BUSHCO Can Grab Anyone They Want-Turn Them Into A Vegetable & Thats Suppose To Make Us Feel Safer?

[kpete]

Padilla Round-Up
By: John Cole August 16, 2007 at 4:58 pm
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I guess where I stand is as follows- I still do not understand why it was necessary to keep this guy in solitary confinement until he was basically a grunting vegetable. I just don’t. Why was it necessary to violate his rights as a citizen? Why keep him from a lawyer? Why?

It couldn’t have impacted our current operations in Afghanistan or Iraq or elsewhere- this guy was convicted for attempting to do undetermined bad things in Chechnya. I haven’t seen any allegations he was a terrorist mastermind or anything like that- not to pick on Taco Bell employees, but I doubt it is their planning genius that has them spending their days taking orders and handing out salsa packets. And hell, if he is that big of a threat, now that we have him convicted, let’s try him on the real charges- the dirty bomb, the apartment bombing schemes. You know- the reason we grabbed him in the first place.

So, why?

The only thing I can think of is that after they realized there was no real plot to dirty bomb, or blow up apartments, the only thing they could do to save face was to lock him up forever- which I think they would have tried to do, had the SCOTUS not rumbled.

At any rate- convictions of criminals and terrorists are supposed to inspire confidence in our system of justice and our government. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am not inspired by anything that has happened in this case. Quite the opposite. I am profoundly uncomfortable with the notion that our government can grab anyone they want (Oh- but they won’t- if you haven’t done anything wrong, you don’t have to worry!), say whatever they want about them in the press, do whatever they want with them for years on end, and then try them for completely different things. Al Qaeda would have to come a long way and take some serious effort to hurt me- the FBI has an office a few miles from me and the feds apparently now have a license to do whatever the hell they want with someone, so long as they think he is a bad guy. Understand? For obvious reasons, that should bother every American.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/?cat=7

[Richard Steele]

1. "For obvious reasons, that should bother every American." recommended

[hobbit709]

2. Ditto

Damn right it bothers me.

[PDJane]

3. It bothers me,

I'm not an American, but it bothers me.

This is torture, and there is no need to do this to anyone; it's outrageous. The fact that the man might or might not have been guilty of anything but thought crimes makes it despicable.

[L. Coyote]

4. SIMPLE answer. Her was innocent odf the original charges. EMBARRASSING

The charges Padilla with a "dirty bomb" wag the public scare, and they were completely wrong. Padilla was innocent of the charge. He was removed from the system and this embarrassing mistake now fades into obscurity.

[Solly Mack]

5. I'm profoundly appalled myself. And disgusted and angry

[Mist]

6. It's not to make us feel safer, it's to have us fear our gov't. nt

[Hydra]

7. The why is easy

American citizens are now considered fair game.

"Innocent until proven guilty"? As if. Coercion, secret evidence, no right to challenge your charges and torture are the rule, now.

The up side is that no logical being will ever accept that these people are criminals, if they ever escape. The Gov't has decided it doesn't need the moral high ground and belief in their system. They only need the physical brutality to actually do it.

This, in my mind is a tactical blunder. They depend on us to report these people when we see them, and I for one will be disinclined to help our "justice" system in any way, shape or form.

The Gov't biggest asset in the past was our belief that they were doing the right thing, and enforcing the rule of law. They just threw that illusion in the toilet.