Padilla Convicted

I haven't been paying a lot of attention to the trial of Jose Padilla even though it was taking place here in Miami, but from what I've read, it appears that the government -- specifically the Bush administration -- didn't cover themselves in judicial glory in getting the conviction.

Here's a guy that was first accused of being the "dirty bomber," which makes you think not of the device but of his lack of sartorial acumen. Then the government dropped that part of it, then labeled him as an "enemy combatant," even though he was a U.S. citizen; the logic being that even citizens can be enemies. Then they dropped that and went with the plan of trying him for fomenting terrorism overseas, and they ended up getting him convicted. Hooray.

The right-wing nutsery is positively giddy over the verdict. It's as if the entire six-year Global War on Terror depended on the outcome of this trial: if Mr. Padilla had been acquitted then their entire reason for living would have been called into question. Of course, if he had been acquitted, the righties would have blamed the judge, the jury, the lawyers; anything to avoid the possibility of admitting that the whole thing was a cobbled mess to begin with.

But they got their scalp. Whatever. Based on what I've seen of this guy, he's not what you'd call a master criminal. In fact, none of the people that the government has captured and put on trial for terrorism appear to be the brightest bulbs on the porch. More often than not they appear to be aimless and disenchanted kids with not a whole lot of hope for much of a life, which makes them ripe targets for jihadi recruiters...or street gangs. I doubt he cares any more about the goal of Islamic fundamentalism than your average street thug in any city in the world, and I doubt that Osama bin Laden -- the one we should be focusing on -- would know Jose Padilla from a potted plant.

The trial itself does prove that terrorism is a law enforcement issue as opposed to something you start a "war" over. Jose Padilla was captured by cops, not the 82nd Airborne, and the righties now seem to accept that as a fact of life. Of course, when John Kerry said it in 2004, he was called weak and naive in his approach on how to fight terrorism, but so far it's been the only way we've made anything close to what you can call progress, and it's the only thing that's worked.