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US has Padilla's al-Qaeda application
After the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan to oust its Taliban rulers, authorities found a locker full of applications to join al Qaeda's holy war overseas.Among the alleged applicants: José Padilla, the former ''enemy combatant'' who once lived in Broward County. A prosecutor produced the alleged document for the first time Thursday in Miami federal court, where Padilla pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges that he was a recruit for a North American terrorist cell with South Florida links that aided Islamic jihad abroad. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Garber denied bond for Padilla, who had been held in military detention for about four years before his transfer to Miami to face a criminal indictment. ''It was recovered by U.S. personnel in late 2001 after the United States began bombing Afghanistan,'' Justice Department lawyer Stephanie Pell said, referring to Padilla's alleged al Qaeda application. She added it was found among 80 to 100 other mujahadeen (holy warrior) applications found in the country, which harbored al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before he masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. terrorist attacks. ''Several links in this case prove this is his document,'' Pell said after submitting it at Padilla's bond hearing. Pell said Padilla's July 24, 2000, application was authenticated by a ''cooperating government witness'' convicted in an unrelated case who had once filled out the same Arabic ''mujahadeen data form.'' She said Padilla's date of birth, Oct. 18, 1970, was on his application along with his adopted Muslim name, Abu Abdullah Al Mujahir. She said his co-conspirators and others called him ''The Puerto Rican,'' a reference to the American-born Padilla's Hispanic heritage. Padilla's attorney, Michael Caruso, questioned the authenticity of Padilla's alleged mujahadeen application, saying there was ''no direct evidence'' he filled out the form. He asked Garber three times if he could call an FBI agent to the witness stand to ask about the document. Garber rejected his requests. Caruso went on to describe the indictment against his client as ``vacant.'' ''No evidence . . . shows that José Padilla has ever engaged in any violent [terrorist] actions toward anybody in this country or anyone in any other country overseas,'' Caruso said. ``The government is trying to build a circumstantial case.'' Padilla, 35, whose mother, stepfather and stepbrother attended the court hearing, expressed no emotion during the hearing. Prosecutors described Padilla as a danger to the community because of his criminal history in both Chicago and Broward and a flight risk because of his contacts overseas. The magistrate judge agreed, denying his release before his September trial. If convicted, he faces life in prison. Padilla was arrested by the FBI in Chicago in May 2002 upon his return from Pakistan after allegedly training with al Qaeda operatives in the Middle East. But the criminal charges outlined in the indictment against Padilla are different from the ''dirty bomber'' accusation that had landed him in U.S. military detention for about four years. The government had accused him of plotting to detonate a radioactive bomb on American soil. Padilla's status as an enemy combatant changed last week with his transfer from a South Carolina naval brig to the Miami Federal Detention Center. The move -- sought by the Bush administration -- was made immediately following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to allow Padilla's transfer into the criminal justice system. In the South Florida case, prosecutors say the five-member North American cell was headed by a Palestinian computer programmer from Sunrise, Adham Amin Hassoun. Hassoun, Padilla and three others are charged with conspiring to kill people in foreign countries and provide material support for terrorists. The case is built on thousands of government wiretaps of the alleged terrorist cell's telephone conversations from 1993 to 2001. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-01-13 |
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