I'm not pro-Padilla. In my post #83 I said I hope they hang him.
The smear tactic you're using is typical - if you stand up for the Constitution, you like criminals or maybe you are one. Want trials for Americans, you must be a terrorist. Don't like warrantless searches, you must be a drug dealer. If you advocate free speech, you're an anarchist. If you defend the 2nd Amendment, you're Tim McVeigh, etc...
I think this smear tactic originated on the left, but its found a home on this site. I also think it exposes a cult of personality in the person who uses it - what should happen to any particular person depends on your opinion of them, or if someone you like holds that person as an enemy.
The reason this case is important is not for Padilla's well being. It's about the unalienable right of every American citizen to recieve due process of law as guaranteed under the Constitution. It's because stare decisis hold that what happens to this man may be used against any of us in the future. It's about the absolute unchecked power that empowers a single branch of government to simply point a finger at any American causing him to disappear in the night, never to be heard from again, with no recourse, no evidence, no trial. And that is very, very important.
You can trust me when I say I'm giving your points about treason, etc. serious thought...though the stakes are so high here, I'm apt to trust the CINC on this one and not a couple of comfortable Robed Masters in New York.