http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/11/16/padilla.appeal/index.htmlThe point I'm making here is the checks and balances are working.... the Rigth Extremists (neo Cons, Bush Administration)... are not ALWAYS right... even though they mean well by their intentions to "protect" America against terrorists... they've gone a little too far outside of the law... and the courts are checking their actions to ensure they are constitutional....
'Dirty bomb' suspect appeals detention
U.S. citizen has been held since June 2002 as enemy combatant
From Phil Hirschkorn
and Deborah Feyerick
CNN New York Bureau
Monday, November 17, 2003 Posted: 5:34 AM EST (1034 GMT)
Jose Padilla
Attorneys for 'dirty bomb' suspect Jose Padilla will challenge the validity of his detention as an enemy combatant before a federal appeals court. CNN's Deborah Feyerick reports (November 17)
• Padilla's Amended Petition (June 19, 2002)
• Pres. Bush's order naming Padilla an 'enemy combatant'
• Opinion (Holding that Padilla can meet with lawyers)
• Order Certifying Interlocutory Appeal (Padilla v. Rumsfeld)
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Attorneys for "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla will challenge the validity of his detention as an enemy combatant before a federal appeals court Monday.
It is the latest legal battle over how far the Bush administration can go in holding suspects as it fights the war on terror.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear two hours of oral arguments starting at 10 a.m.
Padilla, 32, an American citizen, was arrested May 8, 2002, at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, after a flight from Pakistan.
Attorney General John Ashcroft accused Padilla of plotting with al Qaeda terrorists to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" inside the United States. A "dirty bomb" uses conventional explosives to disperse radiological material.
A month after Padilla's arrest, President Bush designated him an "enemy combatant," which means the military can hold him indefinitely without bringing him to trial or giving him access to a lawyer.
Since then, he has been in a Navy bring in Charleston, South Carolina.
Bush's declaration transferring Padilla to military custody said the suspect "represents a continuing, present and grave danger to the national security of the United States."
Padilla has never been charged with a crime, and the government has blocked his lawyers from having access to him.
"He's hasn't been allowed to defend himself. That's what we do in America. We give people -- no matter what they're accused of -- we give them their day in court," said Andrew Patel, one of Padilla's attorneys.
"Never before in our history has an American president claimed the power to be able to detain without charge and indefinitely an American citizen in a civilian setting," Patel said. War on terrorism
The government justifies its treatment of Padilla as part of the war on terrorism that followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
"The capture and detention of enemy combatants is critical to preventing additional attacks on the United States, aiding ongoing military operations and obtaining vital intelligence in advancement of the war effort," said U.S. Attorney James Comey and Deputy Solicitor General Paul Clement in their brief to the appeals court.
Padilla, a Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican, served time as a juvenile for murder in Illinois and for a gun possession charge in Florida before moving in 1998 to Egypt, where he took the name Abdullah al Muhajir.
Over the next three years, Padilla traveled to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, prosecutors say.
They say that in Pakistan and Afghanistan he underwent explosives training with al Qaeda and met with some of the group's senior operatives, including Abu Zubaydah, who was captured in early 2002.
Multiple intelligence sources, including Abu Zubaydah, provided information that Padilla discussed the dirty bomb plot and bombings of U.S. hotels and gas stations, according to the government.
U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey decided in December that Bush's action was constitutionally within his powers as commander in chief --
provided evidence existed to support the claim that Padilla was a danger to national security,
But Mukasey also ruled Padilla ought to be able to contest that evidence through his attorneys. The government appealed that part of the ruling and
has continued to deny Padilla's lawyers access to their client. [NOTE: the US GOVERNMENT is disobeying a lawful COURT ORDER]The government also contends the case should be heard in South Carolina, rather than New York, because that is where Padilla is detained.
Similar cases
In a similar case, a federal judge in Illinois agreed with that argument, saying attorneys for prisoner Ali Saleh al-Marri, from Qatar, must challenge his detention in South Carolina.
Defense attorneys for al-Marri appealed the ruling to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago last week.
Al-Marri was originally charged with credit card fraud and making false statements to FBI agents.
He was moved to military custody two weeks before he was scheduled to stand trial in Peoria, Illinois, after al Qaeda captives said al-Marri was helping the group's operatives enter the United States, the government says.
Another case similar to Padilla's is that of Yaser Hamdi, an Afghanistan battlefield captive who holds both U.S. and Saudi citizenship and was the first domestic prisoner declared an enemy combatant.
Hamdi -- initially transferred to the base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and now held in South Carolina -- has been detained for nearly two years without access to lawyers.
The 4th U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, ruled that Bush's treatment of Hamdi could not be challenged,
but the U.S. Supreme Court is considering the case. In Padilla's case, a number of ideologically varied public interest groups are siding with him before the appeals court.
"No congressional action justified this lawless entry, seizure or incommunicado detention," said a brief jointly submitted by the Cato Institute, the Rutherford Institute, People for the American Way and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. The groups object to the expansion of presidential military power off the battlefield, such as Padilla's arrest in Chicago and incarceration in New York.
