Testimony Begins in Padilla Terrorism Trial

Testimony Begins in Padilla Terrorism Trial

www.voanews.com

Prosecutors opened their case against Jose Padilla in a federal court house in Miami this week, five years after the alleged al-Qaida recruit was first detained by U.S. authorities.

They say one key piece of evidence is a form signed by Padilla to join a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. They called their first witnesses early Tuesday, an FBI agent and a CIA official who helped obtain the document from a source in Afghanistan.

Padilla is standing trial with two other men who are accused of operating a terrorist cell in south Florida which recruited people to fight alongside Islamic extremists in other countries. Defense attorneys say the men had no link to al-Qaida and only sought to aid Muslims who were being attacked in places like Chechnya and Kosovo in the 1990s.

Wake Forest University law professor Bobby Chesney says the jury trial, which is expected to last more than three months, may be a key test of recent efforts to strengthen U.S. anti-terrorism legislation. "It's an important case both as a question of the scope of criminal law in the terrorism context, and of course given the great amount of attention drawn by Jose Padilla. It's important politically as well," he said.

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Related News Links:
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www.cnn.com

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Who is Jose Padilla and why has be been in solitary for 3 years without charge?
WAR: White House Must Charge or Free Jose Padilla

After 5 years of waiting in solitary confinement without being charged and years of alleged torture and mistreatment, Jose Padilla finally had his first day in court today. The charges against him have been radically reduced and no mention is made of "dirty nuclear bombs". His defense attorneys say he has suffered mental problems from the mistreatment that he received in custody, making him unfit to stand trial. That petition was denied.

The trial is expected to last up to three months. Whether Padilla, himself, will testify is unknown at this point. I will do my best to file updates on the case as they occur. Stay tuned.

www.voanews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

One more person getting their gonads nailed to the wall so this administration will look like its doing something besides screwing everything up.

Remember when John asscrack couldn't wait to announce the news about Padilla... if I recall correctly they had cried wolf... no I am sorry it was raising and lowering the terror alert so many times no one believed them anymore so they had to come up with something and Padilla was it... after all they had failed to stop 9/11... they still haven't found the Anthrax killer (probably a White House operation) and they lost Bid Laden, and since then they've invaded and destroyed an uninvolved country and making a total mess of everything... time to change the subject.... try Padilla.

It's about time. Charges should have been filed immediately...

Whether or not he's guilty is almost irrelevant now. This was, and is, a travesty of justice. Justice would have been immediate trial, and a guilty or not guilty verdict.

Color me very unimpressed with this crap. The funny thing is, he'll get nothing even resembling time served. It'll be like they caught him yesterday...and the five years of solitary didn't even happen. I almost don't even care anymore whether or not he's guilty. Because if he wasn't before, he's an enemy of the state now. I would be...

Edited for spelling () errors.

[edit on 18-5-2007 by seagull]

edited to remove post to incorect forum thread.

[edit on 5/18/2007 by Mr. Fantasy]