Justice and Terrorism in the United States

Forget the UN Human Rights Council vote (see below). The real specacle in NYC was the US testifying before the UN n their use of torture. There, State Dept. officials were grilled by Chinese lawyers about their use of water-boarding techniques.

Instead, lets remember last week, when we were all supposed to feel good about ourselves, and our President, with the convictions of 2 "terrorists" - a delusional (mentally ill) Z. Moussaoui and a lazy wannabe Pakistani from Lodi, California.

I think Moussaoui is a big mouted scumbag, who deserves to rot in prison. But I'm glad the jury rejected the Government's rather disgusting piece of theatre (trotting out 9/11 victims when the man who had nothing to do with the event). He once got paid by a terrorist, but (despite his ideal dark skin) was deemed unreliable. For that he should face long justice, but the American people should understand what we've given a life sentence in our nation's most SuperMax prison to a man who just admitted he lied on the stand - about all the critical points he "confessed" to. The post-trial commentary by Lodi jurors show they convicted on based on a man's thoughts, not any evidence of a threat.

The Lodi man was a cherry factory worker in the Central Valley, who apparently had a thing for radical Islamic ideas and books - based largely on his family's ties with Pakistani (state-supported) groups fighting in Kashmir. His mother sent him to Pakistan to learn the Koran and learn the culture. The FBI scanned all such Americans in Pakistani schools and began spying on this "terrorist." They paid a convenient store clerk from Oregon to befriend the man. After 3 years of basically calling him a wuss about not doing anything about his beliefs, the "terrorist" let up and went to Pakistan. What happened there is in dispute. The Lodi terrorist was convicted from the tesimony of the informant, who also claimed AQ #2 Al-Zawahiri was in Lodi... later disproven. There were also substantially conflicted statements to the FBI in a 6-hour interrogation., later said to be obtained out of duress.

Hooray, hooray.

Meanwhile the hemisphere's biggest terrorist (#1) has the nerve to ask for US citizenship while he's awaiting extradition to a friendly country... who apparently aren't being very friendly as no offers have arisen (this after Posada was found to risk torture if sent to Venezuela for an airplane bombing he engineered... total BS).

Meanwhile Cuban terrorist #2 is found with 1,500 guns he claims were supplied by current or past US Special Forces and Government agents.

Meanwhile in the trial for the one Cuban terrorist actually facing justice (#3 - he was found in a boat with AKs and bazookas), leaked testimony has proven US complicity in the arrival of Posada (terrorist #1) on boat to Florida. He had claimed to come through Mexico - and the US State Dept. is on record supporting that view. Trouble is the FBI had an agent on the boat - with Posada and this terrorist as a matter of fact. As the Herald's blogger notes; It's the first time one of the five official passengers on the boat relays Fidel Castro's version of Posada's entrance into the United States. Posada and his Miami allies have long maintained that he entered the U.S. through the Mexican border. The US Embassy has had to hand over documents to the Panamanians in how Posada escaped after being pardoned by the last President.

Then when the country on the receiving end of all these terrorist attacks tries to defend itself by monitoring the groups in Miami, the anti-terrorist 5 get put in jail by a jury ruled to be biased.