Thursday, June 05, 2003

 

from the Village Voice:

Why the "Dirty Bomber" Case Threatens Everyone's Rights

A Lifetime in Limbo

by Chisun Lee

June 4 - 10, 2003

He disappeared down the rabbit hole.

A year ago this week Jose Padilla, nabbed while on a visit to Chicago, was taken into military custody and sealed off from the rest of the world. To date, the government continues to deny the Brooklyn native a right all Americans take for granted: to tell his side of the story.

The public was told back then that his banishment was their salvation. Attorney General John Ashcroft, the nation's top law enforcer, revealed in a dramatic announcement via satellite from Moscow, "We have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb." The day before, June 9, 2002, President George W. Bush had deemed Padilla so grave a threat to national security that he ordered him held incommunicado until the war on terrorism was over.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0323/lee.php

I'll tell you, as a practicing lawyer who's always thought the Constitution would just plod along, with more-or-less minor veers to the right and left, I find the very concept of an American gulag, beyond the reach of the American justice system entirely, equal parts mind-boggling and revolting. It scares the hell out of me, frankly. MORE than terrorism.

posted by Michael 10:17 PM