|
Padilla al qaeda { August 28 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4990-2002Aug28.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4990-2002Aug28.html
Padilla's Al Qaeda Ties Confirmed, Prosecutors Say
By Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 28, 2002; Page A04
Multiple intelligence sources have confirmed that a man who sought to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" on U.S. soil received instructions and training from top al Qaeda operatives and planned to set off bombs in gas stations and hotel rooms, according to a government document filed yesterday.
The brief was filed in federal court in New York to support the continued incarceration of Jose Padilla -- a former Chicago gang member -- as an "enemy combatant" at a naval brig in Charleston, S.C.
The document alleges that, while traveling in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001 and this year, Padilla met several times with unidentified al Qaeda leaders and, at their direction, received training from al Qaeda operatives, "including on the wiring of explosive devices." A memo attached to the brief says Padilla approached a senior al Qaeda leader, Abu Zubaida, last year with a proposal to conduct terrorist attacks in the United States, the Associated Press reported. Zubaida directed Padilla to travel to Pakistan, where he learned how to construct a dirty bomb, a crude device designed to spread radiation.
However, the memo, which was written by Defense Department adviser Michael H. Mobbs, states that some of the sources who provided information on Padilla may be trying to mislead the government, according to the AP. The memo says that some of the information has been independently corroborated but that confidential sources have "not been completely candid."
The memo states that one source recanted much of the information he provided. One source, according to the memo, is being treated with drugs for medical conditions.
In addition to his plans to detonate a dirty bomb, Padilla also discussed other activities with al Qaeda operatives, according to the brief. These included the "detonation of explosive devices in hotel rooms and gas stations," the government alleges. The document says that Padilla was directed by an al Qaeda member to return to the United States to "explore and advance" further attacks on the United States.
Reached last night, Donna R. Newman, one of Padilla's attorneys, said she would like to see the evidence used to support the government's allegations. "My only reaction is, 'What is the source?' " said Newman. "Is it written on the bathroom wall? Is it firsthand knowledge, secondhand knowledge, third, fourth? And how can I refute it? I can't see my client."
Padilla was taken into custody on May 8 after stepping off a flight from Zurich at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. He was brought to New York as a material witness, a person believed to hold information critical to a criminal proceeding. However, Padilla refused to cooperate with authorities, and prosecutors feared that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right and refuse to testify, a move that could have forced the government to release Padilla or grant him immunity from prosecution.
At that point, President Bush signed a presidential declaration that Padilla was an "enemy combatant." Padilla was removed from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan and flown to the naval brig in Charleston, where he remains in custody.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office said last night that Bush's declaration would not be made available until today.
In its filing, the government offers no evidence for the allegations against Padilla. It says the evidence is contained in the declaration filed by Mobbs.
The government says that "multiple intelligence sources separately confirmed Padilla's involvement in planning future terrorist attacks by al Qaeda against United States citizens, as well as his specific objective of detonating a radiological dispersal device within the United States." Although officials have not released evidence showing Padilla's involvement with al Qaeda, law enforcement sources have said that it came primarily from at least three foreign intelligence sources, including Zubaida.
Critics have questioned the veracity of the information Zubaida has provided and whether Padilla's arrest is as important to the war on terrorism as the government has made it out to be.
In previous filings, Padilla's lawyers have challenged the government's right to hold their client as an "enemy combatant," saying he has been denied his rights to due process, to have access to his attorneys and to review the evidence that is being used against him.
However, in the brief prosecutors describe the right of the government to designate an individual as an enemy combatant as "one of the most fundamental of all military judgments."
The case, prosecutors say, falls under the rubric of military law rather than civil law. Because of national security concerns and the nature of conflict, the government says, the president should be given some latitude in determining whether the evidence is sufficient.
"Such determinations involve highly sensitive intelligence information and judgment calls about the credibility of foreign intelligence sources," prosecutors say.
The prosecutors say the Mobbs declaration, even a sanitized version submitted to the court, more than satisfies that determination. The government says Padilla's journey toward militant Islam began after he spent a year in prison for firing a weapon at a vehicle during a traffic altercation. After his release in the early 1990s, the government says, Padilla traveled to Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. By then, Padilla was using the name Abdullah al Muhajir and, according to the government, was consorting with al Qaeda leaders.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
|
|
