
discovered a plot to explode "dirty bombs" inside the country.
Padilla was branded as the "Dirty Bomber" and George Bush
declared him to be an illegal enemy combatant.
Padilla was a small time
criminal, a US citizen born in Brooklyn, he had lived in Chicago and
been a member of a street gang known as the Maniac Latin Disciples.
He had been in prison at least once for aggravated assault after a gang
member died as a result of fight in which he was involved. While in
prison Padilla converted to Islam under the tutelage of someone who
is reported to have preached a non violent, mainstream version of the
religion. He attended mosques in Florida for years with one of the men
who was convicted with him.
Padilla was probably a bad
actor, I have seen nothing in his resume that would lead me to hire
him as a youth counselor, but was he a terrorist? Who knows? That is
the problem.
Had the government arrested him and presented it's evidence in a court
of law, as is done every day, in conspiracies great and small in every
city in this country, had Padilla been afforded the guarantees of the
constitution of the nation of which he was a citizen, we might have
learned the truth.
Now we probably never will,
because what the government did was search for shortcuts, the law was
inconvenient, due process, criminal procedure, rights of the accused,
all that stuff was an impediment to the speedy production of positive
results in their war on terror public relations campaign, which followed
on the heels of 9/11 and continues unabated to this day.
Padilla was shipped off to a Naval brig in Charleston to spend the next
three and one half years in total isolation, held in constant darkness,
or constant light, under extremes of temperature, subjected to physical
and psychological "enhanced interrogation methods," the Bush
administration's Orwellian euphemism for torture. And the government
got nothing. Nothing.
When all was said and done, after more than three years of criminal
treatment, the government, faced with the likelihood that the courts
were about to require them to put up or shut up, finally indicted Padilla
on the three conspiracy charges of which, last week, he was ultimately
convicted.
Padilla was never charged
with being a member of al Queada, he was never charged with being a
dirty bomber, he was not indicted on nor was he ever charged with any
what was alleged at the beginning of this exercise in injustice over
three years before.
Our current Attorney General,
Alberto Gonzales last week called the conviction of Jose Padilla and
his co-conspirators " a significant victory in our efforts to fight
the threat posed by terrorists and their supporters."
If holding an American citizen
or anyone else, for years, years, in military custody, without charging
him with a crime, subjecting him to torture during the entire period,
and then failing to indict or convict him of anything close to what
they originally alleged is "a significant victory" then it
helps me to understand their constant claims of significant progress
in Iraq or in the "War on Terror."
Make no mistake, this was
no victory. This was a failure of our system of justice deliberately
brought about by an executive department and two Attorneys General who
had, and have, nothing but, disdain, in fact, utter contempt for the
American system of justice and for due process of law.
I'm not bleeding for Jose
Padilla here, I doubt if Jose even knows who he is at this point.
By accounts that I have read he has been driven insane by the circumstances
of his confinement. It is reported that as part of the process of breaking
him down he was forced to sign documents with the name "John Doe."
One of their goals was to relieve him of his personal identity, they
succeeded, all too well.
The government on Thursday
convicted "John Doe" of three counts of conspiring to participate
in terrorist acts. They can do the same to me, more importantly, they
can do the same to you.
They have spared no expense of time, energy and money over the last
six years. they have gone to great lengths in establishing shortcuts
that enable them to investigate, arrest, imprison and torture any one
they want, at any time and for any reason.
To this government, this
Cheney/Bush administration, this criminal enterprise that is destroying
America one liberty at a time, we are all, each and every one of us
"John Doe."
Bob Higgins:
Lifelong liberal of the Tom Paine wing. Marine Vietnam vet Have worked
as a photographer, cab driver, bartender, carpenter and cabinetmaker
I've seen it all. I'm getting old. Somebody get me a glass of water.
Owner Worldwide Sawdust
email- [email protected]
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