I don't think anyone, citizen or not, should be held for five years without charges.
I'm talking about context. I didn't hear you or anyone else who talked about this guy mention anything about the fact he is a criminal. Most of the people caught up in the system are criminals and don't need to be on the streets. Even though I don't think the guy should have been held without charges, the fact is Bush did you a favor by getting this terd off the streets. The ordinary law abiding citizen who isn't running around with Al Qaeda like this idiot generally doesn't have to be worried about getting arrested.
Here is an excerpt about his background:
Padilla's parents moved to the state of New York from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, but later moved to Chicago, Illinois where he joined the Maniac Latin Disciples street gang and was arrested several times. During his gang years, he maintained several aliases, such as José Rivera, José Alicea, José Hernandez, and José Ortiz. As a small-time criminal he was convicted of aggravated assault as a juvenile when a gang member he kicked in the head died.[2] After serving his last jail sentence, he converted to Islam and professed a nonviolent philosophy. He went to the Masjid Al-Iman mosque in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with Adham Amin Hassoun, who at that time was the registered agent for Benevolence International Foundation, a charitable trust which U.S. investigators have accused of funding terrorist activities. Padilla and Hassoun became friends. U.S. authorities accuse Hassoun of consorting with radical Islamic fundamentalists, including Al-Qaeda. Hassoun was arrested in 2002 for overstaying his visa.[3]
If you don't want Big Brother locking you up, then don't break the law and quit hanging around with terrorists.
