Issue No. 591
International
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20 - 26 June 2002 Issue No. 591 International |
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The Padilla puzzle
An American citizen suspected of plotting to detonate a "dirty bomb" on US soil remains in jail indefinitely despite not having been charged. Anayat Durrani, in Washington, reports
Jose Padilla, also known as Abdullah Al-Muhajir, is currently being held in a military detention facility in South Carolina as an "enemy combatant" and has been refused access to a lawyer.
The 31-year-old Brooklyn native of Puerto Rican descent is accused of being part of a plot to build and detonate a "dirty bomb" -- a conventional bomb composed of radioactive material that scatters when the bomb explodes.
Attorney General John Ashcroft designated Padilla an "enemy combatant" of the United States meaning that, despite being a US citizen, he is denied the rights of due process. Padilla had been secretly held for a month in a New York jail as a "material witness" before being transferred to military custody under orders signed by President George Bush. Bush called Padilla "a threat to the nation" and a "would- be killer".
"This guy Padilla's a bad guy and he is where he needs to be -- detained," said Bush.
Padilla is alleged to be an operative for Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qa'eda network who was trained by an Al-Qa'eda cell in Pakistan in how to build a radiological bomb. Ashcroft said that Padilla met with senior Al-Qa'eda officials on several occasions in 2001 and alleges that, when Padilla was in Pakistan and Afghanistan, he "trained with the enemy, including studying how to wire explosive devices and researching radiological dispersion devices".
US authorities claim that Padilla was sent to the US for a "reconnaissance mission". Ashcroft said that Al-Qa'eda attached great importance to Padilla because his US citizenship and passport meant that he could travel freely within the United States.
Padilla was arrested upon landing at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on 8 May, after flying from Zurich en route from Pakistan. Interrogators were tipped off about Padilla's alleged activities from information obtained from Al-Qa'eda leader Abu Zubaida who was captured in Pakistan on 28 March.
Padilla was under surveillance by US authorities since early April in Zurich and, subsequently, in Cairo, where he spent a month with his two children and Egyptian wife. Padilla was reportedly first tracked following an arrest in Pakistan in April for a passport violation.
Padilla was born in New York on 18 October 1970 and moved to Chicago when he was 5 years old. His colourful past includes a stint as a Chicago gang member in the Latin Kings when he was a teenager and several jail sentences.
Beginning in 1985 he served three years in a Chicago juvenile detention center for aggravated battery, armed robbery and attempted armed robbery and was later released on parole in 1988. He was then arrested in October 1991 on gun and assault charges for firing a gun at a motorist, following a heated argument in Florida. Padilla served nearly a year in jail between 1991 and 1992. Following his release from prison in 1992, he was issued several traffic citations in south Florida and was served with an arrest warrant in December 1997 for failing to appear in court.
It is unclear when Padilla converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam. Some reports claim that he converted while in prison, others say he embraced Islam in the mid-1990s. It is believed he left the US in 1998 to live for two years in Egypt with his wife and children. According to reports, Padilla's travels took him to the Middle East in 2000, to Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as on a pilgrimage to Mecca. US investigators believe that Padilla met up with Zubaida in November and December of 2001.
Both Bush and Ashcroft have hailed Padilla's arrest as proof of the improved cooperation between the FBI and the CIA. Ashcroft commended the FBI, CIA and other intelligence agencies for preventing Padilla from acting on "his deadly plan". Bush said the arrest demonstrated that the CIA, FBI and other government agencies "are yielding results". Both statements come at a time when the FBI and CIA are being harshly criticised for intelligence failures prior to the 11 September attacks and the House and Senate intelligence committees are continuing their investigations into the agencies' performance. It also follows the government's attempts to address possible intelligence failures through restructuring the FBI and establishing the Homeland Security Cabinet Agency.
In his Monday statement, Ashcroft said, "In apprehending Al-Muhajir as he sought entry into the United States, we have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive 'dirty bomb'." Some critics say Ashcroft's announcement from Moscow last Monday of Padilla's arrest was an exaggeration aimed at improving the Justice Department's image. Experts question whether Al-Qa'eda operatives even have radiological materials or the expertise to build a "dirty bomb". Shortly after Ashcroft's announcement, US officials said there had not been any real plan for using a "dirty bomb" attack against the US and that Padilla did not possess any radioactive bomb-making materials.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told CBS News, "I don't think there was actually a plot beyond some fairly loose talk and coming here to plan further deeds." Further, Ashcroft's description of the effect of a "dirty bomb" as causing "mass death and injury" was seen as an exaggeration aimed at cowing opposition to the expansion of the state's powers at the expense of civil liberties. Experts say that a "dirty bomb" is more likely to cause more terror and panic than inflict heavy casualties.
Meanwhile, US officials plan to hold Padilla "indefinitely". Wolfowitz told CBS's Early Show, "He's an enemy combatant and, as in earlier wars, you can hold an enemy combatant until the end of the conflict." US officials say he has information that could help in the war on terror. "Our interest is not in trying him and punishing him," said Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. "Our interest is in finding out what he knows." According to reports, Padilla has so far been uncooperative with US officials.
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