Padilla Found Guilty On All Charges
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 persecuted Muslims in war zones with relief and humanitarian aid.
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-Qaida 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 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-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. 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 attorney William Swor.
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Say Goodbye Jose…….Goodbye Jose
August 16th, 2007 at 3:00 pmMamala pinga Jose. Feed him to the ants.
August 16th, 2007 at 3:18 pmUnless they put him in Super Max he won’t survive long, no one like a traitor.
August 16th, 2007 at 3:20 pmCheck out this from the article:
“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.”
Who was running the executive branch from 1993 to 2001? When the FBI was running wiretaps?
Just another exposure of the hypocrisy of the democrats, those pieces of shit are screaming about the wiretap program when Bush uses it but not when clinton did. The democrats wear their stained dress with pride.
What is amazing is these stupid fucks are going to vote for hillary, what a bunch of ignorant fools.
August 16th, 2007 at 3:48 pmCant wait for some ODC (ordinary decent criminal) to smash his head in.
August 16th, 2007 at 4:02 pmPrision Justice is waiting to be served up.
August 16th, 2007 at 9:23 pmCouldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Got wire taps?
ECHELON … look it up.
August 16th, 2007 at 10:01 pm“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.”
Is that what they call it now: Study? Actually what caruso said is true if we look at how lawyers talk. Implication is made by you and me, but lawyers see their words in literal terms. Padilla did go to egypt to study.
But frazier said that he went their to learn to kill.
“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.
In other words, carusa is admitting (by implication) that padilla went to study how to kill. If he went to egypt to kill then he would be going through a trial their as well.
also, to learn Islam more fluently is another surefire way to learn how to kill. Muhammed was an expert at the many ways to kill people.
anyways, it looks as though padilla will have plenty of time to “study” in jail from other expert murderers.
August 16th, 2007 at 11:55 pmpadilla’s mom said congratulations goes to george Bush alone, well i say Ill add my name to the list of those who are elated. Why should GB get all the credit, so many of us have joined the fight at home and abroad.
August 16th, 2007 at 11:58 pmYeah, were there warrants for those wiretaps in 1993-2000? Where is the MSM screaming about Bill Clinton’s illegal usurpation of our consitutional rights??? Oh, and I hope his government-caused mental illness gets better in prison.
August 17th, 2007 at 10:18 am