The jury in the Jose Padilla terror trial has found the American guilty of conspiracy to support Islamic terrorism overseas.
Jose Padilla was originally accused of planning a "dirty bomb" attack in the U.S.
Padilla's two co-defendants, Adham Hassoun and Kifan Jayyousi, were also found guilty on the three counts as charged: conspiracy to murder, kidnap, and maim people in a foreign country, conspiracy to provide material support for terrorists, and providing material support for terrorists.
The verdict came after less than two days of deliberations, according to a U.S. District Court official.
Sentencing is set for December 5. He faces life in prison.
Padilla pleaded not guilty. At his trial, defense attorneys argued Padilla went overseas only to study Islam.
IN THIS CASE, What does "studying Islam" mean?
Learning effective ways to kill infidels?
That's how the jury saw it.
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Read AP's spin:
Jose Padilla was convicted of federal terrorism support charges Thursday after being held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant in a case that came to symbolize the Bush administration's campaign to stop homegrown terror.
He was once accused of being part of an Al Qaeda plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the U.S., but those allegations were not part of his trial.
...The three are accused of being part of a North American support cell that provided supplies, money and recruits to groups of Islamic extremists. The defense contended they were trying to help persecuted Muslims in war zones with relief and humanitarian aid.
Padilla was first detained in 2002 because of much more sensational accusations. The Bush administration portrayed Padilla, a U.S. citizen and Muslim convert, as a committed terrorist who was part of an Al Qaeda plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the U.S. The administration called his detention an important victory in the war against terrorism, not long after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The charges brought in civilian court in Miami, however, were a pale shadow of those initial claims in part because Padilla, 36, was interrogated about the plot when he was held as an enemy combatant for 3 1/2 years in military custody with no lawyer present and was not read his Miranda rights.
Padilla's attorneys fought for years to get his case into federal court, and he was finally added to the Miami terrorism support indictment in late 2005 just as the U.S. Supreme Court was poised to consider President Bush's authority to continue detaining him. Padilla had lived in South Florida in the 1990s and was supposedly recruited by Hassoun at a mosque to become a mujahedeen fighter.
Good grief.
The lib media are portraying Padilla as a living martyr.
If Mohamed Atta had been thwarted from hijacking American Airlines Flight 11 and crashing it into the World Trade Center, if he was detained and put on trial, the libs probably would have depicted him as a victim of the evil Bush administration, too.
I shed no tears for Padilla.
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Check out this take on Padilla's case, "The Kidnapping of Jose Padilla."
This case has appeal written all over it. The book is not closed on the illegal activities of the US Government.
Some may ask why I am so adamant about this topic. It is that I see the entire moral center of my government collapsing. I see petty people twisting law for their own desires. I see fascist ideas and activities invading our republic. I wonder who would be next. My neighbors, my friends, my family? Me?
If they can deny one man his basic rights and freedoms, then they can do the same to any of us. To any of us.
Unreal.
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