Saddam and Jose: Two Criminals, Two Countries

Tomorrow the trial of Saddam Hussein begins in Baghdad. Jose Padilla sits in a brig in South Carolina with no hope of ever having a trial. The contrast is stark: Padilla is a citizen of the country that claims to be the model of democracy yet he does not get a trial because the country's leader, by edict, has declared him a non-person. This is in direct violation of the Constitution the leader is sworn to support and defend. Padilla does not have access to a lawyer, another violation of the Constitutional right to legal counsel. By edict, our President has stripped the man of his civil rights, the same man who holds people indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay without trial and who promises to veto legislation to prevent his country from torturing captives.

Padilla's alleged crime: Conspiring to construct a so-called dirty bomb.

By contrast, Saddam Hussein's trial will begin tomorrow. He is being tried in a country that, as yet, has no Constitution. He is allowed to consult with attorneys. He can confront his accusers in a court of law. He is the former dictator of the country in which he's being tried, a country with no prior tradition of democracy or fair courts.

Hussein's alleged crimes are legion, among which are dropping nerve gas on a village in his own country.

Hussein, the alleged mass murderer, gets a trial in a country that's never had a tradition of freedom while Padilla, alleged conspirator and citizen of the United States, can be held indefinitely by edict of the President. If this doesn't bother you, you probably need to reevaluate what the Constitution says and what liberty really means.