“One year ago, the people of Afghanistan lived under oppression.  Their country was a haven for terror.  Today, they’re … an emerging democracy and building a better future.”

—- George W. Bush, September 10, 2002

       The Primary Court of Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan sentences 23-year-old Sayad Parwez Kambakuh to death for downloading article from the Internet judged to be blasphemous against Islam.  The trial was conducted in secret.  Kambakuh’s attorney (government licensed legal counsel) was not allowed to present a defense, or even be present.

       [added 6/8/2024] Thanks to Bill Holmes for this entry.

       While the United states Armed Forces (private mercenaries) are stationed at 737 bases, in 130 nations around the world, defending “all freedom-loving people everywhere in the world,” the Federal court for the southern district of the confederate state of florida hands down United states v. Padilla: judge Marcia G. Cooke sentences Jose Padilla (a.k.a. Abdullah al-Muhajir) to 17 and one-third years in prison for conspiracy to aid the al-Qaida international terrorist network.

       NOTES:

• Within the first month of his arrest, Padilla was interviewed by a military psychologist, who determined that Padilla had no mental-health issues.  During his nearly five years of pretrial confinement, Padilla was kept in solitary confinement—for nearly three years—in a windowless seven-by-nine-foot cell, as the only detainee in an entire wing of the Naval Brig, in Charleston, south carolina, as the nearest 15 cells next to his were deliberately kept vacant.  There were no voices around him, no tapping on the walls, or any other human contact.  The cell had no television, radio, telephone calls, visitors, a mirror, calendar, clock, sheet, pillow, or mattress.  The light in the cell was on never turned off.  Meals were slid through a slot in the door.  During the first two years of his detainment Padilla was not allowed to meet with an attorney.  As a result of this treatment Padilla was mentally incapable to participate in his own defense.
• The only three pieces of evidence against Padilla were:
  • Seven unlawfully recorded telephone conversations in which Padilla never expressed a desire to commit a violent act;
  • A ten-year-old video of Osama bin Laden; and
  • An application to a Mujahedeen (U.s. allied) para-military training camp that had Padilla’s fingerprints on it.

       [restored 6/8/2024] Thanks to Freedoms Phoenix for this entry.

       The Federal Open Market Committee, reacting to concerns about the subprime lending crisis, cuts its Federal Funds Rate target from 4.25 percent to 3.50 percent, the biggest one-day interest rate reduction on record.

       [restored 6/8/2024]