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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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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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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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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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Al Qaeda suspect "drugged" with flu shot -jailer

2007-02-28

Former "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla was sometimes kept in a blacked-out cell without a mattress at a U.S. military prison but the injection he thought was LSD was actually a vaccine, his former jailer testified on Tuesday. "It was a flu shot," Sanford Seymour, technical director at the military brig, testified in a hearing to determine whether Padilla is mentally fit to stand trial on terrorism charges. Padilla, a 36-year-old American, is scheduled to go to trial in April on charges he conspired with Islamist extremists to murder and maim people overseas. Defense lawyers claim he was drugged and subjected to extreme isolation and sensory deprivation during the 3 1/2 years he was held in the brig before being charged in the civilian court. Doctors who examined him for the defense said that caused traumatic brain injuries that left Padilla mentally unfit for trial. Seymour's testimony was the first public comment about the alleged al Qaeda operative's treatment by his military jailers, a description that in many ways echoes that described by foreign captives formerly held at the Guantanamo navy base. But U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke strictly limited Seymour's testimony to a retelling of his hour-long phone conversation with a Bureau of Prisons psychologist who later deemed Padilla mentally fit for trial. Seymour, a civilian director at the Naval Consolidated Brig in South Carolina, confirmed defense allegations that Padilla had no contact with any other prisoners. He said that "for periods of time" Padilla's cell windows were blacked out, he slept on a bare metal bunk with no mattress, his Koran was removed and he had no clock. Seymour said the Bureau of Prisons doctor had not asked him to elaborate, so the court did not permit him to say how long those conditions lasted nor why they were imposed or by whom. Nor was he permitted to explain why Padilla was required to wear shackles, black-out goggles and sound-blocking earphones when taken to see a dentist. Seymour said he twice saw Padilla weeping in his cell but knew of no physical abuse inflicted on him. He said he had mistakenly told the Bureau of Prisons doctor that Padilla's interrogation lasted only four months, but was not allowed to say how long it actually lasted nor whether he had observed interrogations. He said Padilla was at other times allowed to receive visits from an Islamic military cleric, and to go to an outdoor recreation area to shoot a basketball and sit in the sun. Defense lawyers had alleged that noxious fumes were pumped into Padilla's cell. Seymour said those came from a nearby paper mill and "We often had a nasty odor throughout the facility." Padilla bowed his head throughout the testimony and never looked at Seymour, who once described Padilla's behavior in the brig as docile like "a piece of furniture." Padilla was arrested in Chicago in May 2002 upon his return from Egypt and Pakistan. President George W. Bush ordered him held in military custody and his administration accused Padilla of plotting to set off a radioactive bomb. He was never charged with that and while a challenge to Bush's authority to hold him without charge was pending in the Supreme Court, Padilla was indicted in Florida and transferred to civilian custody last year. He faces life in prison if convicted of providing money and recruits to Islamist extremists. The mental competency hearing resumes on Wednesday. If the judge finds Padilla fit for trial, she would then consider a defense request to drop the charges because of "outrageous government conduct."

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Terror suspect's claim: Too traumatized for trial

2007-02-15

Tough guy. Gang banger. Brave Jihadi Warrior. The prisoner lived in isolation in a cell with only a steel slab for a bed. At times chained to the floor, he was deprived of light, sleep, a clock and heat. His interrogators injected him with "truth serum" drugs to try to loosen his tongue and threatened him with execution. Prove it. What's your evidence? His word? That's how Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held without charge as an "enemy combatant," was treated for three years and eight months at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., his attorneys allege. In court papers, they say Padilla — initially accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" — was treated so severely that it amounted to torture and rendered him mentally incompetent to now stand trial on terrorism charges that could bring him life in prison. That provocative claim — disputed by the government, which says Padilla was not abused and is fit for trial — will be the focus of a mental competency hearing for Padilla, scheduled for Feb. 22 in a federal court in Miami. The long-shot effort to have him declared unfit for trial is the latest turn in a case that has become a test of how far the U.S. government can go in limiting the civil liberties of an American in the name of national security. Government lawyers decline to give details about how Padilla has been treated, but they flatly dispute the defense's version. "It has no merit whatsoever," prosecutors say in papers filed in the court where Padilla is scheduled for trial April 16. He is charged with conspiring to support terrorism overseas as part of a North American terror cell. The government has said that however it handled the Brooklyn-born Padilla, 36, its actions were necessary to try to learn more about terrorism. Civil libertarians have waged a marathon court battle challenging Padilla's detention, beginning two days after he was locked up in Charleston in June 2002. He was not allowed to talk with a lawyer until March 2004, 21 months into his confinement. The accusations against Padilla have evolved as his case has shifted to different courts. Then-attorney general John Ashcroft initially linked him to a "dirty bomb" plot. The Justice Department later tied him to an alleged plot to blow up high-rise apartments in the USA. Ah. The Evil AshKKKroft! How soon we forget... However, the charges pending against Padilla mention none of that. He faces three counts that include conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas, and conspiring to support terrorism by supplying money and materials. For now, the focus is on whether Padilla is mentally fit to stand trial. At next week's hearing, U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke will examine competing assessments of Padilla's mental state by the defense and prosecution. In court documents filed last Friday, prosecutors Russell Killinger and Stephanie Pell cite an analysis by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in arguing that Padilla is fit for trial. Defense attorneys say the bureau's findings are inaccurate. Padilla's attorneys plan to call as witnesses civilian and military members of the brig staff who expressed concerns about the effects of extended isolation on Padilla's mental health. Andrew Patel, one of Padilla's attorneys, describes his own conversations with staff members in court papers. Patel says they told him Padilla was so "docile and inactive that his behavior was like that of 'a piece of furniture.' " Good. Prosecutors say details about Padilla's detention should be kept out of the trial. They say in court papers that such information could "distract and inflame" jurors. It is unclear how much information Cooke will allow into next week's hearing. Wouldn't bother me. Put me on the jury. Padilla's attorneys argue that the government's treatment of Padilla "injured" his brain and left him incompetent to understand the proceedings against him. The attorneys have asked Cooke to dismiss the charges, calling Padilla's treatment at the brig so "outrageous, it shocks the conscience." According to court documents, two mental health experts who examined Padilla for the defense concluded that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, triggered by his time in the brig. They said he is unable to watch videos of his interrogations or read transcripts of wiretapped conversations that likely will be used against him in court. Padilla suffers from memory gaps, is unable to place events in chronological order and has difficulty concentrating, according to Patricia Zapf, a New York psychologist, and Angela Hegarty, a New York psychiatrist. Padilla also suspects his attorneys are federal agents posing as lawyers in order to interrogate him, court papers say. Padilla told his attorneys and the mental health experts that while he was at the brig he was placed in stress positions, assaulted and told that he would be sent to "an even worse" fate at the U.S. military's prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds of foreign terrorism suspects have been held indefinitely. "The torture took myriad forms, each designed to cause pain, anguish, depression and ultimately the loss of will to live," Padilla's attorneys say in court papers. Gitmo. The interrogation hole card. The defense attorneys also allege that Padilla was injected with LSD or PCP as a sort of "truth serum." Gonna have to prove that. Padilla was denied "the most personal shreds of human dignity," his attorneys argue, when he was not allowed to bathe for weeks at a time. "One would have to revisit the history of the Tower of London to find more oppressive pretrial incarceration," the attorneys say. Yeah, I'm sure not bathing for weeks was a big change for him... Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, won't discuss Padilla's specific claims. But he says, "The government, in the strongest terms, denies Padilla's allegations — allegations made without support and without citing a shred of record evidence. It is and always has been our policy to treat detainees humanely." Yeah, but you're not a terrorist defense lawyer, so you're probably lying...

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Prosecutors: Padilla Competent for Trial

2007-02-10

MIAMI (AP) - An evaluation of suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla has found him competent to stand trial on terrorism charges, government attorneys said in court documents filed Friday. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons' evaluation was not made public, but if the prosecution's description is accurate and U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke agrees, it removes another major obstacle to Padilla going on trial in April. Padilla can understand the court proceedings and communicate with his attorneys, according to prosecutors' description of the report's conclusions. ``The BOP report is thorough, detailed and unequivocal in its conclusion that Padilla is competent,'' the government said in its filing. You can be both competent and crazy. Three attorneys for Padilla did not respond to after-hours phone calls and e-mails Friday. A fourth, Andrew Patel, said he could not comment on the case. A competency hearing is set for next Friday.

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Court reinstates key Padilla charge

2007-01-31

MIAMI - A federal appeals court on Tuesday reinstated a key terrorism charge, the only one carrying a potential life sentence, against suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with federal prosecutors in Miami that the charge that the U.S. citizen and his two co-defendants conspired to "murder, kidnap and maim" people overseas did not duplicate other counts in the indictment. The Atlanta-based court reversed a decision last summer by U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, who said the three charges in the indictment contained nearly identical elements and could subject the defendants to extra punishment for the same act, violating protections against double jeopardy. Although defense attorneys may file a challenge, Tuesday's ruling brings the case a step closer to trial as scheduled April 16. The appeals court had agreed to hear the case on an expedited basis after Cooke said she would not begin jury selection until the issue was settled. "We are gratified by the 11th Circuit's swift decision and look forward to presenting the evidence at trial," U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said in a statement. Defense attorneys have 21 days to ask the panel to rehear the case or request that the full appeals court take it up. Lawyers for Padilla and his co-defendants did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

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Prosecutors Want Padilla Leak Punished

2007-01-23

This is a clear outrage. MIAMI (AP) - Prosecutors on Monday asked the judge in the Jose Padilla terrorism-support case to punish a defense attorney who leaked transcripts of Padilla's intercepted phone conversations, saying the leak violated a court order and could jeopardize selection of an impartial jury. ``There is no question that the disclosure was calculated and deliberate, with the effect of exposing potential jurors to evidence before it is introduced at trial when both sides will have the opportunity to argue its significance,'' prosecutors said in court papers. The transcripts were part of a Jan. 4 New York Times story that raised questions about the strength of the case against Padilla. On the transcripts, Padilla is not heard discussing any violent acts or terrorist plots, and many of the conversations seem to be relatively harmless. And what do you know, the NYT was involved. U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke has scheduled a hearing Wednesday on the issue, the latest in a string of complications to arise in the case of the suspected al-Qaida operative. Three Miami-based public defenders representing Padilla - Michael Caruso, Anthony Natale and Orlando do Campo - acknowledged in court papers that ``one of Jose Padilla's counsel'' provided the transcripts to a Times reporter. The lawyer responsible was not identified. Padilla is also represented by attorney Andrew Patel of New York, but his name does not appear on the document acknowledging responsibility for the leak. The seven transcripts were covered by a 2005 order by Cooke prohibiting dissemination of ``sensitive'' evidence. The transcripts are of declassified telephone intercepts on which Padilla's voice is heard that were obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Prosecutors accused defense lawyers of ``whipping up a media frenzy'' that could taint the pool of prospective jurors, and contend that the disclosure violates state and U.S. bar association rules. Penalties for such violations vary greatly, from jail time in extreme cases to a judicial reprimand. I'd say that leaking sealed information in a terrorism case leans more to the extreme end. How 'bout a little jail time for the responsible mouthpiece? The defense lawyers said in their own court papers that because the 2005 order had been replaced in 2006, not everyone on Padilla's team understood that the rules regarding sensitive material still applied. Isn't a responsibility for a lawyer on the case to understand all the rules and orders? Would the defense allow a prosecutor to say something like that? I'm just asking. A spokeswoman for The Times declined to comment. None of the four defense lawyers responded to e-mail messages seeking comment about the latest government claims. Yet another example that demonstrates that the NYT is on the other side.

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Alleged al Qaeda agent Padilla claims torture

2006-11-01

Lawyers for alleged al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla have asked a Florida judge to dismiss the terrorism case against him, saying he was tortured and force-fed psychedelic drugs while held at a U.S. military brig for more than 3-1/2 years. "More giggle juice, Jose?" "Like, wow, man! Listen to the colors!" "The torture took myriad forms, each designed to cause pain, anguish, depression and ultimately, the loss of will to live," Padilla's attorney's said in the motion for dismissal filed in Miami federal court earlier this month. "Often he had to endure multiple interrogators who would scream, shake and otherwise assault Mr. Padilla," his lawyers said. "Additionally, Mr. Padilla was given drugs against his will, believed to be some form of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or phencyclidine (PCP), to act as a sort of truth serum during his interrogations." The heart bleeds... Nope. It's the chili again. Presiding U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke on Monday gave the U.S. attorney's office until November 14 by to respond to Padilla's allegations, according to an order released by the court. Padilla, a U.S. citizen arrested in Chicago in May 2002, was initially accused of plotting to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb." He was held in a brig at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston, South Carolina for three years and seven months, without charge, before being abruptly transferred to a federal lock-up in Miami and brought into the official legal system. That was after he was turned into a newt... While in the brig, Padilla was "tortured by the United States government without cause or justification," his lawyers said, adding that his treatment was "shocking to even the most hardened conscience." You mean somebody cut his head off and stuck the knife into his eye socket? The forms of torture included isolation, prolonged sleep deprivation, exposure to extremely cold temperatures and shackling in "stress positions" for hours at a time, they said.

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