GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS. CO-DEFENDANTS GUILTY, TOO. SENTENCING IN DECEMBER.
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The Associated Press reports the verdict in the case of Jose Padilla will be read at 2PM EST, today.

MIAMI – A verdict was reached Thursday in the trial of Jose Padilla and two co-defendants charged with supporting al-Qaida and other violent Islamic extremist groups overseas.

The jury verdict was scheduled to be read at 2 p.m. EDT before U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke in Miami’s downtown federal courthouse, according to an announcement from her chambers. The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for about a day and a half following a three-month trial.

Padilla, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi face possible life in prison if convicted of all three charges in the case.

The key piece of physical evidence was a five-page form Padilla supposedly filled out in July 2000 to attend an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan, which would link the other two defendants as well to Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organization.

The form, recovered by the CIA in 2001 in Afghanistan, contains seven of Padilla’s fingerprints and several other personal identifiers, such as his birthdate and abilities in Spanish, English and Arabic.

“He provided himself to al-Qaida for training to learn to murder, kidnap and maim,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier in closing arguments.

Padilla’s lawyers insisted the form was far from conclusive and denied that he was a “star recruit,” as prosecutors claimed, of the North American support cell intending to become a terrorist. Padilla’s attorneys said he traveled to Egypt in September 1998 to learn Islam more deeply and become fluent in Arabic.

“His intent was to study, not to murder,” said Padilla attorney Michael Caruso.

Central to the investigation were some 300,000 FBI wiretap intercepts collected from 1993 to 2001, mainly involving Padilla’s co-defendants Hassoun and Jayyousi and others. Most of the conversations were in Arabic and purportedly used code such as “tourism” and “football” for violent jihad or “zucchini” and “eggplant” instead of military weapons or ammunition.

Definite guilty verdict? Nope. Actually, I wouldn’t bet on it right now. As Allah points out, The Miami Herald reports:

[P]rosecutors didn’t present any direct evidence, such as an eyewitness, to prove Padilla actually attended al Qaeda’s training camp in Afghanistan. So, they called a convicted terrorist to testify that he filled out the same Mujahedin application and completed the terror group’s training camp — one year after Padilla allegedly committed the same crime.

Although Padilla’s Mujahedin form itself appears to be solid, the overall case against him is riddled with circumstantial evidence. In other words, there’s no proverbial smoking gun.

MM has a copy of the application form. Think anti-war Democrats will celebrate a not-guilty verdict? Think I’m exaggerating? Here.

Please be not guilty. The man has borne witness to the worse violation of Constitutional rights in the history of our country. He is the face of the deterioration of the substance behind the former meaning of our great flag. If you pray for his guilt then you undoubtedly are only a “poser patriot.”

More: Stop The ACLU, Captain Ed, MacRanger.

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