Siddique Guilty

No surprises:

The jury found Siddiqui guilty of seven counts, including attempted murder and armed assault on U.S. officers.

Keeps her off the streets for awhile, but this:

The indictment said Siddiqui had "handwritten notes that referred to a 'mass casualty attack' " listing several locations in the United States and "construction of 'dirty bombs.' "

The notes also "discussed various ways to attack 'enemies,' including by destroying reconnaissance drones, using underwater bombs, and using gliders," the indictment said.

"Siddiqui also possessed a computer thumb drive that contained correspondence referring to specific 'cells,' 'attacks' by certain 'cells,' and 'enemies,' " the indictment said. "Other documents on the thumb drive discussed recruitment and training."

Is what it was really all about. There were also some things that go a little deeper than most would rather go.

But obviously yes, we can successfully try and convict terrorists in federal courts. Righties should accept this as a feasible avenue at times, especially if the suspects are not likely to possess much in the way of actionable intelligence. In Siddique's case the thumb drive was enough. But why should lefties be against sending HVTs to the brig for questioning before trial if they agree with Obama that we are 'at war'? Why so rigid on courtrooms only? After all, they are usually the ones who call the Constitution a living, breathing document. Even Jefferson agreed it's not a suicide pact.

Nevertheless, there will be a rise of whining about the politicization of terror-fighting in the coming days as the Dems pushback and use the torture card. It's hard to disagree with Dennis Blair's lament about the political hubbub surrounding fighting the good fight--too bad that wasn't around five years ago. But even so, conservatives are being unfair to castigate Obama's overall terror fighting scorecard, at least overseas.

The 'hubbub' has largely been about his home record. Blair even admitted they had not considered using the new interrogation group (that evidently doesn't exist) on domestic perps, which gave us a picture of their mindset. So, after the administration pretended the Little Rock and Ft Hood attacks were lone wolves then began a campaign of obfuscation and misdirection about the underbomber (the first story was "firecrackers" on a plane), all after making a big production of closing Gitmo and ending Bushitler's enhanced interrogation, maybe folks have a right to some quizzical anger.

It's not like Obama himself didn't spend over a year criticizing Bush on the campaign trail for the way he pursued al Qaeda (or didn't) while dismissing any dead terrorists in Iraq. And there was a time when BO found the thoughts of a military tribunal for KSM much more appealing than today (ht JOM). No way that was political, right?