Annals of Criminality

The Federal Government's, that is. When Jose Padilla was arrested in May 2002, it was obvious that his only crime was that he had the temerity to convert to Islam. He was also easy pickings because he was a poor brown man--the specialty of state and federal prosecutors all across this broad and racist land. Poor brown men are favored by prosecutors because they rarely possess the means, mobility, or education to properly defend themselves against a criminal charge. Now with Due Process essentially suspended in the case of anyone charged with a crime where the Christo-Fascist mantra "Islamic Terrorism" may be invoked, getting convictions should be like shooting fish in a barrel. Well, it should be. The only problem is that juries today--despite being composed largely of white suburban housewives and retired business executives (the compliant bourgeoisie)--still expect to see something thrown at the wall and called "evidence." After all, they are sure to have watched, on average, a minimum of 50 hours per juror of "Law and Order." So they have a vague notion of what a trial might, in theory, involve.

Notice in Alex Lantier's perceptive article that the Feds are back to using the "secret code language" ploy that was used by the prosecution in the trial of the fall-guys for the World Trade Center bombings in the mid-90's. I remember reading about that in an article in Newsweek at the time--incredulous that anyone would attempt to make such an argument in a court of law and aghast to discover that it seemed to work. Before he passed away, I had an opportunity to talk to the late, great William Kunstler about the case. He said he had never seen so scurrilous a prosecution in his life--and he had seen a lot of them.

This 4th of July, I'll be wearing my yellow crescent t-shirt in solidarity with the victims of Christo-Fascism the world over.