Padilla convicted of thoughtcrime

The World Socialist Web Site summarizes the travesty of justice, the latest in a continuing series, against US hostage Jose Padilla.

The actual physical evidence presented by the prosecution was extremely weak. Of the over 300,000 intercepted phone conversations that the government collected, only seven involved Padilla. None of these included any of the “code words” that the prosecution claimed referred to plans to carry out terrorist attacks.

The application presented by the government as evidence that Padilla traveled to Afghanistan is highly dubious. Padilla's fingerprints were only on the outside pages, suggesting that he handled the document (perhaps in custody), but did not fill it out himself. Besides this form, the government provided no direct evidence that Padilla was ever in Afghanistan.

The Bushies' original intention was to hold and torture Padilla forever without access to legal recourse. After 3 1/2 years, it appeared as though the remnants of American justice might prevent them from doing so, so they fell back on plan B--the horrendously vague and broad "anti-terrorism" laws they have been forcing through a servile Congress for the last six years. WSWS:

Padilla was convicted along with two co-defendants--Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi--on two counts of material support for terrorism and one count of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas.

Of course, most of the Bush administration could be charged with the same crimes (and convicted and pardoned, as happened with Iran-Contra). The difference, of course, is that the Bushies have actually carried out these crimes, and there would be tens of thousands of counts, not just two.