December 04, 2006

• Well-played image pete. We're almost there! Where's the ball-gag? I'm trying to figure out what they're trying to prevent by blocking his visual and audial senses? Did he even know that he was going for a root canal? And does it take three armed guards (with face-protecting bullet-proof sheilds) to subdue a shackled and fully-restrained human? Creepy du jour...
• The situation of Jose Padilla has been ponerous to me. Not because I'm torn over his treatment -- when an American citizen can be held for years without even being charged with a crime and yet someone like John Walker Lindh who was captured in Afghanistan, actively fighting against the USA, but soemhow got a trial, you know there is something wrong with the government. No, what is ponderous is how this was not issue number one for every politician who seemingly "opposes the war in Iraq." The fact that Padilla wasn't even mentioned during the presidential election or the midterm elections just shows how gutless out politicians are. American citizen held in a military brig without being charged? -- oh look there's some of them there homosexuals trying to be monogamous!
• Walker == white guy with a lawyer. Padilla ... not so much. Look no further.
• Exactly.
• Walker got a trial because it is good PR for the jingoistic cause. Not so with Padilla. (Padilla is the only one? I thought he was just the most well known)
• Padilla's treatment has been and continues to be unjust.
• I sort of feel it shouldn't matter whether it's, you know, US citizens or whoever. But to be honest it does sort of tug the string. And maybe it should, after all.
• When I was stationed in Germany, I frequented the inside of a military prison and guys that were convicted of murdering their girlfriends/kids/friends/Germans didnt get that sort of treatment. There is no reason for the riot gear, goggles, headphones or solitary. This is all done as a dehumanizing practice. They have basically devoid him of any human contact at all. What really bothers me about all this, is the people that work in these places. They have no compass to judge the world they live in.
• “Federal prosecutors have asked the judge to forbid Mr. Padilla’s lawyers from mentioning the circumstances of his military detention during the trial, maintaining that their accusations could ‘distract and inflame the jury.’” Uh...yeah, that’d be why you have juries and such. ‘Look we brutally treated this guy, but we don’t want that to affect our case against him.’ - wha? One does on occasion ask why defense attorneys would defend such despicable clients, John Wayne Gacy for example, and of course the answer is that they have to. Every man is entitled to a defense and the best defense, it is a well established and codified tradition and so his defender does the best he can. When one inverts that question - why would prosecutors pursue such a despicable case, there is no such answer. There is no legitimate, established reason for this to be done to this man. This is tyranny.
• When I was stationed in Germany, I frequented the inside of a military prison and guys that were convicted of murdering their girlfriends/kids/friends/Germans didnt get that sort of treatment. See, there's the thing. They were convicted. Jose Padilla hadn't even been charged.
• Is the FBI doing its best to combat terrorism? Highest-ranking Arab-American agent says no, sues for discrimination
• Wait, I thought they'd fixed everything.
• A reading from George Orwell's classic novel, Furniture.
• U.S. Prosecutors Move to Block Padilla's Questioning of Pentagon
• The Fruits of Torture
• The terrorist you've never heard of: Unlike alleged al-Qaida terrorist Jose Padilla, right-wing "dirty bomber" Demetrius Crocker was investigated and prosecuted the old-fashioned constitutional way.
• Routine and systematic torture is at the heart of America's war on terror: In the fight against cruelty, barbarism and extremism, America has embraced the very evils it claims to confront
• "The objective of the government always has been to incapacitate this person."
• The question for the Bush administration was how to inform the American people. Although the White House would later tell reporters that Ashcroft had blundered ahead on his own, Corallo says the president's staff insisted the attorney general make the announcement, rejecting arguments from Corallo and others that with Ashcroft in Moscow, it would be a logistical and public relations nightmare. The next morning, the White House changed its mind, says Corallo. But Ashcroft was already in the studio. Corallo says events unfolded like "a slow-motion moment" when you "knock your mother's best china off the table." It's an apt description of the entire administration. Except for the financially ruinious, diplomatically nightmarish murder and carnage. Oh and the rampant elimination of the Constitution's guarantees. With the full, throaty vocal support of some of the bravest persons to fight for those guarantees.
• Shit that's a depressing article. Hey, at least I RTFA. Y'know, this time ; )
• A Trial for Thousands Denied Trial
• Padilla vs. Anna Nicole: The U.S. of Entertainment
• Seeing Jose Padilla for the first time
• Instilling Fear
• WTF?
• Oh that's just lovely. Perhaps this should become a required daily dress code for all jurors in the States. "If you're not down with the colors, then you're not down with US". Bleh!
• Hang on hang on - people get *paid* for testifying in court? Whaaaat? Did I miss something here?
• That guy should be had up for contempt of court.
• Did I miss something here? Expert witnesses do, not people personally tied to the case. Just like a regular consulting job, only some dude might die at the end of the gig.
• Huh. I had no idea about that, thanks for clarifying mct. Still seems ... wrong somehow though. I appreciate that their expert time is valuable, but doesn't the issue of profit sort of cloud their impartiality a bit? Also, who pays for them? If you can't personally afford the best expert witnesses, are you less likely to win your case?
• If they're paid based on the outcome of the case, then there's a conflict of interest. If they're paid for their time regardless of the outcome, then theoretically everything should be on the up-and-up.
• But who pays though? If there's this awesome expert witness with very very specialized knowledge that could help my case, but I can't afford his fee, what do I do?
• Cry.
• Aah, justice. Nice.
• That's "ju$ti¢e." Same as "politi¢$"
• But who pays though? Whoever wants him, prosecution or defense. Public defender's budget will come out of tax money, and will therefore be the barest fraction of what a private defense attorney can muster.
• But who pays though? If there's this awesome expert witness with very very specialized knowledge that could help my case, but I can't afford his fee, what do I do? I guess it's the same as if there's an awesome lawyer available but you can't afford his/her fee. You go with the guy on the back of the phone book.
• Hopefully, it's not this guy.
• *looks at pic* *doesn't know wether to laugh, cry or run screaming*
• On the other hand, he might just intimidate the witnesses against you quite well.
• *has no mixed feelings, runs screaming*
• And you just know he picked this shot because it's the one that make him look most attractive. /judging book by cover
• Also, I wanna get on a possession-of-pot trial so I can convince a jury of my peers to wear red, gold, black and green. Rally 'round the flag, is right!
• Without a plot, is Padilla guilty? Whose Conspiracy? Zucchini! Someone please explain that one to me...
• US terror interrogation went too far, experts say: Reports find that Jose Padilla's solitary confinement led to mental problems.
• Jury reaches a verdict in the Padilla trial - to be announced within the hour
• A verdict on Padilla – and the US
• Padilla Found Guilty on All Counts in Terror Case
• Thoughts on Jose Padilla Verdict
• The Padilla crime
• Jose Padilla sues "Torture Memos" author John Yoo
• Why Jose Padilla's 17-Year Prison Sentence Should Shock and Disgust all Americans
• Obama lawyers set to defend Yoo
• Jose Padilla and how American justice functions
• This is not good for any one of these craven administrations of late.
• Tsarnaev Without Tears: The Legal Way Forward. In a domestic terrorism case with an international flavor, the Boston Marathon suspect already has been given more rights than Jose Padilla was 10 years ago.