WTF Is It Now?!?

More on the BFEE's Dirty Bomb Tricks on the 'Murkin people

Instead of tailing "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla and following him to other suspects, the federal government arrested him, but then waited a month to announce the bust. Now critics wonder what the Justice Department is really up to.

Former FBI officials claimed the Crisco Kid's dragnet was ruining the government's best chance to find out what terrorists were up to in the U.S. by arresting everyone who seemed remotely suspicious and by scaring any real terrorists deeper underground. As one former G-man said at the time, the way to catch a conspiracy is to patiently watch it develop, and then swoop in and nab everyone.

Now the arrest of the alleged "dirty bomb" conspirator on thin evidence has renewed criticism that the government is mishandling the campaign against terrorism.

"[W]ho's Padilla to the al-Qaida organization? He's nobody," said veteran defense attorney Leonard Weinglass.

"There was no bomb," Weinglass continued. "There are no co-conspirators, at least that the government is telling us about. In his baggage there was no map, no plans, no battery, nothing. At his press conference Tuesday, [FBI Director Robert] Mueller said the allegations against Padilla are based not on a planned attack, not on the preparation for an attack, but on 'discussions' about an attack. That's pretty thin. You can't go to court with a case like this."

Dave Lindorff at Salon.