There was a remarkable exchange during today's House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution hearing earlier. Rep. Trent Franks read off a list of "facts" about Jose Padilla and Binyam Mohamed (the former was convicted of offering material aid to terrorists, the latter, who is currently the subject of a lawsuit against a Boeing subsidiary he and other former detainees facilitated their rendition to countries they were tortured). Franks alleged that the Obama administration had endangered the country by letting Mohamed go, based on his association with Padilla who was at one time alleged to be planning to detonate a dirty bomb in the United States.
Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, a former Military Commissions prosecutor who was assigned to the Padilla case, disputed Franks' assessment of Padilla's "dangerousness: and his alleged role in a dirty bomb plot.
Vandeveld noted that the dirty bomb accusation was dropped in Padilla's eventual trial, because the evidence was so thin--Padilla had downloaded a satirical article by Barbara Ehrenreich titled "How to Build Your Own Home H-Bomb. He then argued that Franks' assertions were "not borne out by the facts," at which point Franks interrupted Vandeveld and continued down his laundry list of "dangerous people."
"You're not disputing any of the facts," Franks said to Vandeveld, explaining his interrupting him.
Right. Except for, you know, all of them.
-- A. Serwer
