Torture is not an American value.

Al-Qaida recruit Jose Padilla was sentenced Tuesday to 17 years and four months in prison on terrorism conspiracy charges. Worldwide terrorism is a threat to the U.S. and many other nations, and we must pursue the perpetrators and bring them to justice. But justice is the key word. The government's handling of the Padilla case is a stain on this country's honor.
John Cole over at Balloon Juice gets it right:

"I don’t think there is any way to interpret this sentence other than as a rebuke to the government, who had been asking for life while insisting Padilla is a grave threat (yet, conveniently, never presented any evidence of that threat). ... I don’t know what the real story of Padilla’s involvement (if any) in this mess might be, and since most everything we do know was obtained while torturing the man, I doubt we ever will. I suspect that in the future, when cooler heads look back at this disgraceful period in our nation’s history, the alleged villainous treachery of Jose Padilla will be greatly overshadowed by the outrageous treatment he received and the dishonest and bumbling campaign to subvert the law while attempting to publicly convict him. The real story is not Jose Padilla, who for all we know may actually have been dangerous, but who is now, courtesy of the Bush administration, a broken and mentally deficient mess. The real story will be of the little men who, in moments of great patriotic fervor, decided it was up to them to destroy our nation’s principles in order to save us all. History will not look kindly on those pikers."

For a much more detailed and expert view on the Padilla case go to Firedoglake.com.