NYT: "Terror Suspect's path from the Streets to the Brig"

[GCP]

http://nytimes.com/2004/04/25/national/25PADI.html?hp

"About 10 months after Jose Padilla disappeared into a naval brig in South Carolina, a Pentagon official appeared at his mother's workplace in Florida with a greeting card. When Estela Ortega Lebron saw the familiar pinched handwriting, she trembled, knowing, before even reading the card, that it was for real, the first evidence of her son's existence since he was seized by the American military in June 2002.


"In the name of God the merciful the mercy giver," Mr. Padilla wrote, "I have been allowed to write you a card and just letting you know I'm doing fine and in good health. Do not believe what is being said about me in the news it is untrue and I pray that we can have a reunion. Love your son Pucho." Pucho was Mr. Padilla's childhood nickname.


That card was the sum and substance of Mr. Padilla's communication with the outside world for about 21 months. Brooklyn-born and Chicago-bred, a Muslim convert of Puerto Rican descent, Mr. Padilla, 33, was first arrested at O'Hare International Airport in May 2002. A month later, President Bush took the extraordinary step of declaring him an "enemy combatant," and the military placed Mr. Padilla, whom the government accused of plotting a radiological "dirty bomb" attack, in solitary confinement.


Last month, more than a year after a federal judge ordered the government to permit Mr. Padilla to see his lawyers, the government relented. It did not allow a traditional attorney-client meeting, though. Military officials hovered and a videocamera recorded the encounter."

Snip


When you read this, it seems like they have ntohing on the guy other than the word of two imprisoned "enemy combatants" (with nothing to lose and a lot to gain), who described an "American who goes by a Muslim name", and one of them saw a photo of him and stated that he was the guy they were talking about.

Haven't we seen enough in this country about jailhouse information convicting innocent people?

If he does finally get his day in court as is his right as a born and bred American citizen, and it's shown that he's been unlawfully held for a crime which he:
(a) was not involved with in the first place, and
(b) never actually happened,
will the "red" areas of the country finally start to realize what's been going on in this country re the shredding of Constitutional guarantees in the name of fighting terra?

Or am I just a "pointy headed librul" who should shut the f**k up and get with the program anyway?