Charge Jose Padilla
November 22, 2005
The Supreme Court decided not to rule on Padilla’s case in 2004, sending it back to lower courts to spend over a year working its way back to the top. Now his case has made it back to the Supreme Court. Again, the Supreme Court is about to decide whether to hear his case. And, again, the government has decided that, at its discretion, it will grant Jose Padilla his constitutionally guaranteed rights.
The strategy is clear. The government will now try to convince the Supreme Court and that Padilla’s claims are irrelevant because he’s been charged with a crime. By doing so, the government will retain its self-appointed power to lock you up without a lawyer or criminal charges until the Supreme Court rules on your case, which we’ve seen can take years.
The Padilla Indictment: Stalling for Time, Avoiding the Issue…and the Fight Goes On
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Arthur Silber
The key lies in the fact that Padilla was added to a pre-existing indictment — together with the fact that all the terrifying stories the government had peddled about Padilla for years are now dropped. The government had painted Padilla as a monster who would kill us all in our beds, the kind of bogeyman used to scare children out of their wits. The Bush administration consistently reveals a very deep contempt for everyone’s intelligence, and treats us all like children most of the time. They make the mistake of thinking everyone else is exactly like them. Too many Americans go along and beg for more. The administration has gotten away with it for a very long time. Now, when the moment of reckoning finally arrives, the government adds Padilla as a P.S. to a case they had constructed against four other people.
‘Dirty bomb’ suspect charged
Tue Nov 22, 2005 Reuters
By Caroline Drees and Deborah Charles
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – “Dirty bomb” suspect Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held in a South Carolina military brig for more than three years, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and aid terrorists, a federal indictment showed on Tuesday.
The 11-count indictment, which included four other suspects, was returned by a federal grand jury in U.S. District Court in Miami.
“The defendants, along with other individuals, operated and participated in a North American support cell that sent money, physical assets and mujahideen recruits to overseas conflicts for the purposes of fighting a violent jihad,” the indictment said.
“Padilla was recruited by the North American support cell to participate in violent jihad and traveled overseas for that purpose,” it stated.
Padilla, a former Chicago gang member and convert to Islam, had been held as an enemy combatant under suspicion of plotting with al Qaeda to set off a radioactive “dirty bomb” in the United States.
Also indicted with Padilla was Adham Amin Hassoun; Mohamed Hesham Youssef; Kifah Wael Jayyousi and Kassem Daher. All were charged with conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people in a foreign country; conspiracy to provide material support for terrorists and providing material support for terrorists.
The indictment said suspects, working in Broward County, Florida and elsewhere from October 1993, “did knowingly and willfully combine, conspire, confederate and agree with others, known and unknown to the grand jury, to commit at any place outside the United States, acts that would constitute murder … and did commit one or more acts within the jurisdiction of the United States, to effect the purpose and object of the conspiracy.”
On May 8, 2002, Padilla was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport after returning from Pakistan. Bush then declared him an enemy combatant, and Padilla was placed in solitary confinement at a Navy brig in South Carolina, where he has remained.
As part of the proceeding, President George W. Bush on Sunday authorized the transfer of Padilla to Justice Department control.