Thursday, August 16, 2007

Be careful what you think

Somehow it stinks. The voice of Jose Padilla appearing in 7 of 300,000 recorded telephone conversations where he's said to be speaking in "code," a dubious fingerprint on a document there's no proof he signed; all in all a minuscule fraction of the evidence one would ordinarily need to find someone guilty of being part of a terrorist plot to kill people in some foreign land. Is he guilty of thought crime? Is he guilty of any crime? By the standards we used to have, probably not, but we don't have standards any more; we have panic, hysteria and a government determined to force their frightening scenarios down our throats.

I don't know Jose. I have no idea whether he has sympathies with Islamic jihadists, but he wasn't accused or prosecuted for doing any of the things he was arrested for. He wasn't tried for being an "enemy combatant" as the Führer named him. I have a sickening feeling that he was tried and found guilty to make that Führer look good.

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