Liberty and Justice for All

Jose Padilla has been held in solitary confinement for five years, enduring what experts say is some of the harshest treatment of any convicted criminal in the US. Yet he has not been convicted of a crime.

Padilla is an American citizen. He has a wife and a little daughter. He has been tortured to the point of having permanent facial ticks.
He is, due to his ill treatment, too traumatized to help in his own defence.
You might be asking yourself what the U.S. has on this guy. Why is he dubbed the "Dirty bomber"? Did he set off a bomb? Nope.

Granted he had a troubled childhood filled with petty crimes and numerous court appearances. He even went as far as to convert to Islam. The state claims that they have (i love this) his application to join Al Qaeda. Application? Like the one a teen fills out to work for McDonalds? Sorry, this just seems a bit shady to someone like me, someone who has no confidence or trust in my own government.

It is said, by Padilla's defence team that this "application" is a fraud.

What if he is innocent of all charges? What if he has done nothing wrong? Can we give him back his sanity? The last five years watching his daughter grow?

What if he is guilty? And, guilty of what? Has he committed an offence against the state? Nope. But, what if he did fill out his McDonalds... I mean Al Qaeda application? Did that even warrant his treatment by the hands of a civilized nation?

We, all Americans, need to really consider this. Is speaking out against the government next? If filling out an application, real or fraud, can get you a one way ticket to torture and confinement in Gitmo, I seriously think we need to step back and look at what we have done, and what we have become.

God help us all.

Who Me??

Vice President Dick Cheney seemed surprised in 2003 when told where his chief of staff had learned the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame.

From me?" Cheney asked, tilting his head, according to the grand jury testimony of the aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who is on trial on charges of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI

Ah yes, denial of the fittest. Granted this Grand Jury is not asking about an affair, a blow job or anything of that nature. Instead, they are asking about the destruction of a woman's life and career. Why destroy it? Because her husband had the audacity to call out this administration on the Iraq WMD lies.

The question is, will these people be tried for their roll? Will Libby swing alone? Will we ever get to "hang" them for the lies that cost hundreds of thousands of lives? Nope, I don't believe we will. Yet, we are still hearing all about Clinton's blow job, as if that cost us thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives.

The outcome of this trial should be interesting. But we all know it won't be. It'll be predictable, Libby will swing for the crimes and lies of his boss. They will, in turn, continue with the lies and war mongering and all with their collective lips firmly planted on the ass of Exxon.