The Padilla Post

I don't know if Jose Padilla was really a threat or if it was a PR stunt. Unfortunately no one will ever know. What we do know is that after three years of solitary confinement and probably some torture the guy is bat shit crazy and would have to be locked up forever, guilty or innocent. John Cole has some thoughts on the entire debacle and while you should read the entire thing here is the meat.

I guess where I stand is as follows- I still do not understand why it was necessary to keep this guy in solitary confinement until he was basically a grunting vegetable. I just don’t. Why was it necessary to violate his rights as a citizen? Why keep him from a lawyer? Why?

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Don’t get me wrong- if Padilla is in fact a threat, I want him locked up, too. You can throw him next to the Unabomber and John Walker Lindh and Eric Rudolph and other traitors, if in fact he is a terrorist. I just think the way this all went down, all of us were deprived of ever knowing if he really was a threat.

That bothers me, and it doesn’t inspire confidence in the way our government works.