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U.S. charges long-detained citizen

Jose Padilla, the so-called "Dirty Bomber" whose case was to reach the Supreme Court, now faces civilian charges.

By DAVID ADAMS
Published November 23, 2005

MIAMI - A U.S. citizen and former South Florida resident held without charge for more than three years was indicted Tuesday, accused of involvement in a conspiracy to commit terrorist acts abroad.

Jose Padilla, a 35-year-old Hispanic who converted to Islam after doing jail time in Florida, had been held as an "enemy combatant" in U.S. Defense Department custody since 2002. The Bush administration had resisted calls to charge and try Padilla, the so-called "Dirty Bomber," in civilian courts.

The 31-page indictment avoids a Supreme Court showdown over how long the government could hold a U.S. citizen without charges. A lower court in September upheld the government's right to hold Padilla indefinitely, but his lawyers had asked justices to review his case. The Bush administration was facing a deadline next Monday for filing its legal arguments.

With the indictment, Padilla will be transferred from military custody to the Justice Department. Padilla, who has taken the name Abdullah al Muhajir, was being held at a Navy brig in South Carolina. President Bush sent a memo Tuesday to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordering Padilla transferred to the federal detention facility in Miami.

Padilla was arrested at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago in May 2002 on suspicion that he collaborated with the Pakistani arm of al-Qaida in a plan to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the United States.

However, the indictment does not mention that allegation. Instead it accuses Padilla and four other men of a U.S.-based conspiracy to "kidnap, murder and maim" people overseas for the purpose of creating "a pure Islamic state governed by strict Islamic law." The indictment alleges the men were followers of convicted 1993 World Trade Center bombing mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.

The others indicted are Adham Amin Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian who lived in Broward County; Mohammed Hesham Youssef, an Egyptian who also lived in Broward County; Kifah Wael Jayyousi, a Jordanian national and U.S. citizen; and Kassem Daher, a Lebanese citizen with Canadian residency status.

"All of these defendants are alleged members of a violent terrorist support cell that operated in the United States and Canada," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said.

Three of the men had been charged before. The new indictment adds Padilla and Daher, who authorities believe has fled to Lebanon.

Jayyousi was arrested early this year at Detroit Metro Airport re-entering the country from Qatar. He was "chief of facilities" for Washington, D.C., schools from 1999-2001 and before that worked in the Detroit school system.

Hassoun also was indicted on eight additional charges, including perjury, obstruction of justice and illegal firearm possession.

The indictment was unsealed Tuesday after being returned last week by a federal grand jury in Miami.

"The indictment alleges that Padilla traveled overseas to train as a terrorist with the intention of fighting a violent jihad (holy war)," Gonzales said at a news conference. Gonzales declined to comment on why previous allegations involving attacks in America were not included.

At the time of Padilla's 2002 arrest then-Attorney General John Ashcroft said Padilla traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and on several occasions met with senior al-Qaida officials. He said Padilla "trained with the enemy, studying how to wire explosive devices and researching radiological dispersion devices."

Gonzales said the case would go to trial in September 2006. Padilla faces life in prison if convicted on the three charges - one count each of conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap people overseas, providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy.

Padilla's case has long troubled civil liberty advocates. They say the government's action undermines constitutional protections, among them habeas corpus, the right not to be held without charge.

The USA Patriot Act of 2001 authorizes the government to detain noncitizens when the attorney general suspects that the person is "engaged in any ... activity that endangers the national security of the United States."

Tuesday's indictment amounted to a major climb-down by the government, legal experts said.

"They're avoiding what the Supreme Court would say about American citizens. That's an issue the administration did not want to face," said Scott Silliman, a Duke University law professor who specializes in national security. "There's no way that the Supreme Court would have ducked this issue."

Defense lawyers had attacked the government's case, saying it was built on shoddy evidence. In their appeal to the Supreme Court, Padilla's attorneys said the case "consists of double and triple hearsay from secret witnesses, along with information allegedly obtained from Padilla himself during his two years of incommunicado interrogation."

Like some of the 9/11 hijackers, Padilla had ties to South Florida, living there from 1990 to at least 1997. The FBI has found no ties between Padilla and the 9/11 plot. Instead, federal authorities say Padilla came in contact with al-Qaida terrorists only after leaving Florida for Egypt in 1998.

In one September 2000 conversation between Hassoun and Youssef, Padilla is said to have "entered into the area of Usama."

Padilla, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, was born in New York and raised a Roman Catholic in Chicago. He adopted his Arabic name after converting to Islam while serving jail time on a 1991 weapons charge in Broward County.

Chicago police say they arrested Padilla five times from 1985 to 1991, the year he moved to Florida. He was convicted of robbery and battery, and was jailed from November 1985 to May 1988.

He found his way to South Florida in 1990. He worked at a Hilton hotel in Sunrise and a Holiday Inn in Plantation.

He was jailed again in October 1991 after shooting at another driver. It was after leaving jail in August 1992 that he is believed to have converted to Islam.

He was arrested again in 1996 and 1997 before leaving the area to study Arabic in Egypt.

Hassoun, a Palestinian computer programmer who moved to Florida in 1989, was arrested by Joint Terrorism Task Force agents on June 12, 2002. He was held on an immigration charge that he overstayed a decade-old student visa.

Prosecutors identified him from the start as an associate of Padilla at the Masjid Al-Iman mosque in Fort Lauderdale. His alleged terror connections bear a similarity to the pending Tampa case of Sami Al-Arian, centering on his links to funding for Islamic charities.

Before his arrest Hassoun was a spokesman and financial supporter of Islamic causes. The indictment lists him as the "East Coast representative" of the American Islamic Group and American Worldwide Relief Organization. He is accused of helping fundraise and recruit fighters - mujahedeen - for the jihad.

In 1992, public records show Hassoun filed Florida incorporation papers for the Islamic charity Benevolence International, which has since been linked by the Justice Department to associates of Osama bin Laden.

The FBI has also asked Hassoun about $11,000 he donated to other Islamic charities the government shut down during post-Sept. 11 terror investigations.

The charities deny any connection to terrorism. Friends and members of the Muslim community say Hassoun was a devout husband and father of three children.

Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report, which includes information from the Associated Press, the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

In the 31-page indictment filed Tuesday against Jose Padilla and four other men accused of conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim people outside the United States, federal officials detail numerous "coded" conversations between the five men over eight years.

While it remains unclear what the men were referring to, the indictment says the code was used to "disguise their true identities and activities."

A selection:

In May 1996, Adham Hassoun asked someone in Lebanon if he "had a way "to get something over to the soccer team in Chechnya or Bosnia.' "

That same year, Hassoun discussed with Kassem Daher "the ones who want to go out and smell the air."

Hassoun told Daher in 1997: "Because they are playing football in Somalia . . . it's heating up a lot, so we're sending . . . uh . . . uniforms . . . and . . . uh . . . sneakers for football over there."

Mohammed Hesham Youssef, who was in Egypt, told Hassoun in April 1997 he "planned to join a group of possibly 10 others who were going "to smell fresh air and eat cheese.' "

Other conversations referred to the need to "go on a picnic" in Egypt, to "buy zucchini" in Lebanon, and assisting "tourism" in Kosovo.

[Last modified November 23, 2005, 00:57:04]