argosfalcon at 21

Padilla’s lawyer (for whom I have great respect) probably could have made much, much more about the fingerprints on the document, especially without that chain of evidence. But he calculated that the less time Padilla was mentioned, the better. As Padilla comes out now, he’s almost a bystander.

He can probably make whatever points he needs to in closing argument.

[Mod Note; Please do not pretend to be someone you are not. We would appreciate it if you would change your screen name. Thank you.]

My question is why translate everything except “Allah”. Makes you think they are worshiping something other than “GOD”. Replace the word God for Allah …sounds like any very religious ordinary American. That slight of hand pisses me off.

What strikes me about the conversation is how obsessed they are, at least in casual conversation, with referring to Alla. It’s “Praise Alla”, “Alla be praised”, “May Alla keep you” and the like over and over and over.

How could people like that ever get beyond the 16th century or run a terrorist organization?

Anyway, if they can convict Padilla of this, then we’re all goners. I’ve said much worse in telephone calls and e-mails and I don’t even like zucchini.

What if they tortured/interrogated Zubaydah and made it clear they wanted him to indicate Bush or Cheney or some fictional person was responsible for a terrorist act? Do ya think he’d cooperate?

It’s not the voters, but the vote counters and it’s not the suspect, but the torturers who decide the outcome.

Torturer (to torturee): Good news and bad news. Bad news is you’re next. Good news is there’s no waiting in line.

First mention of “Army Corps of Engineers”…..Katrina…Hellloooooooo

Where is their National Guard? I haven’t heard any mention of the NG helping with the rescue.

Lea-no uh @ 25

Lew @ 15 – I was being a littly snarky. From everything you’ve reported on this, the evidence is so thin as to be laughable and I am dismayed that the trial has progressed to this point. Just another bit that makes me wonder WTF is going on in this country.

Are just waking up to this now? They — our government — has had this poor bastard in prison for over 5 years. A US citizen, picked up on the street, not charged but held, probably tortured, certaintly driven mad by the conditions of his confinement. This is the kind of thing that happened to people who lived in the Soviet Union at the height of the cold war. This is the kind of thing that the Stasi did to East German citizens. It makes me weep. Yet I am not brave enough to do more than write about this in a comment box, and applaud Lew for reporting on it. I read the LA Times and even if they mention this case, it’s somewhere on page 20 of the first section.

There was an article in the NY Times Magazine a few years ago, quoting a German couple about why no one did anything when the Nazis were coming to power. First we didn’t know, they said, they we didn’t believe, then we were too afraid. They would have lost everything and in the end, they did lose everything.

Of course we applaud Lew.He’s done a good job at showing what a Graham Greenesque farce this trial is. With the mysterious, incognito “witnesses” and self-proclaimed experts from places like Indonesia billing the government g* knows how much per hour. Hours of taped drivel about the most mundane things in life presented as “evidence”. It might even be funny, if it wasn’t for real, and ChimpCo wasn’t out to destroy the lives of these men as means to an end. As is, it is shocking, appalling and as the Chinese would say, “between laughing and crying.”

Lew @ 15 – I was being a littly snarky. From everything you’ve reported on this, the evidence is so thin as to be laughable and I am dismayed that the trial has progressed to this point. Just another bit that makes me wonder WTF is going on in this country.

Are just waking up to this now? They — our government — has had this poor bastard in prison for over 5 years. A US citizen, picked up on the street, not charged but held, probably tortured, certaintly driven mad by the conditions of his confinement. This is the kind of thing that happened to people who lived in the Soviet Union at the height of the cold war. This is the kind of thing that the Stasi did to East German citizens. It makes me weep. Yet I am not brave enough to do more than write about this in a comment box, and applaud Lew for reporting on it. I read the LA Times and even if they mention this case, it’s somewhere on page 20 of the first section.

There was an article in the NY Times Magazine a few years ago, quoting a German couple about why no one did anything when the Nazis were coming to power. First we didn’t know, they said, they we didn’t believe, then we were too afraid. They would have lost everything and in the end, they did lose everything.

oh, that’s right, to “send a message” that Americans (er, at least the intolerant neocon Repigs) hate Muslims, Mexicans, and any other brown-skinned lower-life form different from the proud Aryan race of the great white american

Lew Koch @ 44

LS at 31

I have always felt free to say anyhing I want within the constraints of being a responsible journalists. (Please remember I come from a small group personified by Mike Royko and Sy Hersh.) That said, I have from the git go, felt that Padilla was a very unexceptional young man raised in near poverty conditions who became, at 15, a murderer. I feel that in the Florida prison he underwent a real and serious conversion to Islam. And that his dedication to this new religion (which had not judged him on past performance) thrilled him. He want to repay those who carried the faith like a banner and gain their respect — no matter what the cost. But the gap between what Padilla was capable of, and what he could carry out, was as different as day and night. He may have wanted…but he was incapable. Thus…nothing of substance EVER occured. And it was his fantasy that he was being prosecuted for,

I hear you, I think. All grease and no machinery. Locally, passionate about the plight of what he perceived as an inherent injustice to his people, but personally incapable of, or unconnected to the “big guys”? Is that what you are saying?

Lew, Nothing I’ve read about Padilla even indicates he might have had a fantasy. Deborah Sontags article for the New York Times really gives me a different impression of Padilla from what you describe. I believe he was an accessory to murder at 14. Sontag writes Padilla read the bible in jail. After his release, he was introduced Islam by his boss. In fact, it was Padilla’s girlfriend at work who expressed interest first. IMHO Padilla’s conversion was ye old “born again”. To say that “born again” Muslim includes j*had, well strikes me as somewhat discriminatory.

Speaking of fava beans, Hannibal Lecter’s enunciation of F…B…I… in Silence of the Lambs mimics the utter contempt I have for our (in)justice system. These people would shoot your mother for a wink from Abu Gonzales.

To steal a line from Good Morning, Vietnam, these people are in more dire need of a blow job than anyone else on earth.

No justice, no peace.

Bush refuses to believe that what they tortured out of Abu Zubaydah might not be true. So his subordinates can’t consider the possibility either.