Spain 1, U.S. 0

Finally, four years and 15 days later, the legal system has finally won a conviction against someone involved in the 9/11 attacks -- Spain's legal system.

A Spanish court today convicted a Syrian man of conspiring to commit the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, and found 17 other men guilty of belonging to or aiding a Spanish cell of Al Qaeda under his command.

Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, 41, also known as Abu Dahdah, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for helping to plan the attacks and to 12 years for leading the cell, which was based in Madrid.

The other men received sentences ranging from 11 to 17 years for belonging to or aiding a terrorist group.

Mr. Yarkas is the only person convicted of involvement in the attacks.

Meanwhile, the most meaningful victory for our own attorney general in the "war on terror," the "global struggle against extremism" or whatever the fuck GOP spin doctors are calling it today is winning "the power to detain Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen who has been held in a South Carolina military brig for more than three years without any charges."

Nice going. It couldn't have been easy to find a judge willing to deprive an American citizen of his constitutional rights on a technicality, but our attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, did it. It's that kind of piddling bullshit that shows terrorists we mean business.

Three years. That's a long time to keep someone locked up without charging him, but I'm confident that Alberto will gather enough evidence to charge Padilla any year now.

Any year now.