Padilla pleads not guilty to U.S. terror charges

Michael Christie / Reuters | January 13 2006

Jose Padilla, held for 3 1/2 years in a U.S. military brig without charges as an "enemy combatant," pleaded not guilty to terrorism accusations in a criminal court on Thursday on his first public opportunity to affirm his innocence.

Padilla, 35, a convert to Islam who has been linked to an Osama bin Laden training camp, was denied bond by a U.S. magistrate on the grounds that he was a risk to flee and a danger to the community.

Defense attorney Michael Caruso said Padilla, a former Chicago gang member, pleaded "absolutely not guilty" to the charges of conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas and of conspiring to and of actually providing material support to terrorist groups.

The Bush administration had originally accused Padilla of planning to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" or to blow up apartment buildings by using natural gas when it labeled him an "enemy combatant" after his arrest in Chicago in May 2002. The official charges against Padilla make no mention of the "dirty bomb."

The allegations, based on 200,000 intercepted international phone calls of which the government says 5,000 are pertinent, are that Padilla took part in a North American-based conspiracy to recruit militants for "violent jihad" -- or holy war. He also allegedly trained at a terrorist camp in Afghanistan run by Laden.

While the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Padilla to be transferred to federal authorities in Florida last week, it has not yet resolved the key issue raised by the case -- whether the government has the power to order American citizens captured in the United States be held indefinitely in military jails as enemy combatants.

Padilla's co-defendants in the Florida case are Adham Amin Hassoun, Mohamed Hesham Youssef, Kifah Wael Jayyousi and Kassem Daher. Jayyousi is presented as a ring leader of the group while Youssef and Padilla, who the prosecution says also is known as Abu Abdullah the Puerto Rican, are described as recruits.

Prosecutor Stephanie Pell, in opposing bail for Padilla, told presiding magistrate Judge Barry Garber, that he had traveled to Egypt, Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan and represented a flight risk.

Pell said Padilla had been arrested several times since the age of about 15 and convicted of various crimes, including a murder-related charge and weapons charges. As such, he represented a threat to the community, she said.

Caruso described as "circumstantial" the evidence, including coded telephone calls between other defendants that refer to Padilla by different nicknames, and what prosecutors said was an application form filled in by Padilla in July 2000 to attend the terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.

"Weak isn't even the right word," Caruso told Garber.

Shackled, dressed in green prison garb and wearing wire-rimmed glasses, Padilla listened intently as Caruso made a spirited and lengthy bid to convince Garber to allow his client to be placed under house arrest.

Padilla's mother and brother were in court during his arraignment.

The trial is expected to begin on Sept. 9.

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