Padilla Still Providing Terror Intelligence

FoxNews ^ | 12/16/03

[TexKat]

WASHINGTON

[TexKat]

So when did he start to squeel or has he been doing this all along.

[Ozone34]

I suspect Mr. Padilla, A.K.A. "John Doe #2", may be filling in a few blanks regarding the Oklahoma City bombing and it's Iraqi bankrollers.

[JennysCool]

I've always suspected we have REAL GOOD REASONS for detaining this guy.

[JennysCool]

Exactly!

[Grut]

In fact, the individual being held as "Jose Padilla" is an American medical missionary who was working in Afghanistan and was mistaken for Padilla.

...and if this isn't true, how will we ever know?

[FairOpinion]

" will not be allowed access to a lawyer until those collection efforts cease, officials said Tuesday"

===

Well, I am glad to see somebody has some sense!!!

[FairOpinion]

"I suspect Mr. Padilla, A.K.A. "John Doe #2", may be filling in a few blanks regarding the Oklahoma City bombing and it's Iraqi bankrollers."

==

I tend to agree.

I am sure we has some darn good reasons for detaining him.

[tippytoes]

Wasn't Terry Nichols married to a woman named Padilla?

[r9etb]

Huh?

[Frank_Discussion]

I wear the same tinfoil as you.

No way McVeigh pulled of OKC on his own, we know Nichols had a part to play, and then the images of this worm, whose last name just happens to match Nichols' wife?

The pieces fit so well and so easily, it's weird as heck.

[Ozone34]

Just found this:

"A Las Vegas woman who is the ex-wife of Oklahoma City bombing suspect Terry Nichols will testify at Nichols' preliminary hearing next week in Oklahoma.

Lana Padilla -- who divorced Nichols long before the notorious 1995 bombing -- confirmed Friday that Oklahoma prosecutors have secured a court order mandating her testimony in Oklahoma City.

"I'll be leaving next week," Padilla said.

Padilla said she didn't want to make the trip simply because Nichols is the father of her son, Josh Nichols, and the purpose of the court proceedings is so that state prosecutors in Oklahoma can secure a death sentence for Terry Nichols.

"I'm concerned about (the impact) on my son," Padilla said.

She offered no further comment on the matter Friday afternoon.

[Ozone34]

Conspiracy buffs study Padilla, John Doe sketches

AP photos
FBI sketch of John Doe 2.


Jose Padilla

By JAY KRALL
The Wall Street Journal
Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy, Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln, and Terry Lynn Nichols had a wife named Padilla.

The latter bit of news has put conspiracy theorists on heightened alert.

For years, a small, devoted group has been trying to prove that the nation's second-deadliest terrorist attack — on the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City — was carried out not just by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols but also by a vast network of Muslim extremists.

Such claims won little attention, and even ardent advocates say they had all but given up the cause. But when Jose Padilla was accused of plotting to detonate a so-called dirty bomb and his photo appeared in newspapers and on television, members of a hard-core group of conspiracy theorists did double-takes.

"I thought, boy, he looks a lot like the John Doe 2 sketches," said Charles Key, a former state representative from Oklahoma who leads a private group called the Oklahoma Bombing Investigation Committee.

The FBI, which isn't taking these claims seriously, now says that John Doe 2 probably never existed. But he was once a prime suspect in the April 19, 1995, bombing when a Ryder truck filled with nearly 5,000 pounds of fertilizer and fuel oil blew up, killing 168 people.

Witnesses at the time said they remembered seeing two men at the Ryder truck-rental outlet in Junction City, Kan., where investigators traced the rented vehicle. Two men were also reportedly seen eating at a Denny's restaurant in Junction City five days before the attack. One of the men is believed to have been Mr. McVeigh. The other was never identified and never found.

John Doe 2 was the subject of an intensive manhunt. Authorities offered a $2 million reward on his head. The FBI described him as a white male in his late 20s or early 30s, about 5-foot-9 or 5-foot-10. His sketch, released by the FBI the day after the bombing, shows dark hair swept straight back, strong eyebrows, a square jaw and a powerful neck. Mr. Padilla, who is Hispanic, appears to have a more rounded jaw, but his other features closely match those of the sketch.

Still, FBI officials dismiss talk of any likeness. "We couldn't find any evidence to indicate there was a John Doe 2 despite what people were saying," said one FBI official. As for the Padilla link, he said, "You're kidding, right?"

Bryan Preston, a writer and TV producer in Towson, Md., was watching a call-in news show last week when a caller mentioned a resemblance between Mr. Padilla and John Doe 2. Mr. Preston dug up the old police sketch of John Doe 2 and posted it on his personal Web site. "I've never bought into conspiracy theories," Mr. Preston says, "but I can't help but thinking maybe there's more to the story here."

Since Mr. Padilla's arrest, others who suspect a connection have scoured the Internet, books about the bombing and media reports about Mr. Padilla for clues linking him to the Oklahoma City bombing. For some, the fact that Mr. Padilla, born in New York and raised in Chicago, appears to have been in the U.S. and out of jail at the time of the bombing is enough cause for suspicion. Some say they just don't believe Messrs. McVeigh and Nichols acted alone.

Mr. Key says members of his committee will soon begin asking witnesses who say they saw John Doe 2 to look at photos of Mr. Padilla. American Politics Journal posted the sketch and photos of Padilla to their Web site without comment. A spokesman for the political journal said the publication had no official position on the question, but placed the photos and sketches on their site for readers to draw their own conclusions.

In Tampa Bay, Fla., radio talk-show host Glenn Beck noted the resemblance on his show last week and posted a story about it at his Web site asking listeners if they think Mr. Padilla could have been involved with the Oklahoma City bombing. Almost 70 percent said yes.

Stephen R. Jones, Mr. McVeigh's attorney, has spoken often of his attempts to prove his client was part of a broader conspiracy, although Mr. McVeigh himself denied it. While preparing their case, members of Mr. Jones's team traveled several times to the Philippines, where Mr. Nichols had visited, to research possible contacts he may have had with foreign terrorists, including associates of Osama bin Laden.

Mr. Jones says his client didn't cooperate in that investigation but that Mr. McVeigh was so adamant in refusing to point fingers that it raised Mr. Jones's suspicions. After his conviction, Mr. McVeigh reportedly told authors researching a book about the bombing that he planted the explosives to teach the government a lesson. Mr. McVeigh, who was executed on June 11, 2001, never named accomplices.

Then there's the detail that so tantalizes many conspiracy theorists: Lana Padilla is the former wife of Mr. Nichols, charged as Mr. McVeigh's accomplice and sentenced to life in prison.

Ms. Padilla laughed when a local television talk show called to ask her about the matching names. She says she's never met Jose Padilla and isn't related to him.

But she, too, believes there was a larger conspiracy at work. After the bombing, she gave police a letter she received in 1994 from Mr. Nichols before one of his trips to the Philippines. In the letter, she says, he suggested he was "afraid of something or somebody." Ms. Padilla speculates he was worried he might be harmed if he identified his co-conspirators.

The more she looks at the mug shots, the more intrigued she becomes. "At first I found it funny," she says. "Now I think we should investigate this."

———

[pgkdan]

How right you are!

[dead]

Maybe it's just me, but those two pictures look about as much alike as Albert Belle and Jose Canseco:

[Skywalk]

Well one problem here--I don't think Jose Padilla is even a little bit of Filipino, whereas Nichols' wife is, I'm pretty sure.

[Frank_Discussion]

I've met a few Filipino's, and he looks like he could be from there.

[John Beresford Tipton]

" before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia."


If it's Philadelphia, then its the 3rd Circuit

[piasa]

In fact, the individual being held as "Jose Padilla" is an American medical missionary who was working in Afghanistan and was mistaken for Padilla.

If an American medical missionary is unaccounted for in Afghanistan, it is unlikely to be the person in custody who was apprehended in CHICAGO, after being followed in his travels including visits to Pakistan, Switzerland, and Egypt and back, etc, with funny amounts of unexplained cash moving with him.

(Not exactly the itinerary of some woebegone medical missionary.)

[piasa]

They pretty much have ot hang onto him until they round up el Shukhrijumah.

[HardStarboard]

If your interested in the Nichols/Padilla/Yousef/McVeigh/Oklahoma City connections, you have to read the following.

Saddam's ties to 9/11? ~ "THE WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMB: Who is Ramzi Yousef? And Why It Matters"1995

Its in the Free Republic archives do a search on the title (or a portion) and you'll find it. It was authored by Laurie Mylroie - a fantastic expert on terrorism.

And most importantly: keep in mind as you read it; it was written in 1995, long before 9/11/01.

OK, I'll give you one hint - Nichol's wife's brother, was a sympathizer of Abu Sayef in the Phillipines. That should get your interest!