Padilla

This is a great article about Padilla. The article seems to poke a few holes in many of Ashcroft's claims about how dangerous Padilla was and about how credible the evidence used to get the warrant against Padilla. There is also some information about the "enemy combatant" category that is helpful. The article doesn't define it, apparently the Bush administration hasn't offered an definition, but it talks about what is at stake for the administration and one expert said it has no foundation in international law.
The biggest problem the article held for me was that the person, a pentagon official named Mobbs, who wrote the memorandum that served as the basis of the warrant used to arrest Padilla expressly stated that the informants weren't reliable in a footnote on the memo. This is compounded by the statements of an FBI official, the executive assistant director for counter terrorism named Dale Watson, that the evidence was "rather weak".
Padilla has spent 2 years in a naval brig without charges pressed against him, with limited contact with his lawyer, with basically no rights. This is apparently okay based on weak evidence and unreliable informants. Lindh's rights weren't so extremely violated. Edward Feltus, Judith Bruey, and William Krar were all arraigned. There is actual evidence against these people, the Tyler people were actively involved in a bomb plot, yet they get due process rights while Padilla is denied any legal rights. It is hard not to believe the disparate treatment is not because they are white and Padilla is Latino.