Well it looks like the Bush administration is smearing our old friend Jose Padilla again. Part of the "5 Minute Hate", as I like to call it.
Let's examine the
mainstream media:
WASHINGTON - Jose Padilla, the former Chicago gang member held as a terrorism suspect for two years, sought to blow up hotels and apartment buildings in the United States in addition to planning an attack with a "dirty bomb" radiological device, the government alleged Tuesday.
The Justice Department, under pressure to explain its indefinite detention of Padilla, a U.S. citizen, as an "enemy combatant," detailed Padilla's alleged al-Qaida training in Afghanistan and contacts with the most senior members of the terrorist network, his travel back into the United States and preparations to rent apartments and set off explosives.
Deputy Attorney General James Comey called the chronicle of Padilla's plotting "remarkable for its scope, its clarity and its candor."
The department released documents, based in part on interviews with Padilla, saying he and an unidentified al-Qaida accomplice planned to find as many as three apartment buildings supplied with natural gas.
"Padilla and the accomplice were to locate as many as three high-rise apartment buildings which had natural gas supplied to the floors," the government summary of interrogations said. The alleged accomplice is in custody.
"They would rent two apartments in each building, seal all the openings, turn on the gas, and set timers to detonate the buildings simultaneously at a later time," the papers alleged.
Comey said Padilla suggested to his handlers that he detonate a nuclear bomb, which he thought he could make from instructions on the Internet, or that he set off a dirty bomb that would release deadly radiation in a small area. His handlers did not think either idea was feasible, Comey said, and wanted him to focus instead on the apartment building plot.
Top al-Qaida officials "wanted Padilla to hit targets in New York City, although Florida and Washington, D.C., were discussed as well," the summary said.
Lawyer cries foul
One of Padilla's attorneys, Andrew Patel, characterized Comey's information as "an opening statement without a trial. We are in the same position we've been in for two years, where the government says bad things about Mr. Padilla and there's no forum for him to defend himself."
The Supreme Court is deciding whether the war on terrorism gives the government power to seize Americans like Padilla and hold them without charges for as long as it takes to ensure that they are not a danger to the nation. Comey denied that the timing of the disclosure was an attempt to influence the court.
Comey said Padilla's partner in the attacks was to have been Adnan El Shukrijumah, one of seven suspected al-Qaida operatives who the Justice Department cited last week as planning attacks on the United States. Shukrijumah, a Saudi native nicknamed "Jafar the pilot," once lived in Florida and has been sought by federal authorities for more than a year.
While Comey said the two broke up the partnership because they could not get along, he said the information that had been learned from Padilla and others about Shukrijumah's role made his capture imperative.
"We need to find that guy," Comey said.
Comey said release of the information had no connection to criticism from some members of Congress and some administration officials that Attorney General John Ashcroft had overstated the threat from al-Qaida.
Rather, Comey said, he acted "because every place I went to speak, people would say, `We agree with you with the war on terror, but we've got a problem with this Padilla thing. I wish I knew more about it.' And I very much wanted people to know what I knew about Jose Padilla to address those questions."
Comey said at a news conference that when Padilla stepped off an airplane in Chicago in May 2002, he was a highly trained and fully equipped "soldier of our enemy" who had accepted his al-Qaida assignment to kill hundreds of innocent people in apartment buildings.
"We have decided to release this information to help people understand why we are doing what we are doing in the war on terror and to help people understand the nature of the threat we face," he said.
He asserted that if Padilla had been handled by the usual criminal justice system, he could have stayed silent and "would likely have ended up a free man."
Details of alleged plan
The information was provided in response to a query from Senate Justice Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Comey said it took significant time to compile the information and denied that the timing had anything to do with the court case.
"If it was done sooner, it would have been released sooner," he said.
Comey said there were no plans to file the information as an addendum to the arguments the administration made in the case. And he said there were no plans to use the material to try to seek a criminal indictment against Padilla.
Comey traced Padilla's alleged transition into a terrorist as beginning in earnest in March 2000, when he joined a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia and met an al-Qaida recruiter. Two months later, he met someone in Yemen who arranged training for him in the Afghan terrorist camps, Comey said.
He said Padilla signed an application joining al-Qaida in July 2000. During his training, Comey said, Padilla met senior al-Qaida officials including Abu Zubaydah, the network's operations chief in Afghanistan, and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Padilla's assignment was to conduct an Internet search on buildings that had natural gas heating, open a bank account and obtain documents needed to rent an apartment, the government said. The plot called for blowing up 20 buildings simultaneously, but Padilla allegedly said he could not rent multiple apartments under one identity without drawing attention.
Look... let me just say a few things here, ok? In the United States there are laws against certain behavior (armed robbery for example) and there are complimentary laws which make planning these kind of actions a crime as well. In Georgia it would be called "Criminal Attempt to Commit Armed Robbery". Guess what? It carries the same or nearly the same penalty as doing the actual crime itself. Attempted murder is the same as murder. Attempted armed robbery is the same as armed robbery. Got it?
So.. if they had evidence that Padilla was the most heinous criminal of all time, that he was going to blow up buildings or set off bombs or put terror juice in all the breakfasts served at the Waffle House or whatever else he is accused of doing, fine. Just charge him. It's called the law of the land, remember that? You get accused of a crime, then you get to hire a lawyer to defend yourself. You go to court, in front of a jury of your peers, and they decide your fate.
Am I missing something here? Is that not what the entire U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights is about? Why do we have people studying in law schools all over this nation, if there are no laws? What's the point? I mean why do the police even bother reading people their rights (Miranda warning) if they don't have any?
Now let's read a more balanced article, this time from a Canadian newspaper:
WASHINGTON -- Top al-Qaeda commanders approved a plot aimed at turning multiple apartment buildings in several U.S. cities into towering infernos, according to senior Justice Department officials who detailed the scheme yesterday in connection with the detention of Jose Padilla, who has been imprisoned for two years without charge.
Mr. Padilla, a Chicago native often referred to as "the dirty bomber" because of his alleged interest in detonating a radioactive device, originally attempted to win al-Qaeda approval to build and explode an improvised nuclear bomb, according to U.S. deputy attorney-general James Comey.
Details of the plot were outlined by Mr. Comey, but he offered no supporting evidence. None of the details could be confirmed and most apparently emerged from the nearly two years of interrogation Mr. Padilla has been subjected to at a South Carolina naval brig.
Mr. Padilla's lawyers challenged the government to charge him and suggested his alleged confession could not be trusted. Arrested in Chicago on May 8, 2002, Mr. Padilla is one of two U.S. citizens detained as "enemy combatants," a designation that strips them of their usual constitutional rights.
Mr. Comey denied there was any link between the government's abrupt decision to reveal some details of Mr. Padilla's alleged plot and the fact the Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on the legality of detaining U.S. citizens indefinitely without charge.
"We have decided to release this information to help people understand why we are doing what we're doing in the war on terror and to help people understand the nature of the threat we face," he said.
Mr. Comey added that if Mr. Padilla had been handled by the regular justice system, he could have remained silent and "would likely have ended up a free man."
Donna Newman, Mr. Padilla's court-appointed lawyer, denounced the government's decision to publicly lay out the alleged plot while still not charging Mr. Padilla with any crime.
"We have said from Day 1, 'Bring on a trial," said Ms. Newman, who was not allowed to speak with her client until this spring, when the government determined that nothing further could be extracted from him under interrogation.
Yesterday, she referred to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners as they awaited interrogation in Abu Ghraib prison and questioned whether Mr. Padilla's account could be trusted. "We no not know the conditions under which those admissions were made," she said.
According to Mr. Comey, senior al-Qaeda commanders were skeptical about Mr. Padilla's original plan to build a rudimentary nuclear bomb, or a so-called dirty bomb, which uses conventional explosives to contaminate an area with radioactive material.
Instead, Mr. Comey said, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Mohammed Atef, approved a plan in which Mr. Padilla was to "blow up apartment buildings in the United States with natural gas."
The plot involved renting one or two apartments in each building, sealing them, turning on gas feeds and then simultaneously detonating the buildings with timing devices. The plot called for blowing up 20 buildings, but Mr. Padilla allegedly said he could not rent multiple units without drawing attention.
Wow, did you hear this Comey guy? If he had been handled by the "regular justice system", he would have been a free man? I guess we don't need any more regular justice then do we? I wonder how Mr. Comey would like to be arrested in the dead of night and held for five years without charge and without access to a trial or a lawyer. Why not? No regular justice for him either!
This makes me sick. You know what? Somehow, every day, regular armed robbers, murderers, thieves, burglars, drug dealers and child molesters come into my office every day. And somehow the "regular justice system", which includes the right to remain silent, the right to have an attorney and the right to have a fair and speedy trial still works to convict these guys. How do we do it? I mean, we somehow stop crime without even torturing these people! Not once have I seen a hood on a suspect's head! How do we do it?
Why do we even celebrate the achievements and accomplishments of our soldiers during World War 2? Why did they fight? What is the point of sending men into armed combat against fascism if fascism isn't our enemy?
You make me sick James Comey. If Padilla is so awful, then charge him and have a trial and convict him according to the law and then you will have no stronger supporter than I. But don't give me this crap about blowing up apartment buildings. An illiterate could find an apartment with natural gas (it's easy, just ask the landlord on the phone!) and it isn't hard to make a rudimentary spark or open flame on a time delay. I could show you 50 websites that would teach you to do that. If Padilla or anyone else wanted to do it, they could have been doing it without one ounce of special training.
Since Mr. Comey has taken it upon himself to further smear Jose Padilla (an American citizen held for more than two years without charge), I thought I'd do a little exposé on Mr. Comey himself.
This man is the second in charge at the American Department of Justice. But what kind of a man are you, Mr. Comey?
Let's go to your official biography first:
On October 3, 2003, President George W. Bush nominated Jim Comey to serve as Deputy Attorney General, he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on December 9, 2003, and the President signed his commission on December 11, 2003. Prior to becoming Deputy Attorney General, Mr. Comey served as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from January 2002 to the time of his confirmation. From 1996 through 2001, Mr. Comey served as Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney in charge of the Richmond Division of the United States Attorney's office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Mr. Comey was educated at the College of William & Mary (B.S. with Honors 1982, Chemistry and Religion majors) and the University of Chicago Law School (J.D. 1985). After law school, he served as a law clerk for then-United States District Judge John M. Walker, Jr. in Manhattan, and worked for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in their New York Office. He next joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where he worked from 1987 to 1993, eventually serving as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division.
As an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, he handled the Khobar Towers terrorist bombing case, arising out of the June 1996 attack on a U.S. military facility in Saudi Arabia in which 19 Airmen were killed. He has personally investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of cases, including firearms, narcotics, major frauds, violent crime, public corruption, terrorism, and organized crime. In the Southern District of New York, he served as lead prosecutor in United States v. John Gambino et al., a six-month mafia racketeering and murder trial in 1993.
Hmmm... well that's an impressive Curriculum Vitae isn't it? Too bad it's missing some key information. But that's always the way it is, isn't it?
Let's review the American administration's 5 Minute Hate of an Egyptian student named Abdallah Higazy. Entire article is worth a read, but here are some excerpts:
In criminal court, a signed confession from the accused is practically a guarantee of a guilty verdict.
How could someone possibly admit to a crime he did not commit? He could if he was subjected to today's highly developed interrogation techniques -- so effective that even the innocent can succumb.
If you're convinced you'd never crack, take a look at the case of Abdallah Higazy, a 30-year-old student from Cairo who came to the United States in late summer of 2001. Correspondent Morley Safer reports.
On the morning of Sept. 11, Higazy was asleep in a room that had been assigned to him [by his school] at the Millennium Hilton in downtown Manhattan, right across the street from the World Trade Center.
The Hilton was evacuated and he made his way out of Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge, along with thousands of New Yorkers trying to escape the carnage. Months later, when he was finally told he could come to the hotel to retrieve his belongings, he was asked to verify a list of contents found in his room.
"And the second subject on the list just caught my eye: radio scanner. I said, `Excuse me, sir. This isn't mine,'" recalls Higazy. "Three gentlemen in suits walk up to me and said, `Excuse me, sir. My name is Agent so-and-so from the FBI. Would you mind answering a few questions?'"
The FBI agents asked Higazy about an aviation transceiver that they said was found locked in the safe of his room on top of a copy of the Koran. It was a radio that could have been used to communicate with the terrorists on the doomed aircraft.
"Just hearing that scared the living daylights out of me," says Higazy. "It could have been used ... All I could say was, `The device is not mine. I never saw it before. I don't know anything about it.' They told me, `We're sorry, but we're putting you under arrest.'"
Higazy was arrested as a material witness for the 9/11 investigation. He was read his rights and taken to the New York headquarters of the FBI, where he was questioned. He offered to take a lie detector test. So after 10 days in solitary confinement, an FBI agent arrived and hooked him up to the polygraph.
"All I said was, `I'm just gonna say the truth. And this device is gonna show him that I am saying the truth.' Unfortunately, the agent threatened me," says Higazy. "He said it like this: `If you do not cooperate, the FBI will make your brother upstate live in scrutiny. And we'll make sure Egyptian security gives your family hell.' That's exactly how he said it."
The FBI would not discuss the case. An internal investigation into Higazy's allegations concluded there was no evidence the agent had acted improperly.
As the polygraph continued, Higazy says, he began to panic: "I just couldn't breathe. I could hear my heart beat in my head. I started saying, `OK, the options are if I say I don't know anything about this device, I'm screwed and so is my family. If I say I know something about the device, it'll be I lied, I'm screwed, but at least my family will be safe.' And I said, `OK, the device is mine.'"
The FBI had its confession, and Higazy spent three more weeks in solitary confinement. He was preparing for a court appearance with a court-appointed lawyer when he was led to an office where, to his amazement, he was told: "You could leave now."
"I said, `I'm sorry?' He said, `You could leave now. You were the guy with the radio?' I said, `Yes.' He said, `The real owner came and asked for the radio,'" recalls Higazy.
It turned out the radio did not belong to Higazy. It belonged to a pilot who was also staying at the hotel on Sept 11. When the pilot went to retrieve his belongings, the FBI realized they had the wrong man. A hotel security guard later admitted he lied about finding the radio in the safe in Higazy's room.
Higazy is now suing the hotel, members of its staff, and the FBI agent he says threatened him.
Ok, so an Arab student was legitimately staying at a hotel near the World Trade Centers were attacked. Weeks and weeks and weeks later (in other words, months), Mr. Higazy shows up to claim his belongings. At this point the FBI has already found the transmitter and believes it is Higazy's. We'll assume for a minute that this is an honest mistake.
If Higazy was a terrorist and used the radio for some terrorist purpose, why would he come back for it months and months later? That's a clue right away that you've got the wrong guy. Then later we find out that a hotel security guard lied about finding the radio in Higazy's room. Which security guard? What is his name? If he lied during an FBI investigation, shouldn't he face criminal charges? Has he been indicted or arrested for this? Guess not.
As for the FBI's "internal investigation" which cleared themselves from any wrongdoing (how convenient), you will find the name missing from the CBS article I just quoted: James Comey. That's right. He was the lead prosecutor in this "case". The sanctimonious bastard thinks its ok to threaten people into confessing to crimes they didn't commit, use mendacious testimony to frame them, and hold them indefinitely in solitary confinement without charging them.
Wait a second, that's just what he did to Jose Padilla! Only for a lot longer amount of time than poor Mr. Higazy. So if the FBI and Comey got Higazy to falsely confess to a crime in less than three weeks, don't you think they could get something similar out of Padilla after two years?
By the way, Comey tried to repress the facts surrounding this case and only capitulated after being sued. Just goes to show you what kind of a bastard he is.
Mr. Comey sir I've got my eye on you. You better hope you don't have other dirt under your carpet because I'd sure love to see YOU sitting in solitary confinement for three weeks (or three years) for a crime you didn't commit. Might even drive you crazy enough to convert to Islam, eh?
Nah... but it's an interesting thought.
Peace
-Soj