Padilla convicted

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I'm surprised this hasn't been posted here yet.

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Jose Padilla, once accused of plotting with al Qaeda to blow up a radioactive "dirty bomb," was sentenced Tuesday to 17 years and four months on terrorism conspiracy charges.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/01/22/padilla.sentence.ap/index.html


While Padilla should have recieved his day in court, I am relieved that I will no longer have to hear from any of those people who took the position of Padilla as "the wronged american". No longer is this terrorist (and yes he is much of a terrorist today as he was for the last several years despite the protests of several here) going to be a poster boy for criticism of this administration. The only americans snatched in the middle of the night are those that graduated from al quaeda university.
 
And how do you know that? 3.5 years later, Padilla is convicted of *something*. Would you care to live behind bars for a few years before you're charged and tried?

Biker
 
Perhaps tangenitally, but it's gun related in the aspects of the US government taking away all of this man's civil liberties and holding him as an enemy combatant on the flimsiest of pretexts.

According to the article, the .gov had eight years of evidence of phone conversations and so on to present during his three month long trial. With all this evidence, why the over three year wait?

And, unfortunately, the way our system works is that criminals are the test cases to find out the constitutionality of many things the .gov does. Ultimately, if Padilla's case brings scrutiny on our government about how it treats its citizens and non-citizens and whether or not it abides by the restrictions placed upon it, then it's a good thing.
 
And how do you know that? 3.5 years later, Padilla is convicted of *something*. Would you care to live behind bars for a few years before you're charged and tried?
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Padilla was wronged here. No question about that. I would have much prefered they would have fast tracked his case and made a huge example out of him. However because the government violates your rights doesn't mean you are absolved of your crimes. Padilla didn't get a trial when he should have. The remedy for this is for him to have a trial, and if convicted, taking into account his time served when determining the sentence. Thats exactly what happened here. Padilla was convicted and the judge granted him time served for the years that he was detained.

Of course, thats not really the issue I was talking about. Its more than fair to complain about the process that went on here. However, when talking about the actual man, its ridiculous to complain as many people here have done. There were many here "outraged" that padilla was being called a terrorist. Ignoring anything legal and using common sense, regular folks don't have cell phones full of al quaeda numbers, nor do they hit all the hot spots in the middle east and return with a backpack full of money. Pretending Padilla was an altar boy only invalidates any legitimate gripe about the process that occured here.

As far as being convicted of "something", the jury still found him guilty WITHOUT hearing of his participation in an al quaeda training camp, a plot to detonate the "dirty bomb" and a scheme to fill apartments with natural gas and blow them up.

This guy was an alquaeda conspirator, and prior to that, a gang member with a long criminal record. I can't think of a worse posterboy for discussing "civil rights".


Oh you keep right on believing that one......
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Well, this is the example that people love to give when talking about the abuses of the patriot act and the big evil government. While things were screwed up along the way, the end result is the same. This guy dealt with al quaeda and he ended up in prison. Sound about right to me.
 
One need not be a "Bush bot" to recognize that this conviction is, itself, evidence that the Bush administration has not been abusing its power as much as people say.

This guy was neither innocent nor a petty criminal. He really WAS working with the enemy and there was plenty of evidence for this.

I am not happy about some of the powers given to the President, though they're hardly unprecedented (see FDR, Lincoln, et al.). However, I am also grounded enough in the real world to understand that there is a difference between power that is actually being misused, and power that is a problem in what it could allow.

That doesn't make everything okay. However, the partisan shrieking about Bush's being some sort of Hitler is not justified, either.

Too bad that few people seem to even want to have a balanced view, on either side.
 
Oh, Padilla is a bad guy - no bout adoubt it - he deserves what he gets. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things and Padilla's treatment set a precedence. Where is the outrage?

Biker
 
Oh, Padilla is a bad guy - no bout adoubt it - he deserves what he gets. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things and Padilla's treatment set a precedence. Where is the outrage?

Biker
 
The only americans snatched in the middle of the night are those that graduated from al quaeda university.
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And everyone sent to prison is guilty, right?

Let me guess. You have this as a poster on your wall?

elian.jpg
 
Oh, Padilla is a bad guy - no bout adoubt it - he deserves what he gets. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things and Padilla's treatment set a precedence. Where is the outrage?

Biker
 
Well, putting aside the fact that a lot of people hate Bush, Clinton, or anyone else, let's just step back and acknowledge that the President IS CINCUS, okay?

Now let's say the President (whichever President) believes that letting out a lot of information in an open courtroom, when our intelligence services are actively trying to prevent known terrorists' known plans to kill Americans on our soil and elsewhere. So he tries to handle an individual working with said terrorists as the military would, not as we would handle a bank robber.

Now let's say we find out that, in fact, this guy wasn't actually a terrorist operative, but rather was working with the President's cousin's chief business competitor. But the President managed to get him holed up in a military prison for a few years. THAT would be scary!

But let's say we find out that the guy really WAS who the White House said he was, an American working with Al Qaeda. Is it still so scary?

Seriously, now.
 
We're putting a lot of faith in what the President "believes", aren't we? I'm a 'checks and balances' type of guy myself.

Biker
 
We're putting a lot of faith in what the President "believes", aren't we?
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When haven't we?

President as CINC has a lot more power than what you're talking about here, and always has. What he does with it has always depended on what he "believed". That includes launching global thermonuclear war.

I'm not saying I love this; I'm saying that people are not acknowledging reality when they think the President hasn't always been entrusted with a great deal of power.

Again, and it seems that nobody will read this, but again: THAT DOESN'T MEAN I LIKE IT. IT JUST IS.

Perhaps you would prefer to entrust the power to HAL? Other ideas?
 
Please keep in mind that suitable topics for THR's Legal subforum involve discussions of firearms issues.
 
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