Jose Padilla and American Justice

The Big Bad Wolf, or at least one of his high guards, one of the people that Bush and Company decided were evil and powerful enough that we and the world need pay the costs of all out war, and also a guy who was detained without any charges being brought against him and sat in Guantanamo for nearly four years, much of it in solitary confinement, was just sentenced to 17 years and 4 months in prison in an American court.

MIAMI (AP) — Convicted terrorism conspirator Jose Padilla, once accused of plotting with al-Qaida to blow up a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a major city, was sentenced Tuesday to 17 years and four months in prison on charges that don't mention those initial allegations.

[...]

Padilla's arrest was initially portrayed by the Bush administration as an important victory in the months immediately after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and later was seen as a symbol of the administration's zeal to prevent homegrown terrorism. Prosecutors repeatedly invoked al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden in the criminal case

We could have been through with this guy in 2003. With our dignity intact.

More here, and and here.

And here, concerning Padilla's case against torture guru John Yoo.