Posted on 06/12/2002 11:12:38 AM PDT by Jean S
WASHINGTON, June 12 (UPI) -- Jose Padilla, the man accused of plotting with senior al Qaida terrorists to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb" in an American city, has not been cooperating with U.S. investigators, senior law enforcement officials told United Press International Wednesday.
In fact, he's been anything but.
"He wouldn't even admit he had been in Afghanistan," one official said.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on a trip to help lower the temperature in the dispute between India and Pakistan, said earlier that the United States didn't necessarily want to prosecute the suspect, just find out "what he knows." That might not prove so easy.
U.S. investigators consider the suspect, Padilla, a particularly hard nut to crack with a lengthy past of bad luck and criminal activity.
Padilla, who has called himself Abdullah al Muhajir for more than a decade, had been in Justice Department custody since he was arrested on May 8. Last Sunday, U.S. investigators washed their hands of him and turned him over to the Defense Department as an "enemy combatant." The Defense Department has put him in the Navy brig at Charleston, S.C.
Padilla's hard-nosed recalcitrance is in contrast to the position taken by Abu Zabaydah, formerly operational chief of al Qaida for terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.
Zabaydah was wounded and captured in a firefight with Pakistani police, with help from the FBI, on March 28. Almost immediately, he was turned over to U.S. custody. The Defense Department has him stashed, along with hundreds of other al Qaida and Taliban fighters, at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Zabaydah has been talking, though U.S. investigators sometimes question the accuracy of what he is saying. He has been the source of several generalized alerts in the United States -- for instance, telling his questioners that top al Qaida members were considering an attack on a U.S. bank.
He is also believed to be one of the sources who put U.S. investigators onto Padilla's trail.
Born in New York City in 1970, Padilla moved with his family to Chicago when he was 5. Though authorities refuse to describe his alleged criminal activity in that city -- juvenile records are sealed -- many officials describe him as "troubled."
He was arrested in Florida in 1991 on a handgun charge and spent part of a year in state prison. It was there that he apparently converted to Islam and took the name al Muhajir.
Padilla had been out of the country since 1998. U.S. officials say they have proof that he spent much of that time in Afghanistan and Pakistan, training at al Qaida camps in both countries. His specialty was wiring bombs, and he did some research on radiological material, investigators said.
At a Monday news conference announcing Padilla's capture, FBI Director Robert Mueller said the conspiracy to bring al Qaida terror once again to American soil was in its very early stages, and there was no evidence that Padilla had assembled any part of a dirty bomb.
"It (the plot) was in the discussion stage," Mueller said. "It did not go much beyond the discussion stage."
A number of media reports said Padilla would have targeted Washington if he had carried out the plot, but Mueller and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the plotters had not decided on a final target.
Meanwhile, a controversy is developing over the terms of Padilla's incarceration. As an "enemy combatant," he could be held indefinitely by the Defense Department without being brought to trial.
As a U.S. citizen in Justice Department custody -- in fact, he was held as a "material witness" -- Padilla had the right to a lawyer. That court-appointed lawyer has filed suit in federal court in New York challenging Padilla's indefinite detention. All documents in the suit are under seal.
It’s been a while since I read up on Baupt(?) – he was one of the Germans that landed on Long Island in 1942. He was also a U.S. citizen.
I remember reading that his being in the U.S., out of military uniform, and going about the business of gathering information and preparing to engage in acts that could damage property or endanger human life constituted being an enemy combatant (or belligerent). He didn’t actually DO anything.
In other words, he broke no civil/criminal law. He did violate the law(s) of warfare which stated that someone operating in the interest of a hostile entity, behind the lines, moving freely as a non-combatant while gathering information and intending to wreak destruction, becomes an enemy combatant – an unlawful one – and does not get the protections of a uniformed prisoner of war. They are entitled to a military tribunal. No civil trial, no criminal trial, no lawyer, no phone call, just a military tribunal.
Like I say, It’s been a long time since I brushed up on that particular incident. I remember that it was pretty clear that Baupt being declared an enemy combatant, though he was a U.S. citizen, and getting a military trial after which he was executed, was presented as being perfectly legal and constitutional.
It was something that was somewhat routinely done during the Civil War, IIRC.
I presume you have had a peek at the prosecutor's files, then?
Counsel for the Germans had argued that the Sixth amendment to the U.S. constitution guaranteed trial by jury in all cases in which the death penalty might be applied. The Court easily brushed this argument aside, holding that the Sixth Amendment was intended to preserve the right to jury in all circumstances where it had been guaranteed by the common law, but not to "bring within the sweep of the guaranty those cases in which it was then well understood that a jury trial could not be demanded as of right." This included cases tried by military tribunals. The Court significantly noted that military tribunals are "are not courts in the sense of the Judiciary Article.... and.... in the natural course of events are usually called upon to function under conditions precluding resort to [usual civil and Constitutional] procedures." The Court did not further explore this very important statement, which was "dicta" (unnecessary to its grounds for deciding the case). There was no discussion of whether circumstances somehow precluded a jury trial in federal court for the Germans. The Court also raised, but did not consider, the question of whether unlawful belligerents are due any process at all (in other words, can they simply be shot out of hand, as Churchill proposed doing with the Nazis who instead were tried at Nuremberg).
The fact that one of the men, Haupt, was a U.S. citizen, did not entitle him to different treatment. "Under the original statute authorizing trial of alien spies by military tribunals, the offenders were outside the constitutional guaranty of trial by jury, not because they were aliens but only because they had violated the law of war by committing offenses constitutionally triable by military tribunal."
Found at http://www.spectacle.org/yearzero/tribunal.html, if anyone cares... I had other links at one time, but lost them.
Sound like that would work pretty well with this moron. Lets give it a try, what do we have to lose.
He went to Egypt - to Zurich - back to Egypt - back to Zurich - and on to Chicago with 10-large.
The FBI was with him all the way, on the same plane. The Chicago Police made the collar at the gate, but they weren't told why.
Seems there were at least 6 'Agents' on each flight he made, and probably more on the flight to Chicago.
Personally, I think this punk has been singing like a canary! He was completely secret for a month, and we've rounded-up about 20 to 25 previously unknown perps in that time, including some other Americans.
If it weren't for 'Leaky-Leahey', we wouldn't know anything. The best move was not letting Leahey know we had this punk for a month. All this data was posted overnight here Tues-Wed. Stay well and vigilant.............FRegards
The ironic thing is that most of the male cast members of the Sopranos could briefly point a video camera at a skyscraper in some American city and I GUARANTEE you that within minutes you'd have an incoherent post on FR referring to "MIDDLE EASTERN MEN VIDEOTAPING TERRORIST TARGETS."
Big Pussy and Christopher, especially, I think.
Thanks again.
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