Transcript of news conference on Jose Padilla

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/06/01/comey.padilla.transcript/ ^

[Nasty McPhilthy]

WASHINGTON -- Following is a transcript of a news conference held Tuesday by James Comey, deputy attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice, concerning Jose Padilla.

Padilla is a former Chicago gang member held by the United States as a terrorism suspect for two years.

JAMES COMEY: On April 22, Sen. Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the attorney general asking the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense to supply whatever information we could about American citizens being held as enemy combatants here in the United States.

As you know, there are two such people: Yaser Esam Hamdi and Jose Padilla. Much is known about Hamdi, who was captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan. Much less is known about Jose Padilla, in part because rules about classification have long restricted what we could say about him publicly.

For months, even before getting Sen. Hatch's letter, we have been working to compile and declassify what we know about Padilla from his own statements, from the statements of other al Qaeda detainees around the world, and from intelligence sources around the world.

Sen. Hatch's request energized that process, which involved the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, along with the FBI and other members of the intelligence community.

Because so many important questions have been raised about the detention of Jose Padilla, held after being captured on American soil, all those agencies have worked as hard as they possibly can to declassify as much as they possibly can.

And while some information remains classified about Padilla, those efforts of those agencies have resulted in an answer to Sen. Hatch's question that is remarkable for its scope, its clarify and its candor.

[hobbes1]

Here is a verrrrrrry interesting bit of info...

And Khalid Shaikh Mohammad himself, according to Padilla, gave $5,000 cash to Padilla. And then Amar al-Beluki (ph), who is Khalid Shaikh Mohammad's right-hand man, gave Padilla another $10,000 in cash, travel documents, a cell phone, an e-mail address to be used to notify al-Beluki (ph) when the operative Padilla reached the United States.

al-Beluki = Of Baluch (Baluchistan) Wonder what Dr.Mylroie Would say...

[truthkeeper]

"Instead, he suggested to Padilla and his accomplice that they undertake the apartment building operation that had originally been conceived by the now-dead Mohammed Atef, the former military leader of al Qaeda.
KSM suggested that they enter the United States by way of Mexico or by way of Puerto Rico, and that once in the country, they locate high-rise apartment buildings that had natural gas supplied to all floors, that they rent two apartments in each building, seal those apartments, turn on the gas, and set timers to detonate and destroy the buildings simultaneously at a later time. This was precisely the mission that Padilla and Jafar had trained for, and now Padilla had a new accomplice."

I listened to this whole press conference and this statement jumped right out at me.
Border sanity BUMP to the top.

[ClancyJ]

Well if not Mexico, there is always Canada or student visas or, if all else fails, why not regular immigration?

[novacation]

ping

[HiJinx]

Well if not Mexico, there is always Canada or student visas or, if all else fails, why not regular immigration?

Simply because crossing either border illegally is still the easiest and cheapest way to arrive in the United States undetected. Regular immigration isn't as easy a route for terrorists as it was pre-9/11.

Read Tom Clancy's Teeth of the Tiger. If you'll remember, it was in one of his books that he 'predicted' the use of a jetliner as a terrorist weapon.

[janetgreen]

I think Mexico is the most-used border for terrorists because Mexican officials are easy to bribe. With a few band-aids tossed to American voters, the Mexican border remains virtually open to thousands of illegal aliens (from wherever) crossing daily and few being deported.

If another terrorist attack occurs, the President who refuses to enforce immigration laws and protect our borders will have to answer for it. "Homeland security" is a scam on America which we will all have to pay for dearly in the years to come.

[NewRomeTacitus]

[4Freedom]

Puerto Rico is a huge hole in our national security. It's easy to get into. Document fraud is rampant. There are Puerto Ricans that will sell their birth certificates for money for drugs.

There is already a huge Muslim population living on the island and they hate America. They had some real hateful things to say to the Puerto Rican press after 9/11.

Puerto Ricans have committed some heinous acts of terror against the United States. Most recently the fire bombing of a Navy convoy 8/10/2001 by 4 Puerto Ricans wearing ski masks. The Bush administration just let them all go. There wasn't hardly a mention of the attack in our stateside press.

We should cut that island loose. Use the $20 billion dollars plus that we gift to those ingrates every year to secure our own borders and bring the thousands of federal and private sector jobs we've diverted to Puerto Rico back stateside.

They despise the U.S. down there, but they love our money.

They like all the freebies and privileges that come along with commonwealth status and American citizenship, but they'll never accept the responsibilities that come with statehood.

Guys like Padilla are running all around Puerto Rico. They call themselves 'Macheteros'.

[NewRomeTacitus]

I had no idea that Puerto Rico was such a problem (selective press coverage?). Thanks for the heads up.

[4Freedom]

As much as 40% to 50% of the illegal dope being smuggled into the United States could be coming in through Puerto Rico and the press hardly says 'boo' about it.

The largest number of dirty cops, judges and politicians ever arrested in a federal sting was in, you guessed it, Puerto Rico. It's some kind of a world record. The press hardly says a thing.

There's a war going on over control of the drug trade on the island. A record number of people have been shot down in the streets, so far, this year in Puerto Rico. You won't hear about it.

Puerto Rico is an excellent source of campaign contributions, so our politicians want all of this kept quiet.

The largest single campaign contribution to Bill Clinton's '96 war chest, $250,000, came from Puerto Rico.

Dick Cheney just went down there and came back with a sack full of money. Jeb Bush was there before him. The Bush family has been picking up campaign contributions in Puerto Rico for the last 20 years.

Everyone just pretends they don't know where all of this money comes from.

Our politicians, very quietly, send more U.S. Taxpayer's hard-earned dollars down to Puerto Rico than they send to 26 States!

Look at that whole Vieques/Roosevelt Roads base closure episode. The congress was going to auction everything off and give 100% of the proceeds of the sale to the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Taxpayers.

When the last Defense Appropriations Bill came through, everything was very quietly turned over to Puerto Rico lock, stock and barrel.

Cheney gets his bag of money. Everything's cool. ;^)

[ClancyJ]

I know that. I was just replying to the constant mantra about our unprotected borders. If we put a full army on the north and south borders, they would still get in - it would just mean a little more manipulating the system.

We need protected borders I agree - but, when they are protected, we will find that nothing really changed - we still have illegal immigrants, we still have terrorists and the cost of the protection will be massive.