My Reaction: This just proves that the United States is doing a good job in collecting evidence and throwing the right people behind bars. My question is, what if the obviously guilty Padilla walked because of a sympathetic or unconvinced jury member? I'll stick with the satisfaction of an enemy combatant designation.

Breaking Update: Jose Padilla has been found GUILTY on all charges, facing a potential life sentence. Both of his co-defendants have also been found GUILTY.

Stop the ACLU is reporting that a verdict in the Jose Padilla case is due around 2 PM today:

A verdict was reached Thursday in the trial of Jose Padilla and two co-defendants charged with supporting al-Qaida and other violent Islamic extremist groups overseas.

The jury verdict was scheduled to be read at 2 p.m. EDT before U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke in Miami’s downtown federal courthouse, according to an announcement from her chambers. The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for about a day and a half following a three-month trial.

Deliberations went incredibly quickly, suggesting they either overwhelmingly thought he was guilty or overwhelmingly pulled a "Henry Fonda" from 12 Angry Men and decided that there's not enough evidence to convict. A lot of the evidence is circumstantial, but apparently he filled out some sort of application which is solid evidence.

Allahpundit doesn't think they'll convict, but judging from the information Malkin has put out about that application, I'd say they're going to convict. We'll find out if I'm wrong soon enough.

Captain Ed is already considering the ramifications of a failure to convict:

This will present a test of the administration’s efforts to use the court system to prosecute home-grown terrorists. If the Department of Justice loses this case, recriminations will fly over their handling of Padilla and the evidence they had to toss from their initial handling of Padilla’s incarceration. If Padilla gets convicted, it may take a lot of steam out of the protests over this case and others like it — although it could also turn into an argument for handling terrorism as a crime rather than an act of war.

Stay tuned. I'll be bringing you guys an update on whether or not he's convicted as soon as I get the news.

Trading with a communist country that has no interest in our economy is a bad idea, and China may be ready to launch an economic war on the United States. I'm not normally a big "divestment" person, but if there's a time to divest in China and invest in America's economic infrastructure, it's now. The Telegraph has the story:

Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress. Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.

Described as China's "nuclear option" in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.

It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.

This type of economic warfare is unprecedented in America's history, and broadening American investments in other countries and reducing the deficit would be big keys to defeating the ChiComms economically. China also has a shared shortfall, oil. American drilling in ANWR, off-shore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and slant-drilling in the Rocky Mountains would give us a huge oil advantage. Possibly enough to take the sting out of a Chinese economic strike. We need to think about economic warfare as the Chinese expand their sphere of influence.

Update: Las Vegas officals say the attack was not an act of terrorism.

Apparently a backpack exploded at the Luxor Hotel around 7 Eastern, 4 Pacific this morning, leaving one dead. The details are still sketchy and Michelle Malkin is covering the event. From USA Today:

A backpack exploded in a parking garage attached to a Las Vegas hotel early Monday, killing a man who had picked it up and injuring another person, authorities said.

The man had removed the backpack from atop his car when it exploded shortly after 4 a.m. on the second floor of a parking behind the Luxor hotel-casino, said Officer Bill Cassell, a police spokesman.

The backback was obviously a weapon, and it could've been a weapon intended for more serious consequences. It was perhaps misplaced by a potential attacker, or there waiting for another to pick it up. There's no word yet on whether or not this is a terrorist attack, or whether a foreign organization was involved, but Michelle points out this from a CBS News story:

Alerted around the same time to the Spanish footage as well as a second surveillance tape found in the apartment of a Detroit terror cell, Las Vegas authorities chose a private briefing to casino security chiefs and no public alerts.

The latter response has put authorities in America's gambling capital on the defensive after Justice Department documents and a federal prosecutor emerged this week to suggest Las Vegas' decision may have had to do with concerns about tourism or the casinos' legal liability.

On Tuesday night, FBI and police officials in Las Vegas gave their own account after a federal judge granted them permission to talk despite a gag order in the Detroit terror case last year that produced much of the video evidence.

The officials confirmed that Las Vegas authorities, including casino officials, were shown the video surveillance in fall 2002 but they decided against public warnings, even though both tapes showed casing footage of the same three casinos.

"We don't dispute those were surveillance tapes," FBI special agent David Nanz said Tuesday night in Las Vegas.

Of those three casinos, the Luxor was included. All eyes on Vegas.