August 24, 2006

The government has lied about Jose Padilla from the very beginning. There was no "dirty bomb" or dirty bomb plot. No one was in danger and the government knew it. It was all a bunch of Bush-hooey to try to divert attention from FBI special agent Colleen Rowley’s testimony on 9-11. Rowley appeared before a Senate intelligence committee to explain the details of how she was intentionally "thwarted" in her investigation of Zacharias Moussaoui ("The 20th highjacker") by higher-ups at FBI Headquarters. The whole thing was carried live by NPR and hinted that the White House was directly involved in suppressing the investigation of terror suspects prior to 9-11.

Whether one believes that Bush was involved in 9-11 or not is immaterial, but there’s no doubt that the White House stopped the investigations that could have led to the 9-11 ringleaders.

So, what happened?

Karl Rove cooked up one of his "trademark" diversions by rolling up a harmless gang-banger who had visited Pakistan and converted to Islam. John Ashcroft interrupted his trip to Moscow to announce this "critical development" in the war on terror. As a result, Crowley was bounced off the front-page of American newspapers and the "ghoulish" Padilla appeared everywhere.

But, at the risk of repeating myself, Padilla was no threat, the public was never in danger, and the government knew it was a hoax.

That much is certain.

Since that opening fiasco, the Bush stable of flannel-mouth lawyers have used Padilla to assert that Bush has the right as Commander-in-Chief to repeal the constitution and strip American citizens of their "inalienable rights". In other words, the Padilla case morphed from another harmless Rove diversion to a full-blown assault on the basic tenets of the American judicial system dating back 800 years into English law.

The Bush claque intends to establish the precedent that civil liberties can be rescinded at the discretion of the executive. This is the underlying meaning of Padilla and why it is important to all of us. The war on terror is first-and-foremost aimed at the American people. It is an attempt to revoke their constitutionally-guaranteed rights and long-respected legal protections. In doing so, the inherent powers of the president become absolute, which for the most part, they already have.

The Padilla case has rattled around the courts for years with mixed results. The government has blocked every attempt at a free and fair trial. They’ve employed every cynical trick in the book to avoid producing even a shred of evidence proving Padilla’s guilt. They have no case and they know it.

When the case finally reached the Supreme Court, the majority decided to punt rather than produce a verdict that might put limits on Bush’s powers.

Just weeks after the court refused to review Padilla, they accepted the case of Anna Nicole Smith, the buxom Playboy bunny who was embroiled in an inheritance battle with her lover’s son (or some such twaddle) In other words, the court decided to devote their time to trivial, sensationalized tabloid-nonsense rather than determine whether American citizens are entitled to any fundamental rights under the law.

Thus, the Robert’s court has identified itself as the corrupted moral swamp it truly is, an amalgam of Christo-fascists and right-wing loonies.

A couple of days ago, Federal Judge Marcia Cooke tossed out large parts of the Padilla indictment and noted that the 4 year old case was "very light on facts". The Miami Herald stated that "the case fits into a disturbing pattern that begins with the government announcing that it has discovered a major threat to US security—but then can’t back it up with words….Padilla and others may be every bit as dangerous as the government says they are, but they have to do as good a job at making its case in court as it does in making its case before the public."

The Herald’s bland defense of personal freedom and citizen protections comes about 4 years too late. The Padilla case was built on demagoguery from the very beginning; there’s no substance to the charges at all.

Padilla is purely a victim of circumstance. He’s been an effective battering ram for Bush’s attacks on the constitution but, otherwise, he is completely blameless.

He should be released immediately.