MIAMI – For a star defendant whose name is known around the world, Jose Padilla has become almost a bit player in his terrorism support trial – and some observers say the federal government may not have proved its case against him.
Prosecutors rested their case Friday after nine weeks, 22 witnesses and dozens of FBI wiretap intercepts played at trial, most of them in Arabic with written translations for jurors. Defense lawyers for Padilla and his two co-defendants begin presenting their case next week.
Much is at stake for the government, which once heralded Padilla’s arrest as a success in the country’s war on terror, accused him in an al-Qaida “dirty bomb” plot, and held him for 31/2 years as an enemy combatant.
Padilla’s voice was heard on only seven intercepts, a tiny fraction of the 300,000 collected by the FBI during the nearly decade-long investigation.
Padilla was never linked to any specific acts of terrorism or murder and, unlike his co-defendants, he was not accused of using purported code words such as “tourism” for “jihad” or “eggplant” for “rocket-propelled grenade.”
Padilla, a 36-year-old Muslim convert, was arrested in 2002 as he got off a plane in Chicago, returning from Pakistan. He was carrying $10,526, a cell phone and e-mail addresses for al-Qaida operatives.
A month later, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft interrupted a trip to Moscow to announce the arrest, saying Padilla was part of an al-Qaida plot to set off a radioactive “dirty bomb” in the United States.
President Bush declared Padilla an enemy combatant and he was held by the military for 31/2 years. Just before the administration had to justify that decision to the Supreme Court, he was transferred to civilian custody and added in late 2005 to the Miami terror support case.
The “dirty bomb” allegations were dropped and alleged admissions Padilla made to interrogators in a Navy brig during his confinement have not been presented during the trial, partly because Padilla was not allowed to consult an attorney during questioning.
The key to the case against Padilla, according to attorneys and legal experts, is how much weight jurors give to the five-page “mujahedeen data form” he allegedly filled out in July 2000 to attend an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan. Seven of Padilla’s fingerprints are on the form, which was recovered by the CIA in Afghanistan in December 2001.
“The question is whether the defense has a plausible theory for how Padilla’s fingerprints got on the form that doesn’t implicate him,” said Stephen Vladeck, law professor at American University in Washington.
Former Miami U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis said prosecutors often are forced to present a “watered-down” case when much evidence is classified to protect national security. It’s also a tougher case when there’s no “smoking gun” or witness who can swear the defendants committed illegal acts.
“It’s a loose-knit conspiracy with very few overt acts,” Lewis said. “You didn’t catch them committing a terrorist act. Talk only, and talk is cheap.”
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