Jose Padilla Convicted on All Counts in Terror Trial - New York Times

Jose Padilla Convicted on All Counts in Terror Trial - New York Times: "Anthony Natale, a lawyer for Mr. Padilla, said, 'In this case, you will see how in the absence of hard evidence, a suspicion can be fueled by fear, nourished by prejudice and directed by politics into a criminal prosecution.' Mr. Padilla, now 36, made his first visit to a Muslim country, Egypt, in 1998. He did so only because he wanted to become an imam, said Mr. Natale, who, like the other defense lawyers, dismissed the government’s accusation of a conspiracy to 'murder, kidnap and maim' people overseas. 'As you will hear clearly and without a doubt,' he said, 'there were no victims in this case, real or imagined.'"

The government's case was pretty weak, indeed, but if you throw around the word "terrorist" enough times, you may scare the jury into convicting.