Jose Padilla has been convicted on all counts, in what Abby Goodnough of the New York Times calls “a major victory for the Bush administration.”

A major victory for the Bush administration? That’s ridiculous. The administration first detained him without even filing charges against him, gave him all but the barest access to legal counsel, and then classified him as an “enemy combatant.” He eventually filed a petition for habeas corpus, which the administration challenged. The Supreme Court declined to rule, finding the petition was filed incorrectly. But then the administration got spooked. In order to avoid having the Supreme Court rule on the merits of the case, the administration finally gave in and specified the charges against Padilla.

That wasn’t a victory.

And then the judge dismissed some of the charges against him, finding those charges “light on facts.” [Edit: that was actually overturned by an appeals court, which I didn’t realize.]

That wasn’t a victory either.

And finally, Padilla was convicted today in court. But isn’t the whole justification for the “enemy combatant” program supposed to be that we can’t entrust these people to the ordinary civilian court system? And yet, what just happened? A terror suspect was convicted by an ordinary civilian court.

So much for needing the enemy combatant program.

This is a victory for the Bush administration? Yeah, right.