No less important, it also mean confirmation hearings for Rumsfeld's replacement - hearings that may well turn into the Congressional inquisition on the war, its prosecution and the intelligence fiasco that preceded it, that the White House has fought tooth and nail to avoid.
It instead built its prosecution on proving that Smart and others had violated the law by carrying completed ballots to the mail for close acquaintances and helping elderly voters fill out their forms.
The most notable, and welcome, example of this came late last month when she noted President Obama's "disconnect between words and actions on free speech" given his administration's flagrant attacks on journalism by its prosecution of whistleblowers, as well as its penchant for secrecy and other acts that mock the first amendment.
Danner provided scathing criticism of the U.S. attempt to fight the war on terror and its prosecution of the war in Iraq.
The prosecution rested its case on Friday, and the defense began to put on its own witnesses.
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.
One thing we can state with certainty: its prosecution on all fronts at home and abroad is relentless.
He was also a great war leader -- patient when battles did not go America's way, but proving himself a great generalissimo in directing the war's political and military strategy without interfering (as Churchill was wont to do) with its prosecution on the ground.
In particular, they called on the court to drop its prosecution of Kenya's president, Uhuru Kenyatta, and his deputy over alleged crimes against humanity, demanding that the case be sent back to Kenya.
So why is the US government still pursuing its prosecution, including on a charge of aiding the enemy, a capital crime?
