Conviction of Padilla is Bad News for All Americans

Conviction of Padilla is Bad News for All Americans, Including Journalists and Protesters

......That last line of defense-the common sense or ordinary citizens in a jury box-is gone too.

The jury in this case apparently accepted the government's contention that Padilla was a member of Al Qaeda, and had returned from a trip to Pakistan full of plans to wreak mayhem on his own country.


They cared not a whit for the fact that the government had used methods against Padilla (three years of isolation and total sensory deprivation that had driven him insane) which would have made medieval torturers green with envy. They cared not a whit that there was no real evidence against Padilla.

We can no doubt expect many more Padillas now that the way has been paved for this kind of totalitarian approach to law enforcement. more