Rooked from the Rookery

Mole, unpacking lunch, by Charles van Sandwyk
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Mr. Toad, Ratty and Mole are the leads in Kenneth Grahame's wonderful tale, Wind in the Willows. I believe Gonzo is Mole, though he is a toady, too. In the above illustration, he is supplicating to Rat.

Musing upon the shuffle off to Buffalo of Attorney General Gonzales yesterday, I was brought again to the great victory of the Padilla trial, which was really nothing but a pipe dream.

Ranger agrees that the federal court system is the proper venue for dealing with terrorists, as they are criminals, and must be addressed as such.

The problem with Padilla was that it only demonstrated that the federal court system will prostitute itself to the dictates of the head pimp, GWB. Gonzales was merely a proxy pimp.

But he "was instrumental in decisions to detain U.S. citizens and non-citizens for indefinite periods without charging them, supported the use of military tribunals, rather than civilian courts, to try foreign suspects for alleged war crimes, and helped draft the now-infamous administration memo that supported harsh interrogation tactics of terrorism suspects" (Gonzales Out; Big Challenges Ahead.)"

Like another Bush appointee, Condoleeza Rice, it has been said that Gonzales was in over his head. Cronyism, yes, but also indicative of the devastating effects of the leveling phenomenon.

It is the middling benchmark for which GWB's signature program, No Child Left Behind aims. It is why new studies say you might get fat if you hang around fat friends. Behaviors are contagious, and can be institutionalized. This administration is marked by the institutionalization of mediocrity, and worse.

The most basic abuses hurled upon Padilla were suspension of habeas corpus and the right to remain silent. Somewhere in the right to remain silent is the implied right not to be drugged and tortured by inquisitors.

Regarding the now-convicted Big Bad Wolf Padilla himself -- how many people did he kill? In round numbers: ZERO.

The only thing confirmed by this trial was the rot that has become federal law enforcement and the courts, thanks to the winning trifecta of GWB, Gonzales and Congress. This Jai-Alai has only brought higher lies. Justice is no longer blind; she is a coercive dominatrix.

If the court is so effective, as all are hailing, why aren't terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed tried in open court? If KSM is the alleged puppet master behind 9-11, then his kill record is +/- 3,000. Now that would be a meaningful conviction.

What about the other dozen or so high yield prisoners now rat-holed in Gitmo? Try a real terrorist and not mind criminals.

Let's have a reality check here. The U.S. legal system which prosecutes these people is screwed from the get-go (the Git-mo?) The government can't kidnap, transfer to secret prisons and torture people, and then tell us that justice is being done.

The U.S. response to terrorism has made a joke out of our legal system. One of the rotted bars of this scaffolding has now fallen off.

Let's hope his replacement is not such a shameless toady.

Day and Night Shift Positions Available

"He was all noblesse, no oblige"
--Garry Trudeau on GWB, when they were attending Yale
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Ranger would like to know how long Padilla was in Afghanistan and Pakistan while he was supposedly training as an al Qaida bad guy. This time frame would be instructive since extended training would be required to produce a useful asset. World-class terrorists are not trained overnight.

Padilla's fingerprints were on a document supposedly captured in Afghanistan. Since there was no chain of evidence, it is not fantastical to assume that prints could have been obtained while Padilla was in a drug-induced blackout while in the brig.

Several reports indicate that injections were used on Padilla while he was questioned. Since GWB had to win this one, planting evidence is just another "walk on the dark side." This is, after all, the same Department of Justice and FBI that recently had to pay a convicted person in Boston due to prosecutorial malfeasance. If the government will frame a gangster, then why not a terrorist?

But here is the key: Let us assume that Padilla was in fact an al-Qaida asset. If this is so, then the Padilla capture is good news. Look at how easily he was caught. They didn't even bother to scrub his passport or to have him alternate his itinerary to arrive in the U.S. from a less obvious country.

For example, his return flight could have terminated, say, in Toronto and trans ship to his final U.S. destination. This would have raised less flags.

If al-Qaida is so amateurish as to have enlistment forms in the first place that can be captured -- and especially so for an indigenous U.S. asset -- then they really are amateur hour- types. This should not be like applying for a job with Burger King, the sort of job which Mr. Padilla had held prior to his miraculous ascendancy in mental acuity. Further, no terrorist group is going to admit new members without extensive bona fides.

The entire Padilla scenario is a joke, or a hoax.

Take your pick.