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Home Front: WoT
U.S. Deports Lebanon-Born Palestinian Man
2020-07-24
[AnNahar] A man convicted of terrorism-related crimes, who served his sentence and was then detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has been deported after a legal battle to hold him indefinitely stalled.

Federal immigration authorities held Adham Amin Hassoun
... a computer programmer and recruiter/fund raiser for Al Qaeda, et al, who was originally arrested in 2002 for “immigration violations“ and at one point while imprisoned attempted to hang himself with a bedsheet. His wife and three kiddies fled back to Lebanon while he was in jail...
until Tuesday at a detention facility in Batavia, New York,
... a very pretty small town in Western New York state between Buffalo and Rochester...
since his release from prison in 2018. Previously, they had argued in court that they had the authority to detain him indefinitely under the Patriot Act until they could find a country willing to accept him.

Hassoun, 58, is a Paleostinian born in Leb
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
. In 2007, he was convicted along with Jose Padilla, who is still imprisoned, of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people in a foreign country.

Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was initially detained as an enemy combatant in 2002 on suspicions he planned to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb," but those allegations were ultimately dropped in favor of charges that he, Hassoun and another conspirator
...that would be Mr. Hassoun’s school administrator friend Kifah Wael Jayyousi, a U.S. citizen of a similar age but Jordanian descent...
sent money, recruits and supplies to Islamic holy warrior groups.

Prosecutors said Hassoun recruited Padilla at a Florida mosque to attend a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.

Authorities did not disclose Hassoun's destination after he left the country on Tuesday, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.

Padilla's expected release date from prison is 2026.

Earlier this summer, federal prosecutors had argued at a hearing that Hassoun remained a threat to national security, but ultimately withdrew testimony from another detainee at the Batavia detention facility, who claimed Hassoun told him about plans to commit crimes upon his release. Hassoun's attorney said the claims were fabricated, the Observer Dispatch reported.

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford ruled against the government and ordered Hassoun's release.

Hassoun immigrated to Florida in 1989, married and had three children, all of whom are American citizens. His family moved to Lebanon after his arrest, the Buffalo News reported.

One of Hassoun's attorneys, Jonathan Manes, told the Democrat and Chronicle in an email: "After 18 years of imprisonment and nearly 1 1/2 years detained unlawfully under the Patriot Act, he is now a free man."
Related:
Adham Amin Hassoun: 2008-01-23 Three in terror case get less than 20 years each
Adham Amin Hassoun: 2008-01-08 Sentencing Begins for Padilla, 2 Others
Adham Amin Hassoun: 2007-12-04 Padilla codefendant tries to kill himself
Related:
Jose Padilla: 2018-11-12 Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes may not be Florida's only problem
Jose Padilla: 2018-11-04 Florida imam: Palestine must be liberated, even at cost of millions of martyrs
Jose Padilla: 2014-09-10 Terror plotter faces longer prison term
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Home Front: WoT
Three in terror case get less than 20 years each
2008-01-23
A Miami judge Tuesday rejected the government's bid for life sentencings for Jose Padilla and two other men convicted of terrorism charges, saying their support for Islamic extremists abroad did not call for the severe punishment given the nation's worst terrorists. U.S District Judge Marcia Cooke gave Padilla, a man inextricably linked to our the Bush administration's war on terror, 17 years and four months in prison for participating in a South Florida-based conspiracy to aid Muslims in "violent jihad."

The judge's decision to grant far below a life sentence was a blow to the government. Cooke reasoned that Padilla's crime was not tantamount to 9-11 or the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. "There was never a plot to harm individuals in the United States," Cooke said. "There was never a plot to overthrow the U.S. government."

Padilla, 37, a U.S. citizen accused of training with the global terrorist group al Qaeda, stared blankly as Cooke condemned his "harsh" treatment as an "enemy combatant" in a Naval brig before his transfer to Miami to face terrorism charges. Cooke deducted the time Padilla spent in military custody -- 3 1/2 years -- from his total sentence. "I do find that the conditions were so harsh that they warrant consideration," Cooke told a crowded courtroom.

Padilla's mentor, Adham Amin Hassoun, a Palestinian who had met him at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., mosque in the 1990s, and Hassoun's colleague, Kifah Wael Jayyousi, a U.S. citizen of Jordanian descent, were sentenced to 15 years and eight months, and 12 years and eight months, respectively.

Prosecutors, who sought life sentences for all three defendants, said they are considering an appeal. Defense attorneys said they will appeal the prison terms along with the convictions.
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Sentencing Begins for Padilla, 2 Others
2008-01-08
A sentencing hearing for convicted terrorism conspirator Jose Padilla and two other men began Tuesday with defense lawyers raising more than 90 objections to a report that could determine whether their clients spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Defense attorneys say the report, which supports prosecutors' requests for life terms, contains inaccuracies and mischaracterizations about evidence introduced during the trial.

The hearing is expected to last at least three days, with U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, an appointee of President Bush, planning to hear each objection individually.

"This could be a very complex exercise," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier.

Padilla, 37, a U.S. citizen, has spent more than five years in custody, first as an enemy combatant and purported "dirty bomb" plotter and then after he was charged with being part of a North American support cell for Islamic extremists including al-Qaida.

Padilla was convicted of three terrorism-related charges in August after a three-month trial along with co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun, 45, and 46-year-old Kifah Wael Jayyousi. Sentencing guidelines recommend 30 years to life for Padilla and life for Hassoun and Jayyousi because of their leadership roles.

Padilla's lawyers say he deserves no more than a 10-year sentence. Hassoun is asking for a term of four to six years, and Jayyousi says he deserves only probation and, at most, 21 months behind bars.

Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was held for 3 1/2 years without criminal charge after his May 2002 arrest at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Authorities said at the time he was on an al-Qaida mission to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" inside the U.S. Those charges were later dropped and Padilla, allegedly recruited by Hassoun for al-Qaida while living in South Florida, was added in late 2005 to a Miami terrorism support case just as challenges to his detention were headed to the U.S Supreme Court.

After a three-month trial, all three men were convicted in August of conspiracy and terrorism material support charges.

Padilla claims he deserves leniency because government agents "intentionally inflicted psychological pain and suffering" during his long, isolated incarceration as an enemy combatant at a Navy brig in South Carolina. Last week, he sued a top Justice Department official who wrote legal memos justifying his detention.

Bush administration officials have repeatedly denied that Padilla was mistreated or tortured in military custody.
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Home Front: WoT
Padilla codefendant tries to kill himself
2007-12-04
The mentor to former ''enemy combatant'' Jose Padilla attempted suicide last week as he was held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami, just ahead of their sentencing on terrorism charges. Adham Amin Hassoun, 45, a former computer programmer from Sunrise who was born in Lebanon, tried to kill himself in his solitary cell in a section known as the special housing unit, according to several people familiar with his detention.

Hassoun, Padilla and a third defendant, Kifah Wael Jayyousi, were convicted at trial in August and face up to life in prison at their sentencing Wednesday. Hassoun's attempted suicide could be a factor at the hearing in federal court.

Hassoun tried to hang himself with a bedsheet after he was moved from one cell to another for security reasons, said several sources, who did not want to be identified because of the sensitive matter. He was transferred to an area where other inmates were constantly screaming, and his new cell had a foul stench, they said.

Hassoun, a Palestinian whose wife and children relocated to Lebanon, is under 24-hour observation in a sterile cell without bedding, the sources said. He also is taking antidepressant medication.

Of the three defendants, Hassoun, a vocal member of a Fort Lauderdale mosque, has been in custody almost as long as Padilla, starting in June 2002 on immigration violations. He was indicted in the Miami terrorism case in March 2004, accused of raising money for Islamic causes and sending Padilla and other recruits abroad to fight jihad in the late 1990s.

Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was held since May 2002 without charges before a federal grand jury indicted him in Miami in November 2005. Padilla, 36, was transferred from military to civilian custody in January 2006. He allegedly trained with the terrorist group al Qaeda in Afghanistan in September 2000.

Jayyousi, 45, who worked as a public school administrator, published an Islamic newsletter and did fundraising for embattled Muslims overseas, was indicted in April 2005.

All are in solitary confinement at the detention center.
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Jury Finds Jose Padilla, 2 Co-Defendants, Guilty
2007-08-16
Jose Padilla was convicted of federal terrorism support charges Thursday after being held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant in a case that came to symbolize the Bush administration's campaign to stop homegrown terror.

He was once accused of being part of an Al Qaeda plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the U.S., but those allegations were not part of his trial.

Padilla and co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi face life in prison because they were convicted of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas. All three were also convicted of two terrorism material support counts that carry potential 15-year sentences each.

The judge set a Dec. 5 sentencing date for all three defendants.

Click here to read the indictment (FindLaw pdf).

Estela Lebron, Padilla's mother, said she felt "a little bit sad" at the verdict but expected her son's lawyers would appeal.

"I don't know how they found Jose guilty. There was no evidence he was speaking in code," she said, referring to FBI wiretap intercepts in which Padilla was overheard talking to Hassoun.

The three were accused of being part of a North American support cell that provided supplies, money and recruits to groups of Islamic extremists.
The three were accused of being part of a North American support cell that provided supplies, money and recruits to groups of Islamic extremists. The defense contended they were trying to help persecuted Muslims in war zones with relief and humanitarian aid.
On account of a Muslim is de facto persecuted if not supplied with money for arms and new recruits? Is that what you're saying, chico?

The White House thanked the jury for a "just" verdict.

"We commend the jury for its work in this trial and thank it for upholding a core American principle of impartial justice for all," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House. "Jose Padilla received a fair trial and a just verdict."

Attorneys for Hassoun and Jayyousi said they would appeal. There was no immediate comment from Padilla's lawyers.

"We're very disappointed," said Hassoun attorney Kenneth Swartz. "We were hoping for a different verdict."

There was no reaction from any of the defendants when the verdict was read. Padilla, wearing a dark suit and glasses, stared straight ahead and leaned forward slightly. One person in the family section started to sob when Padilla's verdict was read.

Members of the jury declined interview requests from the media and were escorted out of the courthouse through a side exit by U.S. marshals.

Padilla was first detained in 2002 because of much more sensational accusations. The Bush administration portrayed Padilla, a U.S. citizen and Muslim convert, as a committed terrorist who was part of an Al Qaeda plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the U.S. The administration called his detention an important victory in the war against terrorism, not long after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The charges brought in civilian court in Miami, however, were a pale shadow of those initial claims in part because Padilla, 36, was interrogated about the plot when he was held as an enemy combatant for 3 1/2 years in military custody with no lawyer present and was not read his Miranda rights.

Padilla's attorneys fought for years to get his case into federal court, and he was finally added to the Miami terrorism support indictment in late 2005 just as the U.S. Supreme Court was poised to consider President George W. Bush's authority to continue detaining him. Padilla had lived in South Florida in the 1990s and was supposedly recruited by Hassoun at a mosque to become a mujahedeen fighter.

The key piece of physical evidence was a five-page form Padilla supposedly filled out in July 2000 to attend an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, which would link the other two defendants as well to Usama bin Laden's terrorist organization.

The form, recovered by the CIA in 2001 in Afghanistan, contains seven of Padilla's fingerprints and several other personal identifiers, such as his birthdate and his ability to speak Spanish, English and Arabic.

"He provided himself to Al Qaeda for training to learn to murder, kidnap and maim," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier in closing arguments.

Padilla's lawyers insisted the form was far from conclusive and denied that he was a "star recruit," as prosecutors claimed, of the North American support cell intending to become a terrorist. Padilla's attorneys said he traveled to Egypt in September 1998 to learn Islam more deeply and become fluent in Arabic.

"His intent was to study, not to murder," said Padilla attorney Michael Caruso.

Central to the investigation were some 300,000 FBI wiretap intercepts collected from 1993 to 2001, mainly involving Padilla's co-defendants Hassoun and Jayyousi and others. Most of the conversations were in Arabic and purportedly used code such as "tourism" and "football" for violent jihad or "zucchini" and "eggplant" instead of military weapons or ammunition.

The bulk of these conversations and other evidence concerned efforts in the 1990s by Hassoun and Jayyousi, both 45, to assist Muslims in conflict zones such as Chechnya, Bosnia, Somalia, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

Hassoun is a computer programmer of Palestinian descent who was born in Lebanon. Jayyousi is a civil engineer and public schools administrator who is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Jordan. Jayyousi also ran an organization called American Worldwide Relief and published a newsletter called the Islam Report that provided details of battles and political issues in the Muslim world.

"It wasn't a terrorist operation. It was a relief operation," said Jayyousi
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Home Front: WoT
Padilla guilty on all counts
2007-08-16
MIAMI (AP) - Jose Padilla was convicted of federal terrorism support charges Thursday after being held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant in a case that came to symbolize the Bush administration's zeal to stop homegrown terror. Padilla, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi face possible sentences of life in prison if convicted of all three charges in the case.

The three are accused of being part of a North American support cell that provided supplies, money and recruits to groups of Islamic extremists. The defense contended they were trying to help widows persecuted Muslims in war zones buy ammunition with relief and humanitarian aid.

The key piece of physical evidence was a five-page form Padilla supposedly filled out in July 2000 to attend an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan, which would link the other two defendants as well to Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization. The form, recovered by the CIA in 2001 in Afghanistan, contains seven of Padilla's fingerprints and several other personal identifiers, such as his birthdate and his ability to speak Spanish, English and Arabic. "He provided himself to al-Qaida for training to learn to murder, kidnap and maim," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier in closing arguments.

Padilla's lawyers insisted the form was far from conclusive and denied that he was a "star recruit," as prosecutors claimed, of the North American support cell intending to become a terrorist.
"Lies! All lies!"
Padilla's attorneys said he traveled to Egypt in September 1998 to learn Islam more deeply and become fluent in Arabic. "His intent was to study, not to murder," said Padilla attorney Michael Caruso.
"He was gonna study murder, not commit it, yer Honorship!"
Central to the investigation were some 300,000 FBI wiretap intercepts collected from 1993 to 2001, mainly involving Padilla's co-defendants Hassoun and Jayyousi and others. Most of the conversations were in Arabic and purportedly used code such as "tourism" and "football" for violent jihad or "zucchini" and "eggplant" instead of military weapons or ammunition. The bulk of these conversations and other evidence concerned efforts in the 1990s by Hassoun and Jayyousi, both 45, to assist Muslims in conflict zones such as Chechnya, Bosnia, Somalia, Afghanistan and Lebanon.
Sure is a lot of conflict zones, huh.
Hassoun is a computer programmer of Palestinian descent who was born in Lebanon. Jayyousi is a civil engineer and public schools administrator who is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Jordan. Jayyousi also ran an organization called American Worldwide Relief and published a newsletter called the Islam Report that provided details of battles and political issues in the Muslim world. "It wasn't a terrorist operation. It was a relief operation," said Jayyousi attorney William Swor.
Just some relief for the Widows Ammunition Fund!
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Padilla lawyers won't call witnesses
2007-08-01
MIAMI - Attorneys for Jose Padilla told the court they will not put on a defense case, meaning the jury could soon be deciding the fate of the former "enemy combatant" and two co-defendants charged with supporting al-Qaida and other Islamic extremists. "At this point, we're not calling any witnesses," Padilla attorney Anthony Natale told U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke on Tuesday.

Cooke recently rejected the lawyers' request to acquit Padilla based on lack of government evidence.

Only a handful of witnesses remain for Padilla's co-defendants, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi. Jayyousi attorney William Swor indicated he could finish with his witnesses as early as Thursday, meaning prosecutors could put on brief rebuttal testimony next week. Closing statements are expected to take about two days, then the case goes to the jury.

Hassoun's and Jayyousi's attorneys have struggled at times to refute the prosecution's claims that the two provided recruits, money and supplies for Islamic extremist causes around the world. They have called six witnesses since July 23, with none producing major bombshell evidence. One, FBI agent John T. Kavanaugh, had already spent three weeks on the stand for the prosecution and seemed to rehash the same FBI wiretap intercepts that form the backbone of the U.S. case.

Padilla is accused of being one of the cell's recruits and completing a form in 2000 to attend an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan. He initially was accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" inside the United States and was held as an enemy combatant for 3 1/2 years, but the "dirty bomb" allegation is not part of the Miami trial. All three men face life in prison if convicted on all charges.

The trial had dragged on for 12 weeks, with the jury spending almost as much time out the courtroom as in the jury box. The jurors often have been sent out of the room or dismissed early as prosecutors and defense lawyers battle intently over evidence admissibility and the way witnesses are questioned.

One such argument grew so heated late Monday that Cooke ordered a recess, prompting an apology Tuesday from Swor. "I was, I would say, close to being totally out of control," he said. "I would like to apologize to the court."

Cooke then made Swor say he was sorry to prosecutor John Shipley, the object of his ire, "to complete your atonement process." "I do apologize to Mr. Shipley. It was unprofessional," Swor said.

Shipley accepted.
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Bin Laden looms over Padilla terrorism trial
2007-06-27
Osama bin Laden's face and words loomed over the U.S. terrorism trial of former "dirty bomber" suspect Jose Padilla on Tuesday as jurors were shown a 10-year-old videotaped interview of the al Qaeda leader.

Jurors were attentive but poker-faced as they watched the CNN interview on a giant screen in a Miami courtroom. Padilla and two co-defendants are on trial on charges of conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas and of providing material support for terrorism.

The three defendants are not accused of having any direct connection to bin Laden, and defense lawyers objected vigorously and called the tape inflammatory and irrelevant.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke told jurors to ignore it when deciding Padilla's fate since there was no evidence he saw or discussed the interview.
U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke told jurors to ignore it when deciding Padilla's fate since there was no evidence he saw or discussed the interview. She said jurors could consider it as proof of the other defendants' state of mind but reminded them that the charges had nothing to do with September 11.

In the 1997 interview, long before the September 11 attacks made him one of the world's most-hunted men, a gun rests at bin Laden's side as he praises U.S. deaths in Saudi Arabia and Somalia and urges that more U.S. troops be killed.

Prosecutors played the tape as a prelude to airing secretly recorded telephone conversations in which defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi chuckle as they discuss the interview.

Prosecutors played the tape and the phone conversations as evidence that Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian, and Jayyousi, a Jordanian-born U.S. citizen, supported violent Islamist groups.

Padilla was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare airport in 2002, declared an "enemy combatant" by President George W. Bush and held without charge in a military jail for 3-1/2 years.

The government said he was plotting to set off a radiological "dirty bomb" in the United States but no mention of that allegation was made when he was transferred into the civilian justice system and added to the Miami case.

The defendants are accused of running a support cell that provided money and recruits for Islamist militants in Chechnya, Bosnia, Afghanistan and elsewhere beginning in the mid-1990s.
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Jurors hear Padilla's voice on wiretap
2007-06-09
MIAMI - Jurors in the terrorism support and conspiracy trial of Jose Padilla heard his voice on an FBI wiretap for the first time Friday, in a conversation that prosecutors say proves he was getting ready to fight jihad overseas.

In the July 1997 intercepted phone call, co-defendant Adham Amin Hassoun tells Padilla in English that "the most important thing is that you tell me you're ready." The FBI's lead investigator in the case testified that Hassoun was talking about going to an area of jihad, or Islamic holy war. "God willing ... it's going to happen soon," Padilla responds. He later adds: "Believe me, brother, it's going to happen soon."

Padilla also tells Hassoun that he is prepared to obey an "emir," or commander, wherever he is sent, even if that person is younger. "You have to have a lot of discipline too, brother," Padilla says on the tape. "You have to have discipline and obedience."

Prosecutors say Hassoun recruited Padilla to fight for Islamic extremist causes overseas as part of a North American jihad support network. Hassoun, who was a prominent speaker and fundraiser in South Florida mosques, met Padilla while both were living in Broward County just north of Miami. Padilla, Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi are charged with being part of a support cell for Islamic extremist groups worldwide, including al-Qaida. Another alleged Hassoun recruit, Mohamed Hesham Youssef, is on many more of the tapes. Youssef was also indicted in the Miami case but is in custody in Egypt and is not part of the current trial.

The FBI wiretaps from 1994-2001 form the heart of the prosecution's case against the three defendants. Padilla's voice is heard on seven intercepts, and he is mentioned on about two dozen others. Several intercepted calls were played Friday between Hassoun in Florida and Youssef in Cairo; prosecutors say they discussed where Youssef should travel to fight in Muslim causes. They allege Hassoun wanted Youssef in 1997 to go to an area along the Ethiopia-Somalia border where Ethiopian soldiers were battling Muslim fighters.

In one call, Hassoun tells Youssef that "about 56 of the brothers got married." The lead FBI investigator, Agent John T. Kavanaugh, testified that was code for mujahedeen fighters killed fighting the Ethiopian army.
Got their virgins, did they?
On other calls, Youssef mentions a "partner" that the FBI identified as Padilla, who was using the alias "Ibrahim" at the time. "Does he intend to go through with it?" Youssef asks Hassoun. "Yes, he had reservations about the price, but then he said all right, if this is the only price, we will buy," Hassoun replies.

It's not clear in that conversation whether Hassoun is referring to money or sacrifices that Padilla would be expected to make. Earlier, he was recorded telling Youssef not to worry about his possessions and family in getting ready for jihad. "Just get yourself ready and forget about the worldly brides and worldly home," Hassoun says.

Padilla eventually traveled to Egypt and then made his way to Afghanistan, where prosecutors say he filled out a form in 2000 to attend an al-Qaida training camp. On the July 1997 tape, Padilla complains at one point to Hassoun that Youssef "talks too much" and that Hassoun reminds Padilla to be careful on the telephone.

Prosecutors will likely continue to play FBI wiretap tapes when testimony resumes Tuesday.
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U.S. says Padilla gave himself to al Qaeda
2007-05-15
U.S. citizen Jose Padilla provided the ultimate support for terrorism by offering himself to al Qaeda as a trainee, a prosecutor told a jury on Monday in the trial of the former "dirty bomber" suspect. Padilla, 36, and two co-defendants face life in prison if convicted on charges of conspiring to "murder, kidnap and maim" around the globe and providing material support for terrorists.

The defendants were part of a Florida support cell that provided money and recruits for Islamists waging a violent international jihad, or holy war, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier said in an opening statement to the jury. Padilla's attorney said had no ties to al Qaeda and was wrongfully accused by an over-reaching U.S. government at a time when fear ran high, he said.

Frazier said defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi provided plane tickets, sleeping bags and satellite phones to al Qaeda-affiliated groups fighting in Lebanon, Somalia, Kosovo and Chechnya in the 1990s. Padilla went farther by going to an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in 2000 to train as a fighter for a group bent on destroying his homeland, Frazier said. "Jose Padilla was an al-Qaeda terrorist trainee providing the ultimate form of material support - himself," he said. "Joining an al Qaeda training camp was an incredibly rare thing for an American to do."
Padilla's attorney, Anthony Natale, said Padilla spent five years in the Middle East studying Arabic and the Koran in hopes of becoming a Muslim cleric. "Do not be fueled by fear, persuaded by politics," he urged jurors.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke forbade prosecutors from linking the defendants to the Sept. 11 attacks, which they are not accused of supporting or taking part in, and the defense also did not directly refer to them.
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Padilla case has changed a lot in 5 years
2007-05-13
When federal prosecutors begin to present evidence Monday against terrorism suspect Jose Padilla, their case is expected to rest heavily on a single document: his alleged application to become an Islamic warrior. The federal indictment says Padilla filled out the mujahedin data form on July 24, 2000, "in preparation for violent jihad training in Afghanistan." The indictment alleges Padilla and two codefendants sought U.S. recruits and funding for foreign holy wars.

Prosecutors plan to call a covert CIA operative to testify in disguise about the document's provenance and chain of possession, and will go on to introduce more than half of the 200-plus transcripts from wiretapped conversations among the defendants.

Nowhere in the indictment is there mention of the sensational charges leveled against Padilla when he was arrested at O'Hare International Airport in May 2002. Then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said U.S. agents had thwarted a plot between Padilla, who is a U.S. citizen, and top Al Qaeda figures to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" or blow up apartment buildings in U.S. cities.

The case against Padilla, now 36, has come a long way since then, and illustrates how the administration's policies of detaining suspects in the war on terrorism can backfire. The allegations that Padilla was part of a dirty-bomb plot were dropped in November 2005, when the Pentagon transferred him out of a military brig in Charleston, S.C.
My guess would be that the dirty bomb information was based on intel, which'd be harded to use in court, while Jose's abasement of himself to al-Qaeda is on paper, which can be introduced as evidence. The subtlety of all that seems to escape the jouralism major writing this.
He had been held at the brig for 3 1/2 years as an "enemy combatant" with status more like the detainees at Guantanamo than a U.S. citizen incarcerated for the charges he would eventually face in federal court. Much of the time he was without human contact, daylight, any timepiece or a mirror. He was subjected to "stress positions" and extremes of heat, noise and light. And interrogations without an attorney present, the government has said, elicited information the Justice Department included in a widely publicized June 2004 report on Padilla's alleged contacts with Al Qaeda.

The dossier on the dirty-bomb allegations was augmented by testimony that senior Al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah gave while in a secret CIA prison overseas, according to court papers filed in November. Zubaydah is now being held as a "high-value detainee" at the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But none of that will be admissible in his conspiracy and material-support trial.

In pretrial rulings on defense claims that the government mistreated Padilla, U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke effectively severed the conspiracy case from the dirty-bomb allegations. She has warned prosecutors that any attempt to tie Padilla to those purported plots would mean the defense could introduce evidence on controversial and classified military detention and interrogation tactics.

The conspiracy charges came about when the Pentagon abandoned its effort to jail him indefinitely as an enemy combatant. The Supreme Court had been considering a review of his status and rights. He was transferred to the Federal Detention Center in Miami and added to the government's case against former school administrator and onetime San Diego resident Kifah Wael Jayyousi and computer programmer Adham Amin Hassoun. Cooke ruled in February that Padilla was competent to stand trial, despite testimony by two mental health experts that he suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from the years in military custody.

The 44-year-old Jayyousi, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Jordanian birth, and 45-year-old Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian, had been under surveillance since the mid-1990s, the indictment says. They were arrested around the same time as Padilla. The indictment alleges all three defendants were followers of Omar Abdel Rahman, an Egyptian Muslim cleric known as "the blind sheikh" who was given a life sentence in 1995 for inciting terrorist acts, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.

According to the charge sheet, Jayyousi sought help from North American Muslim groups through his newsletter, the Islam Report, in which he called it "a religious obligation" to aid Muslims under siege in foreign conflicts. The government describes Hassoun as East Coast representative of two humanitarian aid organizations that it alleges are fronts for the support of violent jihad.

Padilla, who converted to Islam during an unrelated previous incarceration, was recruited and sent abroad to train for the defense of Muslims under siege in Chechnya, Kosovo, Bosnia, Somalia, Libya and elsewhere, the government alleges. The indictment has few specific references to Padilla's alleged involvement in a conspiracy. Excerpts from wiretap transcripts refer to his telling Hassoun in July 1997 that he would be ready to leave his South Florida home "soon."

The indictment also says Padilla flew to Cairo more than a year later, and it says Hassoun and another alleged recruit spoke in September 2000 of Padilla having "entered into the area of Usama," presumably referring to Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. The government alleges the defendants used code for their activities, such as "fresh air" for action in a conflict area; "tourism" for travel and upkeep expenses while abroad; and "football" for armed combat and "the other team" for foreign forces perceived as oppressing Muslims.

Jayyousi is alleged to have opened a bank account in October 1993 in the name of "Islamic Group." According to the indictment, Hassoun managed the account over the next eight years, from which at least $40,000 allegedly went to jihad recruits' travel and training. Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell R. Killinger has made clear in pretrial proceedings that the government will attempt to link the Muslim aid organizations to Al Qaeda-affiliated groups, primarily through the purported jihad training application.
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Home Front: WoT
Ban word 'terrorist' from U.S. trial, lawyer asks
2007-03-17
Defense lawyers want the word "terrorist" banned as too inflammatory in the U.S. trial of Jose Padilla and two other men charged with conspiring to aid Islamist extremists overseas. The word conjures up visions of someone with a bomb belt blowing up himself and others in a crowded cafe, ...
... well yes, that's one vivid image of a terrorist ...
... Jeanne Baker, an attorney representing co-defendant Adham Amin Hassoun, said during a hearing in the high-profile case on Friday. "The word terrorist has nothing to do with this case," Baker said. "The word terrorist is used to label an enemy."
Give Ms. Baker a prize, she's exactly right. Seeing as Mr. Padilla is on trial for exactly that, it does seem appropriate for the prosecution to allege that he's a terrorist and an enemy.
U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, who has set trial for April 16, did not immediately rule on the request. But one of the prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley, noted during the hearing that "'Terrorist' has no standard definition."
It has several, in fact ...
Hassoun, Padilla and co-defendant Kifah Wael Jayyousi are accused of providing recruits and money to mujahideen warriors who conspired to murder, maim and kidnap people in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia and elsewhere during the 1990s. Mujahideen, or holy warriors, is a term for Islamic guerrilla groups. The word is used in the indictment but prosecutors want to call expert witnesses to explain the term and its relation to various groups, including al Qaeda.
Seems like Jose has managed to wiggle free of the post 9/11 charges, at least for now ...
Defense lawyers plan to call historians and a U.S. Army officer as experts to tell the jury that mujahideen groups are not synonymous with terrorists, and that their actions do not necessarily amount to murder.
It's just a Western construct, you see ...
They said the U.S. government has portrayed the Russian army as victims of mujahideen violence in Chechnya, and the Serbian and Croatian forces as victims of mujahideen "murderers" in Bosnia. Human rights groups and the U.S. State Department have criticized Russia's human rights record in Chechnya and the United Nations found that Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide against Bosnian Muslims.
Seems like the prosecution may be playing into the hands of the defense. If you buy that the Bosnian Muslims had a right to defend themselves, you can't get too upset that Jose is giving them money -- a mere technical violation. The more important point is that Jose is giving money and aid to people who want Americans dead, and to heck with the Bosnians, Russers, Chechers, etc. The issue is whether he was conspiring to kill his fellow Americans, and my understanding was that we had him dead to rights on that.
The defense lawyers want to tell the jurors about the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb forces killed thousands of Bosnian Muslim men and boys, and about crimes committed by Russian forces against Muslims in Chechnya. They suggested they would argue that the defendants had no intent to abet murders and that the groups they are accused of aiding may in fact have been fighting to defend fellow Muslims who were under attack. "You cannot just assume that when they killed, if they killed, it was murder," Baker said. "Defending Muslims is not committing murder."
Defending one's women and children isn't murder. But Jose isn't a Bosnian. We should be trying him for what he was planning to do to Americans.
Media attention on the case has focused largely on Padilla, a 36-year-old American citizen arrested in Chicago upon his return from Egypt and Pakistan in May 2002. He was accused of plotting to set off a radioactive bomb in the United States and President George W. Bush ordered him held as an "enemy combatant" in a military brig for 3-1/2 years.

While a challenge to Bush's authority to hold Padilla without charge was pending in the Supreme Court, Padilla was indicted in Florida on charges unrelated to any bombs. The judge has already ruled that Padilla is mentally fit to stand trial, but still must rule on a defense claim that the government's treatment of him was so outrageous the charges should be dropped.
Holding him in solitary isn't outrageous. If it is then there's plenty of guys in state pens who have a claim ...
Prosecutors contend that Hassoun recruited Padilla to attend an al Qaeda training camp, which Hassoun denies. All three defendants have pleaded innocent and would face life imprisonment if convicted on all the charges.
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