Padilla Rebuffed

Interesting. The 11th circuit court of appeals not only upheld the Padilla conviction but ruled that his sentence was too lenient:

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the sentence imposed by a Miami federal judge was too lenient. The appeals court sent the case back for a new sentencing hearing.

For background recall that Padilla was kept in a Navy brig (he sued over it) as an "enemy combatant" for years but was later transferred to the federal court system and charged on something less than the dirty bomb plot after several lawsuits and rulings. Apparently the Bush folks feared where the discovery would lead--to black sites holding people like KSM, while the left saw it differently--that Bushitler was forced to come up with new charges because the Navy or CIA or Dick Cheney had belly slapped poor Jose one too many times.

In other words, dropping the dirty bomb charges never meant they stopped suspecting him of being involved in a dirty bomb plot it just meant they couldn't charge him with one. While the left sees that as sinister the very same concept was used to send away alleged AQ mistress Aafia Siddiqui by the Obama DoJ, who got sent away for 86 years for trying to kill FBI/DoD personnel instead of any ties to her husband or college majors.

The Padilla case backfired because they ran across a liberal-minded judge, just one of the hazards of trying terrorists in federal court. But clearly the 11th Circuit doesn't want to see this guy on the streets again anymore than Bush did, nor anymore than Obama wanted to see Siddiqui attain freedom.