US ‘dirty bomber’ is a trial for CIA
The case has become a potential embarrassment to
US security officials.
Five years ago - the Feds condemned Jose Padilla as “an unlawful combatant - who, during time of war, passes surreptitiously from enemy territory into our own for the commission of hostile acts involving destruction of life or property.”
Now -
The case has become a potential embarrassment to US security officials.
After weeks of testimony about alleged Al-Qaeda plots, travels to the Middle East and the defendants’ use of secret code words such as “going on a picnic”, the prosecution rested its case with only one piece of physical evidence allegedly linking Padilla to Al-Qaeda – a half filled-out training camp application form that was said to bear his fingerprints.
There was a big surprise when the charges against him were finally unveiled – no reference to the supposed dirty bomb was included. Instead, he was charged with providing material support for terrorism and being part of an unspecified conspiracy.
“The government’s central argument is that Padilla is a bad guy who hung out with other bad guys,” one legal analyst said on the first day of the trial.
Most of the testimony is so lame as to be laughable.
John Kavanaugh, an FBI agent who led the investigation, said that when the men talked of “playing football,” “going on a picnic” or smelling “fresh air”, it was code for going on a jihad. Kavanaugh said that “eating cheese” was another reference to waging war, but he admitted he had no idea what one of the accused meant when he referred to “a reservation on the female donkey”.
Yet of the 300,000 recordings made by the FBI, only seven were presented with Padilla’s voice and he never used a code-word.
Read through the latest article. Nothing about this trial will elicit anything but more contempt for our government. Padilla may be a miserable demented lowlife. If that was a crime, we’d have to lock up Congress and the White House.
Posted: Sun - July 29, 2007 at 06:35 AM