quote:
The case relied on 300,000 FBI wiretap intercepts collected from 1993 - 2001, mainly involving Hassoun and Jayyousi, with Padilla recorded on only seven. Speaking in Arabic, they purportedly used codewords such as "tourism" and "football" for jihad or "zucchini" and "eggplant" for military weapons or ammunition. Padilla took no part in conversations using the alleged codewords.In the feverish atmosphere in the aftermath of 9/11, the US authorities claimed Padilla had been planning to detonate a dirty bomb and, in a separate operation, filling flats in Washington with gas and igniting it.
After a month in a civilian jail, he was designated an enemy combatant and handed to the military who held him for three years on a military brig in South Carolina. He was transferred to the Miami court in 2005. But, because he had been interrogated on the brig with no lawyer present by the military, all the alleged evidence was deemed to be inadmissable. The serious allegations were dropped and he was tried on lesser charges.
As well as the problems with evidence obtained while in military custody, there were also question marks over the fact that the allegations were being made by another alleged terrorist, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who has allegedly claimed responsibility for an extremely lengthy list of terrorist incidents.
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posted 16 August 2007 12:06 PM
