FBI wanted Padilla’s help, not arrest

"‘I didn’t want to arrest him,’ said Special Agent Russell Fincher said. ‘I needed his cooperation.’ …

"He said the agency had hoped Padilla could provide information about an al-Qaida plot to detonate a radioactive device, or so-called ‘dirty bomb’ on U.S. soil, and needed an insider, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported."

And then when he refused, they accused him of plotting that very thing and turned him over to the military so he could not confront his accusers.

When the Administration found out that the Supreme Court was getting ready to hear the case and rule that the Bill of Rights applied to him, the DoJ finally had some idiot grand jury indict him.

There is nothing about a "dirty bomb" or a plot to blow up apartments or anything remotely resembling such activity in the indictment [.pdf] anywhere.

Remember when former Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz, admitted that Padilla was innocent?

He was just a schmuck who refused to cooperate with their plans to entrap someone else.

Now that there’s no Soviet Union, who can we point to in order to convince ourselves that the American system is superior to anyone’s?