The embarrassment of going to trial and losing, would be humiliating.

More humiliating would have been a finding of competence to stand trial, the feds major blocking technique. They should have lost that, period. But Judge Preska was there to deny reality, a legal hallucination, so to speak. They’d held on to the incompetence fabrication for nearly five years. It was vital, so much so they would not afford to give it up even if the ruling had no connection to precedent or the facts of the case.

Running out the clock until the Obama administration was a technique that failed, however. They Bushies had to eat the dismissal on their time.

As for losing your life, that is always a concern with the former “rulers.” A federal prison is a tough landscape to navigate. Lots of things can happen. Fortunately, Lindauer’s case had considerable web presence for a while (although that dropped off after she was incarcerated). “Disappearing” her would not have gone down unnoticed.

How many Lindauers are out there; people with less will or fewer connections to the internet news world? How many are languishing in the corners of institutions across the country? Who will speak for them when we can’t even find them?