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The guerrilla legal campaign against national security suffered a big defeat this week, and the good news deserves more attention. The victory for legal sanity came Monday when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision to toss out a suit brought by aspiring terrorist Jose Padilla against a slew of Bush Administration officials. Readers may remember that Padilla was arrested in 2002 for plotting to set off a dirty bomb on U.S. soil. He was detained as an enemy combatant, convicted in a Miami court and sentenced to 17 years in prison. But Padilla has been...

Binyam Mohamed is back in the news. You may remember him as the al-Qaeda operative who was slated to help would-be “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla conduct a second wave of post-9/11 attacks, targeting American cities. You also may not remember him. After all, the Obama administration quietly released him without charges. Well, there’s a new chapter in this sordid tale. Mohamed is living large — taxpayer-funded large — in Great Britain. For that, we can thank the Lawyer Left’s stubborn insistence that enemy war criminals are really run-of-the-mill defendants. Actually, make that run-of-the-mill plaintiffs. Unlike Padilla, who actually got into...

Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen, former gang member, and designated enemy combatant who was sentenced to 17 years in prison, is mounting an aggressive appeal. The oral arguments on October 26 in Richmond’s Fourth Circuit will strike at the heart of the Constitution. Padilla brought a lawsuit against former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld and other high-ranking officials, alleging he was illegally detained and tortured in the military brig after his 2002 arrest. That suit, which has been described as “lawfare” or exacting personal and financial “flesh” from an opponent, was dismissed last February by a federal judge in Charleston,...

A federal appeals court has thrown out the 17-year prison sentence imposed on convicted terrorism plotter Jose Padilla. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the sentence imposed by a Miami federal judge was too lenient. The appeals court sent the case back for a new sentencing hearing.

The modern-day John Adams brigade down at King & Spalding has finally found a client too unpopular to merit representation: the American people. That is exactly the same conclusion drawn by Eric Holder’s Justice Department. Like the DOJ, the Atlanta-based white-shoe law firm asks “How high?” when left-wing agitators tell it to jump. In this instance, the agitators were gay-rights activists. They were in a snit because K&S — in particular, K&S partner Paul Clement, the former Bush-administration solicitor general — agreed to represent the American people in litigation involving challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). DOMA denies...

On Feb. 18, a federal judge in South Carolina on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by an American citizen who said he was illegally detained and tortured in a military jail after being convicted of terrorism conspiracy.

There's been a years-long multi-front attack on John Yoo - now a professor of law at Berkeley - for his war-related legal opinions while he was at the Justice Department during the Bush administration. Activists have tried - and so far failed - to boot Yoo from his position at Berkeley, but they still disrupt his classes, and protest at his house & publicize his address. The threat of criminal charges against Yoo was finally dropped, after years of leaks from Democrat hacks at the Department of Justice, intended to damage Mr. Yoo's reputation. But there's still an ongoing civil...

During the Iran-Contra hearings of 1985, Americans were treated to brilliant National Security Advisor John Poindexter. Although everyone who had ever spent time with Poindexter agreed that he had a computer-like memory, he answered the same way to seemingly every question put to him by the boozy likes of Senator Ted Kennedy. "I don't recall," could have been Poindexter's nickname, and it was likely untrue. Later, in 1991 Poindexter was convicted for, among other things, obstruction of justice and perjury. Later, these convictions were overturned. At least Poindexter was a senior naval officer who was acting in the interests of...

A convicted terrorist can sue a former Bush administration lawyer for drafting the legal theories that led to his alleged torture, ruled a federal judge has ruled who said he was trying to balance a clash between war and the defense of personal freedoms.

A convicted terrorist can sue a former Bush administration lawyer for drafting the legal theories that led to his alleged torture, ruled a federal judge who said he was trying to balance a clash between war and the defense of personal freedoms. The order by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White of San Francisco is the first time a government lawyer has been held potentially liable for the abuse of detainees.

Jose Padilla is sentenced to 17 years By CURT ANDERSON, AP Legal Affairs Writer 5 minutes ago Jose Padilla, once accused of plotting with al-Qaida to blow up a radioactive "dirty bomb," was sentenced Tuesday to 17 years and four months on terrorism conspiracy charges that don't mention those initial allegations. The sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke marks another step in the extraordinary personal and legal odyssey for the 37-year-old Muslim convert, a U.S. citizen who was held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant after his 2002 arrest amid the "dirty bomb" allegations. He had...

MIAMI (AFP) - Jose Padilla, a US citizen convicted of supporting the Al Qaeda terror network, could face anywhere from decades to a lifetime behind bars, a federal judge said on Tuesday. Judge Marcia Cooke rejected defense claims that Padilla, 37, and two co-conspirators had not commited any actual act of terrorism. She ruled that a special provision for stiffer penalties applied and that the three could each face prison sentences of 30 years to life. Before Cooke delivers sentence, probably later this week, lawyers for the two sides will present their arguments for sentencing. The prosecutors want Padilla, Adham...

John Yoo can be forgiven if he's having second thoughts about his career choice. A Yale Law School graduate, the Berkeley professor of law went on to serve his country at the Justice Department. Yet last week he was sued by convicted terrorist Jose Padilla and his mother, who are represented by none other than lawyers at Yale. Perhaps if Mr. Yoo had decided to pursue a life of terrorism, he too could be represented by his alma mater. Padilla is the American citizen who was arrested in 2002, and detained as an "enemy combatant" in a military brig in...

BOSTON— The jury in the case of three officers of a defunct Muslim charity listened yesterday to wiretaps in U.S. District Court in which two of the defendants spoke to two men who subsequently were convicted with Jose Padilla on terrorism conspiracy charges. However, when jury members heard Emadeddin Z. Muntasser and Samir Al-Monla, successive presidents of Care International from 1993 through 1998, talk to Kifah Jayoussi and Adham Hassoun, they were not told that Mr. Jayoussi and Mr. Hassoun are awaiting sentencing in federal court in Miami after having been convicted with Mr. Padilla.... The jury has been told...

MIAMI -- Attorneys for convicted terrorism conspirator Jose Padilla say he was so badly mistreated by the government during 3 1/2 years in military custody that he deserves far less than the life prison sentence sought by federal prosecutors. A sentencing hearing set to begin this week for Padilla was postponed Tuesday until Jan. 7 because of a death in the judge's family... In court filings, attorneys for Padilla also say U.S. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke should look at whether the U.S. citizen would be more harshly punished than other terrorism suspects, and should take into consideration the conditions...

They're called the Latino American Dawah Organization, or LADO for short.

Abdullah Al-Muhajir, a.k.a. Jose Padilla, was convicted Thursday of supporting terrorist activity and, said Associated Press, “conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas.” At the Leftist website Daily Kos, Padilla was hailed as an “American Martyr to ‘War on Terror,’” and his trial was compared to the witch hysteria: “As was the case during the witch trials of yesteryear, only the socially unpopular, the mentally ill, and the politically dangerous end up at the end of a noose or in yet another bonfire of political vanity.” The barely literate posting went on to complain that the case against Padilla...

After a three-month trial, a federal jury convicted home-grown terrorist Jose Padilla (AKA Abdullah al-Muhajir or Muhajir Abdullah) of terrorism conspiracy charges. Padilla and co-defendants Adham Hassoun, a Palestinian born in Lebanon, and Kifah Jayyousi, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Jordan, were found guilty of one count of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim overseas, one count of conspiracy to provide material support for terrorists and one count of material support for terrorists.Opponents of the Bush administration’s policy of treating terrorists as enemy combatants rather than common criminals, point to the verdict as "proof" that convictions can be obtained while...

Oh, what a grave injustice! A martyr has been sacrificed on the altar of the fascistic Bush Regime. As all good progressives know, Jose Padilla could not have aided Islamic terrorists because they simply do not exist. The War on Terrorism is just a bumper sticker slogan. No terrorists exist EXCEPT for the U.S. government which, as all good 9/11 Truthers know, was behind the events of that day. Those passenger jets flying into the Twin Towers? Ha! You really believe the propaganda that they caused the destruction? As that world famous metallurgist, Rosie O'Donnell, has told us, fire...

MIAMI - The defense rested its case Tuesday in the trial of Jose Padilla and two other men charged with supporting terrorism, with Padilla's lawyers calling no witnesses or putting on any evidence. After the defense rested, prosecutors called only one additional witness and then ended their case, earlier than had been anticipated. The actions, coming on day 53 of the trial, clear the way for closing arguments, likely next week. Jurors could begin deliberations next week as well. Padilla, 36, is accused along with Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, both 45, of participating in a support network...

MIAMI - A federal judge refused Tuesday to acquit Jose Padilla and two co-defendants on terrorism support charges, clearing the way for defense lawyers to begin presenting their case this week. U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, ruling after a daylong hearing, said the evidence and testimony offered by the prosecuton over the past nine weeks was enough proof to let a jury decide the men's guilt or innocence. "That is something the jurors will have to find," Cooke said. The trial is expected to last well into August. Padilla, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi face possible life in...

MIAMI - Federal prosecutors rested their case Friday against Jose Padilla and two co-defendants charged with participating in an al-Qaida support cell. The jury has listened to nearly nine weeks of testimony from 22 witnesses and tapes of dozens of FBI wiretaps collected during an investigation that lasted years. Defense lawyers for Padilla, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi will begin their case next week, with the trial likely to continue into August. Padilla, a 36-year-old U.S. citizen, was originally accused of plotting with al-Qaida to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb." He was arrested in May 2002 at Chicago's...

MIAMI - Jose Padilla gave evasive or vague answers about his activities in the Middle East shortly after arriving at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in May 2002, an FBI agent testified Thursday at his trial on a charge of supporting terrorism. Padilla did not remember the address or telephone number for his wife and children in Egypt, or the last name of his roommate, agent Russell Fincher said. In contrast, Padilla remembered many details of his life growing up in Chicago, including specific streets where his family lived, Fincher said. He also was carrying documents with other personal information such...

I always wondered if Timothy McVaigh really was the one who did the whole thing. While talking to some friends about this one mentioned there has been some work done here and some published articles about a possible Muslim connection.

MIAMI - The federal judge in Jose Padilla's terrorism support trial refused to declare a mistrial Thursday after at least one juror saw one of Padilla's co-defendants in shackles outside the courtroom. Attorneys for Adham Amin Hassoun said his right to a fair trial had been jeopardized, but U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke said after interviewing jurors that none had been "unfairly prejudiced in this matter." On Tuesday, the 16 jurors were being transported in government vans from the courthouse's basement garage to their cars. As one of the vans was leaving, three deputy U.S. marshals escorted Hassoun through the...

Years before three of the Sept. 11 hijackers set up shop in this corner of the country, a group of Muslim extremists in San Diego was raising money and recruiting fighters for a worldwide holy war, according to federal records and testimony that unfolded last week in a Miami courtroom. As early as 1993, the FBI was wiretapping at least two San Diego men who agents suspected were members of a “sleeper cell” plotting terror strikes across the globe. The government also was tracking money transfers and cash deposits to a series of nonprofit organizations run by the suspects, Mohammed...

MIAMI - An FBI agent testified Thursday in the trial of suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla that members of an alleged Islamic extremist support network talked in code, substituting words like "tourism" and "football" for "jihad." The agent, John T. Kavanaugh, said participants suspected they were being overheard by government officials and urged one another not to openly discuss sensitive matters over the phone. "They believed they were not the only people listening to the telephone calls. It was said explicitly," Kavanaugh said. Among the most common code words, he said, was "tourism" in place of "jihad" — an Arabic...

MIAMI - A federal judge refused Friday to toss out FBI wiretap evidence in the Jose Padilla terrorism support case, rejecting an attempt by defense attorneys to prevent jurors from hearing conversations about Osama bin Laden and other well-known Islamic extremist leaders. U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke ruled the two dozen telephone intercepts that drew objections from defense attorneys were relevant to the case. Cooke also rejected defense assertions that invoking bin Laden's name would make Padilla and his two co-defendants appear more guilty in the jury's eyes. "The mere fact that a name is mentioned, in and of itself,...

MIAMI - The FBI intercepted more than 300,000 calls during a nearly decade-long investigation into a purported Islamic extremist support cell that suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla eventually joined, an agent told jurors Tuesday. The tapes form the backbone of the federal case against Padilla and his two suspected co-conspirators, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi. Jurors in the trial of the three men are expected to begin hearing the tapes and reading translations from Arabic to English in the coming days. Prosecutors say they will show that Hassoun, Jayyousi and others plotted — often using code words —...

MIAMI - The trial plays out with no fanfare. This is not the stuff of O.J. Simpson or Anna Nicole Smith. Yet there has never been a U.S. criminal defendant quite like suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla. Padilla is a U.S. citizen on trial for allegedly joining a support cell for Islamic extremists. The government was forced to prosecute him even though it would have preferred to lock him up without trial. Prosecutors also had to drop allegations that Padilla planned to set off a radioactive "dirty" bomb. Legal experts say his case could have long-lasting legal implications for the...

MIAMI - A convicted terrorist testified Friday that he prepared for jihad at an al-Qaida training camp that prosecutors said was attended by Jose Padilla, one of three men being tried on charges of supporting Islamic extremists. Yahya Goba, a 30-year-old Yemeni-American, said in federal court that he filled out a "mujahedeen data form" identical to the one allegedly completed by Padilla for the remote al-Farooq camp outside Kandahar, Afghanistan. While at the camp in summer 2001, Goba said, he learned about war tactics, plastic explosives and weapons such as AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades and handguns. After the six-week course, Goba...

MIAMI - A covert CIA officer who was permitted to testify wearing a disguise and using an alias described in court Tuesday how U.S. officials in Afghanistan obtained a truckload of al-Qaida documents, including a form later linked to suspected operative Jose Padilla. The officer, whose true identity is classified, gave his name as Tom Langston. He appeared in court with a beard and glasses, although the nature of the disguise was not obvious or made public. Prosecutors declined to say whether any concealment was even used. The arrangement was approved by U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke at the request...

Here is a key piece of evidence in the case against American-born Jose Padilla, whose federal trial begins Monday in Miami — an Al Qaeda job application form. (Click here to read an English translation of the Al Qaeda application, as well as the original Arabic.) The application — obtained by ABC News' Law & Justice Unit — provides a window into a highly sophisticated organization with a corporate structure that resembles that of large American companies. "It's a membership application — just the way you or I would fill out an application for a credit card company,'' said Jack...

MIAMI - The trial of suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla opened Monday with federal prosecutors arguing the U.S. citizen and two co-defendants were key players in a terror support cell that provided equipment, money and Islamist fighters to extremist groups around the world. "The defendants were members of a secret organization, a terrorism support cell, based right here in South Florida," Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier told jurors in his opening statement. "The defendants took concrete steps to support and promote this violence." Lawyers for the three defendants were scheduled to deliver their opening statements later Monday in the trial,...

MIAMI (Reuters) - Five years after the U.S. attorney general announced on live television that Jose Padilla was a "known terrorist" plotting to set off a radioactive bomb, a federal court must find a jury willing to presume he is innocent. The "dirty bomber" allegation made by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft when Padilla was arrested in 2002 never showed up in the formal charges brought against him after he had spent 3 1/2 years jailed in a military brig. But Padilla's lawyers fear the stigma could taint jurors' view of the 36-year-old American whose trial begins on Monday. "If you...

MIAMI, (AP) -- A federal judge refused to dismiss the terrorism support charges against alleged al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla on Friday, rejecting defense claims that his 3 1/2 years in custody as an enemy combatant violated his constitutional right to a speedy trial. U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke agreed with prosecutors that Padilla's years in isolation at a Navy brig did not count because he had not yet been charged. The criminal charges came when Padilla was added to an existing Miami terrorism support indictment in November 2005. Only then did the clock start for the Sixth Amendment's right to...

Prosecutors Want CIA Agent to Testify in Disguise in Trial of Terror Suspects MIAMI Mar 22, 2007 (AP)— The CIA wants an agent to testify in disguise and use a fake name at an upcoming terror trial to protect his identity and secret agency locations in Afghanistan, according to court documents filed Thursday. The agent's get-up would involve "a wig, eyeglasses or minor facial hair" but would not block others in the courtroom for the trial of Jose Padilla from assessing the agent's "demeanor and credibility," federal prosecutors said in their filing. If U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke grants the...

Jose Padilla was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1970, the son of Puerto Rican immigrants. He was a troubled youth, joining a street gang when the family moved to Chicago, and was once jailed for aggravated assault. After serving his sentence, he converted to Islam and professed non-violence. He went to the Masjid Al-Iman mosque in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and worked for a charity suspected of Islamist terror ties. He visited Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Returning to Chicago on May 8, 2002, Padilla was arrested and held under a warrant related to the 9/11 attacks. A...

Emotional reactions to this New York Times story by Deborah Sontag, which ran Sunday: Video Is a Window Into a Terror Suspect’s Isolation. The photo, from a prison video, is haunting: 'Enemy Combatant' Jose Padilla, shackeled and fitted with sensory-depriving goggles and headphones. FOR A TRIP TO THE DENTIST. The videotape of that trip to the dentist, which was recently released to Mr. Padilla’s lawyers and viewed by The New York Times, offers the first concrete glimpse inside the secretive military incarceration of an American citizen whose detention without charges became a test case of President Bush’s powers in the...

At a Thanksgiving dinner party one of the guests surprised me with the vehemence of his objection to recent Congressional action which authorized military commissions for the trying of certain Islamic terrorists. It surprised me because he was quite conservative in some of the other views he expressed that day. His complaint was that this authorization endangered his constitutional rights in general and that these powers would be abused. Like so many other people who are not really paying attention, my dinner companion is not aware of several important points:

Federal prosecutors have asked an appeals court to reinstate a key terrorism charge against alleged al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla, contending a judge erred in finding that it duplicated other counts in the same indictment. Padilla and two co-defendants are charged with being part of a North American support cell that provided money, supplies and recruits to Islamic extremists worldwide. Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was held for 3 1/2 years without charge as an "enemy combatant," originally accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a U.S. city. The pleading filed with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Criminal charges against accused al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla should be thrown out because of "outrageous government conduct" during his 3 1/2-year detention in a South Carolina Navy brig, Padilla's defense lawyers say. "The government's conduct vis-a-vis Mr. Padilla is a stain on this nation's character, and through its illegal conduct, the government has forfeited its right to prosecute Mr. Padilla," his lawyers said in a legal motion filed this week. In two additional motions, the lawyers argue the case should be dismissed because the government took too much time between arresting Padilla and charging him. They...

WASHINGTON A federally funded California nonprofit that gives legal help to Central Valley farmworkers and others violated federal prohibitions against political behavior, soliciting clients and other activities, an inspector general's report said Thursday. The report was requested by Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of Tulare, who's been critical of California Rural Legal Assistance and also of the federal Legal Services Corporation that funds it. The report found that California Rural Legal Assistance, which claims to provide free legal help to 20,000 poor rural Californians each year, apparently flouted congressional reforms blocking actions like lobbying and advocacy, getting involved in class-action litigation...

CIA operatives taking over the interrogation of captured top al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah [BBC News backgrounder] from FBI agents in 2002 had him stripped, exposed to extreme cold and subjected to loud rock music in an effort to extract sensitive information, the New York Times reported Sunday.

June 24— The Qatari man designated an enemy combatant by the Bush administration was planning another Sept. 11 attack, sources told ABCNEWS. Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri, 37, was deemed an enemy combatant by the Bush administration on Monday after officials said he was positively identified by an al Qaeda detainee as being part of a planned second wave of terror attacks on the United States. Government officials said they believed al Qaeda's top leadership sent Al-Marri to the United States to coordinate a new round of attacks. "Al-Marri was sent to the United States as a facilitator for other al...

Revelations in the Peoria Journal Star earlier this week that the Peoria/Champaign area is one of seven in the United States on a terrorist “circuit” were frightening. “Terrorists enter the United States in San Francisco and Los Angeles, then move to Phoenix, then Denver," reported Phil Luciano of the PJS. "From there some head to Peoria and Champaign. Some terrorists remain in those communities, while others head on to New York City" (emphasis added). Luciano was provided this information by Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy, who received it at a recent FBI conference held in Springfield. Names of larger cities...

MIAMI - Amid tight security, alleged al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla is being permitted to personally view U.S. government secrets in advance of his trial on charges of conspiring to wage and support international terrorism. ADVERTISEMENT Under a federal judge's order, Padilla is being allowed to examine classified documents and videotapes detailing his statements during 3 1/2 years in Defense Department custody as an unlawful "enemy combatant." That designation was dropped last fall when he was charged in a Miami terrorism case. Defense lawyers in terrorism cases are regularly permitted to examine such classified material if they obtain government security clearances.

Ammar al-Baluchi, once considered a bit player, is alleged to have served as trainer and banker for several of the hijackers. Until recently, Ammar al-Baluchi was considered a peripheral player in Al Qaeda, a functionary who made travel arrangements and wired money for terrorists. But new government disclosures place Baluchi in a larger role in the Sept. 11 preparations and rank him No. 4 among the conspirators captured by U.S. forces after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Indeed, investigators say he was instrumental in acquiring a Boeing 747 flight simulator and a Boeing 767 flight-deck video for the hijackers to practice...

"Trust the president." That was the Bush administration's main defense of the president's bizarre choice of corporate lawyer Harriet Miers for a seat on the Supreme Court. But the administration also had a backup rationale: as D.C.'s Hill newspaper reported, in an October 3, 2005, conference call with conservative leaders, Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman stressed "the need to confirm a justice who will not interfere with the administration's management of the war on terrorism." It was a bit unsettling to hear that proposition stated so baldly, but no one who has followed the administration's drive to expand executive...

What Christians should do regarding illegal immigration has been an ongoing debate for a long time. Recently, Christianity was entered into the debate over immigration bills being worked on in the US Congress by Senator Hillary Clinton. Hillary basically advanced the argument that opposing illegal immigration is "un-Christian" and claimed that such enforcement would be the same as making the Good Samaritan and Jesus criminals. Missing from Hillary's comments were quotes from the Bible. While immigration from Mexico is of course not mentioned, there are issues that illegal immigration bring up that are mentioned in the Bible. 1. Taxes Matthew...