Well, the good news is that Jose Padilla is going away for a long time for his treasonous actions against the United States.

Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant, was convicted Thursday of helping Islamic extremists and plotting overseas attacks in a case that came to symbolize the Bush administration's zeal to clamp down on terrorism.

But it was hardly a complete victory for the government. When Padilla was arrested in the months following the 2001 terrorist attacks, authorities touted him as a key al-Qaida operative who planned to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a U.S. city. That allegation never made it to court.

Instead, after a three-month trial and only a day and a half of deliberations, the 36-year-old Padilla and his foreign-born co-defendants were convicted of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people and two counts of providing material support to terrorists.

The problem, of course, is that the dirty bomb allegations are such that they could never be raised in open court -- too much in the way of intelligence assets would be compromised in that setting. In addition, it would set the precedent that making war on the US is a criminal, not a military, matter -- undermining the Supreme Court precedent in the Quirin case, in which one of the individuals convicted by a military tribunal was an American citizen taken in America.

The major media, of course, is conflicted. They are glad to see Padilla convicted -- but want to use that conviction as a cudgel to attack our President and not our enemies.

The Washington Post is at least a bit measured.

JOSE PADILLA finally had his day in court.

After nearly five years in federal custody, Mr. Padilla and two co-defendants were convicted yesterday on three terrorism-related counts. The months of trial in South Florida were remarkable for being relatively unremarkable: Prosecutors presented evidence that Mr. Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was a member of al-Qaeda intent on using violence to advance that group's extremist goals. Defense lawyers tried to debunk those claims and offered an alternative interpretation of the evidence. A jury bought the government's case and delivered its verdict in less than 48 hours, leaving Mr. Padilla to face roughly 15 years to life behind bars, unless he prevails in an appeal.

What was extraordinary, and reprehensible, was how long Mr. Padilla had to wait for the kind of due process most Americans take for granted.

While the New York Times made it clear that George Bush and not the terrorists are who America needs to be fighting.

It is hard to disagree with the juryÂ’s guilty verdict against Jose Padilla, the accused, but never formally charged, dirty bomber. But it would be a mistake to see it as a vindication for the Bush administrationÂ’s serial abuse of the American legal system in the name of fighting terrorism.

On the way to this verdict, the government repeatedly trampled on the Constitution, and its prosecution of Mr. Padilla was so cynical and inept that the crime he was convicted of — conspiracy to commit terrorism overseas — bears no relation to the ambitious plot to wreak mass destruction inside the United States, which the Justice Department first loudly proclaimed. Even with the guilty verdict, this conviction remains a shining example of how not to prosecute terrorism cases.

Our legal system is singularly unfit to deal with terrorism cases -- just as it would have been unfit to try Hitler or Ho Chi Minh. We deploy troops, not cops, to deal with those who use (or seek to use) military force against the United States. If captured, they are to be treated as prisoners of war (if they meet the definitions of the Geneva Convention) or unlawful combatants (if they don't). In either case, it is the military that handles the problem, not the legal system. That so many folks have forgotten this basic principle is disheartening -- and shows that they really don't get the fact that we are at war.

Or maybe they think we should send NYPD to arrest bin Laden, rather than US troops to kill him.

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