Desperate Governments, Desperate Measures. Pallida

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A Lawyer I ain't, this from a more comprehensive reporting of the fingerprint evidence.

Cooke expressed concern that the government's key piece of evidence hadn't been accounted for during the four years and four months between the time it was scanned by the FBI and the fingerprint analysis. She told prosecutors to demonstrate an unbroken chain of possession before resting their case. in depth LA Times

Given the amount of coverage this case is getting, far better than I could hope to offer I think as the case progresses I shall do a daily trawl and supply the links without adding my two pen'orth or two cents if you will.

Lewis Koch has and will be live blogging the trial, this from he:


covert CIA officer who was permitted to testify wearing a disguise and using an alias described in court Tuesday how U.S. officials in Afghanistan obtained a truckload of al-Qaeda documents, including a form later linked to suspected operative Jose Padilla [standing trial for conspiracy.]

The officer, whose true identity is classified, gave his name as Tom Langston. He appeared in court with a beard and glasses, although the nature of the disguise was not obvious or made public. Prosecutors declined to say whether any concealment was even used. — CURT ANDERSON Associated Press Writer (emph. added)

What? A "form?" A piece of paper Padilla may or may not have signed linking him to al-Qaeda? That's it? What happened to the radioactivity from the exploding device that was going to engulf us? What about all those gas stoves exploding highrise apartment buildings.

This is what we wind up with after spending $20 million in prosecuting Padilla — a goddam form handed to a CIA agent by a stranger appearing out of nowhere in Afghanistan? We are to believe that the stranger just happened to come upon piles and boxes of papers in an abandoned building. So he loaded it all up, in search of an American he might find and make a new buddy. He came upon a someone who just happened to be a CIA agent (Allah works in mysterious ways) and offered the American all these paper documents. The good Samaritan, henceforth to be known as the Good Afgan, didn't even ask for a reward. Koch/FDL more