Bush Overruled on 'Dirty Bomb' Suspect

Secondary topic anyone notice a resemblance between Padilla and John Doe # 2 from the Oklahoma City bombing? I think this may have been discussed before, but the similarity is shocking IMO.



Bush Overruled on 'Dirty Bomb' Suspect

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - President Bush (news - web sites) does not have power to detain American citizen Jose Padilla, the former gang member seized on U.S. soil, as an enemy combatant, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.


The decision could force the government to try Padilla, held in a so-called "dirty bomb" plot, in civilian courts.


In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) said Padilla's detention was not authorized by Congress and that Bush could not designate him as an enemy combatant without the authorization.


The former Chicago gang member who converted to Islam was arrested in May 2002 Chicago's O'Hare airport as he returned from Pakistan. Within days, he was moved to a naval brig in Charleston, S.C.


The court directed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to release Padilla from military custody within 30 days, but said the government was free to transfer him to civilian authorities who can bring criminal charges.


If appropriate, Padilla can also be held as a material witness in connection with grand jury proceedings, the court said.


"As this court sits only a short distance from where the World Trade Center stood, we are as keenly aware as anyone of the threat al-Qaida poses to our country and of the responsibilities the president and law enforcement officials bear for protecting the nation," the court said.


"But presidential authority does not exist in a vacuum, and this case involves not whether those responsibilities should be aggressively pursued, but whether the president is obligated, in the circumstances presented here, to share them with Congress," it added.


In a dissenting opinion, District Judge Richard C. Wesley said the president as commander in chief "has the inherent authority to thwart acts of belligerency at home or abroad that would do harm to United States citizens."


Marvin Smilon, a spokesman for interim U.S. Attorney David Kelley, said he could not comment. In Washington, Justice Department (news - web sites) spokesman Mark Corallo said the agency (news - web sites) was reviewing the decision. Padilla's lawyer, Donna Newman, who had battled in court for the right to meet with Padilla, did not immediately return a telephone message for comment.


Chris Dunn, a staff attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union, called the ruling "historic."


"It's a repudiation of the Bush administration's attempt to close the federal courts to those accused of terrorism," he said. The group had submitted a legal brief supporting Padilla.


Padilla is accused of plotting to detonate a "dirty bomb," which uses conventional explosives to disperse radioactive materials. The government said he had proposed the bomb plot to Abu Zubaydah, then al-Qaida's top terrorism coordinator. Zubaydah was arrested in Pakistan in March 2002.


Only two other people have been designated enemy combatants since the 2001 terrorist attacks: Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar who has been accused of being an al-Qaida sleeper agent, and Esam Hamdi, a Louisiana native captured during the fighting in Afghanistan (news - web sites).


In its ruling, the court said it was not addressing the detention of any U.S. citizens seized within a zone of combat in Afghanistan.

 

Should have titled this thread differently...

I hate the whole instant label of ‘conspiracy’ just because of the fact you want to discuss the fact the guys have a striking resemblance.

AFTERMATH OF TERROR

Conspiracy Buffs See Similarities
Between Jose Padilla, John Doe 2

By JAY KRALL and JONATHAN EIG
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy, Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln, and Terry Lynn Nichols had a wife named Padilla.

The latter bit of news has put conspiracy theorists on heightened alert.

For years, a small, devoted group has been trying to prove that the nation's second-deadliest terrorist attack -- on the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City -- was carried out not just by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols but also by a vast network of Muslim extremists.

Such claims won little attention, and even ardent advocates say they had all but given up the cause. But when Jose Padilla was accused of plotting to detonate a so-called dirty bomb and his photo appeared in newspapers and on television, members of a hard-core group of conspiracy theorists did double-takes.

"I thought, boy, he looks a lot like the John Doe 2 sketches," said Charles Key, a former state representative from Oklahoma who leads a private group called the Oklahoma Bombing Investigation Committee.

The FBI, which isn't taking these claims seriously, now says that John Doe 2 probably never existed. But he was once a prime suspect in the April 19, 1995, bombing when a Ryder truck filled with nearly 5,000 pounds of fertilizer and fuel oil blew up, killing 168 people.

Witnesses at the time said they remembered seeing two men at the Ryder truck-rental outlet in Junction City, Kan., where investigators traced the rented vehicle. Two men were also reportedly seen eating at a Denny's restaurant in Junction City five days before the attack. One of the men is believed to have been Mr. McVeigh. The other was never identified and never found.

John Doe 2 was the subject of an intensive manhunt. Authorities offered a $2 million reward on his head. The FBI described him as a white male in his late 20s or early 30s, about 5-foot-9 or 5-foot-10. His sketch, released by the FBI the day after the bombing, shows dark hair swept straight back, strong eyebrows, a square jaw and a powerful neck. Mr. Padilla, who is Hispanic, appears to have a more rounded jaw, but his other features closely match those of the sketch.

Still, FBI officials dismiss talk of any likeness. "We couldn't find any evidence to indicate there was a John Doe 2 despite what people were saying," said one FBI official. As for the Padilla link, he said, "You're kidding, right?"

Bryan Preston, a writer and TV producer in Towson, Md., was watching a call-in news show last week when a caller mentioned a resemblance between Mr. Padilla and John Doe 2. Mr. Preston dug up the old police sketch of John Doe 2 and posted it on his personal Web site. "I've never bought into conspiracy theories," Mr. Preston says, "but I can't help but thinking maybe there's more to the story here."

Since Mr. Padilla's arrest, others who suspect a connection have scoured the Internet, books about the bombing and media reports about Mr. Padilla for clues linking him to the Oklahoma City bombing. For some, the fact that Mr. Padilla, born in New York and raised in Chicago, appears to have been in the U.S. and out of jail at the time of the bombing is enough cause for suspicion. Some say they just don't believe Messrs. McVeigh and Nichols acted alone.

Mr. Key says members of his committee will soon begin asking witnesses who say they saw John Doe 2 to look at photos of Mr. Padilla. American Politics Journal posted the sketch and photos of Padilla to their Web site without comment. A spokesman for the political journal said the publication had no official position on the question, but placed the photos and sketches on their site for readers to draw their own conclusions.

In Tampa, Fla., radio talk-show host Glenn Beck noted the resemblance on his show last week and posted a story about it at his Web site asking listeners if they think Mr. Padilla could have been involved with the Oklahoma City bombing. Almost 70% said yes.

Stephen R. Jones, Mr. McVeigh's attorney, has spoken often of his attempts to prove his client was part of a broader conspiracy, although Mr. McVeigh himself denied it. While preparing their case, members of Mr. Jones's team traveled several times to the Philippines, where Mr. Nichols had visited, to research possible contacts he may have had with foreign terrorists, including associates of Osama bin Laden.

Mr. Jones says his client didn't cooperate in that investigation but that Mr. McVeigh was so adamant in refusing to point fingers that it raised Mr. Jones's suspicions. After his conviction, Mr. McVeigh reportedly told authors researching a book about the bombing that he planted the explosives to teach the government a lesson. Mr. McVeigh, who was executed on June 11, 2001, never named accomplices.

Then there's the detail that so tantalizes many conspiracy theorists: Lana Padilla is the former wife of Mr. Nichols, charged as Mr. McVeigh's accomplice and sentenced to life in prison.

Ms. Padilla laughed when a local television talk show called to ask her about the matching names. She says she's never met Jose Padilla and isn't related to him.

But she, too, believes there was a larger conspiracy at work. After the bombing, she gave police a letter she received in 1994 from Mr. Nichols before one of his trips to the Philippines. In the letter, she says, he suggested he was "afraid of something or somebody." Ms. Padilla speculates he was worried he might be harmed if he identified his co-conspirators.

The more she looks at the mug shots, the more intrigued she becomes. "At first I found it funny," she says. "Now I think we should investigate this."


http://www.okcbombing.org/News%20Articles/Padilla/padilla_wsj.htm