Terrorism trial begins today for Padilla

AP via Commercial Appeal ^ | 4/16/7 | Curt Anderson

[SmithL]

MIAMI -- It's been nearly five years since then-Attorney General John Ashcroft declared the United States had thwarted an al-Qaida plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a major city and had arrested a "known terrorist," Jose Padilla.

Ashcroft suggested the plot could have caused "mass death and injury" and said President Bush had designated Padilla, a U.S. citizen, as an enemy combatant who would be held in indefinite military custody rather than face civilian charges.

"He was involved in planning future terrorist attacks on American civilians in the United States," Ashcroft said in June 2002, while the jittery nation still reeled from the Sept. 11 and anthrax attacks in 2001.

However, as jury selection begins today, the case against Padilla has no mention of the "dirty bomb" allegations or purported plots inside the United States.

Instead, Padilla, held for 31/2 years as an enemy combatant, and co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun, 45, and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, 44, face charges of conspiracy to "murder, kidnap and maim" people overseas and of providing support to terror groups. All three pleaded not guilty. They could face life in prison if convicted.

"It has had so many unbelievable twists and turns," said Michael Greenberger, a University of Maryland law professor who directs the school's Center for Health and Homeland Security. "It really will be the stuff of legend in terms of how we attempted to deal with terrorists in the war on terror."

The three are accused of being part of a North American support cell that funneled fighters, money and supplies to Islamic extremists fighting "jihad," or Muslim holy war, in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia, Tajikistan and elsewhere around the world.

The trial is expected to take at least four months.

More info:

Padilla trial

Acquittal might not mean freedom

Accused al-Qaida agent Jose Padilla could be thrown back in a military brig even if he's acquitted or gets a light sentence in his civilian criminal trial beginning this week, experts say.

Details

All President Bush would have to do is sign papers again branding him an "enemy combatant," and Padilla would be back behind bars. Bush did that in 2002, when Padilla was stripped of constitutional rights and held in a Navy jail for three years without charges.

"There is nothing stopping the president from doing it," said Gary Solis, a former Marine prosecutor who teaches law at Georgetown. "If he were acquitted, he's not necessarily going anywhere."

And if Padilla is returned to military custody, he could be held indefinitely until the end of the war on terror, Solis said.

"What restrains the government from reclassifying Padilla as an enemy combatant? I don't know of anything," agreed Karen Greenberg, an expert on terrorism law at New York University.

[oldplayer]

Jose Padilla? Don’t they mean Abdullah al-Muhajir ?

That is his name. He chose it when he converted to be an Islamist.

Oldplayer

[Valin]

Florance Co. awaits.