Tag: Jose Padilla

Jose Padilla has been shipped to Supermax in Florence, Colorado, known as Alcatraz of the Rockies. He'll be joining Ted Kaczinski, Eric Rudolph, Zacarias Moussaoui, Richard "shoe bomber" Reid, OKC conspirator Terry Nichols and others. Padilla was convicted in August and sentenced to 17 years. He's got 13 years left.

Padilla attorney Michael Caruso said in an e-mail Friday that Supermax is "a living hell" where inmates spend most days in 7-foot-by-12-foot cells and have little contact with the outside world. Caruso noted that others convicted of supporting terrorism, such as the "Lackawanna Six" group in upstate New York, were not sent to the nation's toughest prison.

Caruso called the decision "yet another example of Jose being treated differently and in a more punitive fashion than others who have been accused of similar crimes. I genuinely fear that Jose's mental health will erode to an even greater degree."

More on the life awaiting Padilla at Supermax below:

Congrats to Michigan lawyer Bill Swor, lead counsel for Jose Padilla co-defendant Kifah Jayyousi. (Background on Jayysousi here and here.)

In yesterday's sentencing decision, the Judge found the terrorism enhancements applied to his sentencing guidelines, raising them to a range of 30 years to life. Bill had presented the defense sentencing case and the Judge ultimately departed downward and imposed a sentence of 12 years and 8 months.

Another mild rebuke to the Bush fear and terror machine.

In a blow to the Bush Administration which sought a life sentence, a Miami federal judge today sentenced Jose Padilla to 17 years, 4 months.

The judge factored in Padilla's "harsh" sentencing conditions.

'I do find the [prison] conditions were so harsh that they warranted conditions for sentencing in this case,'' Cooke told a crowded courtroom of attorneys, family members and media.

Jose Padilla has sued 59 goverment officials, including Donald Rumsfeld, over his mistreatment during his confinement in the S.C. military brig. His primary claim: psychological torture.

He's not doing it for the money: He's only asking for $1.00 damages from each official:

"Mr. Padilla suffered gross physical and psychological abuse at the hands of federal officials as part of a scheme of abusive interrogation intended to break down Mr. Padilla's humanity and his will to live," the 30-page complaint says.

"The grave violations suffered by Padilla were not isolated occurrences by rogue lower-level officials," the suit says. Besides Mr. Rumsfeld, it names Defense Secretary Robert Gates, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, and former Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lowell Jacoby, among others, who "personally ordered and/or approved Mr. Padilla's detention and interrogation program."

Related: Lindsay of Majikthise has a new article in In These Times, Perverse Justice, questioning whether detainees who are subjected to long periods of extreme isolation can receive a fair trial.

Bump and Update: Deliberations begin Wednesday in the trial of Jose Padilla and his co-defendants.

Here are the jury instructions (pdf), made available on PACER Tuesday.

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Defense Closing Arguments in Jose Padilla Trial

Lawyers for accused terrorism supporters Jose Padilla and co-defendant Kifah Wael Jayyousi gave their closing arguments today.

Shorter version from Jose Padilla's lawyer: He was a student, not a terrorist. As to the mujahedeen form with Padilla's fingerprints:

The critical piece of prosecution evidence is a "mujahedeen data form" Padilla allegedly filled out in July 2000 to attend an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan. The form bears seven of his fingerprints, but Caruso said they are found only on the first page and the back of the final page — consistent with Padilla simply handling the form, rather than writing on it.

Of the 3,000 taped telephone calls, Padilla's voice was only on 7 of those introduced at trial.

As to the use of code words, Padilla didn't use any on the taped calls. The Government wants the jury to believe that when the other two defendants used words like "tourism" and "football" they meant "jihad" and that the words "eggplant" and "zucchini" were references to military weapons and supplies.

Bill Swor, Jaylousi's lawyer, told the jury the government was fear-mongering.

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The Government gave its closing argument today in the terrorism trial of Jose Padilla. The AP reports intent is key.

Was Padilla the "star recruit" of a terrorism support cell run by Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi whose ultimate goal was violent establishment of fundamentalist Islamic regimes around the world, as prosecutors claim?

Or did Hassoun and Jayyousi intend to provide relief and charity for innocent Muslims suffering in global conflict zones? And was Padilla simply an American who had recently converted to Islam and traveled overseas not for terrorism but to learn Arabic and the Quran?

The lawyer for one of the three defendants, Adham Amin Hassoun, also gave his closing today:

But Hassoun attorney Kenneth Swartz said in the first of three defense closing statements that "this case is all about speculation. It is not about proof of a crime. There is no intent to murder. The only intent is to provide relief."

Lawyers for Kifah Wael Jayyousi and Jose Padilla will close tomorrow. More on today's defense closing is here.

The Christian Science Monitor takes a long look at the case in tomorrow's paper. It says

Despite warnings, officials used 43 months of severe isolation to force Jose Padilla to tell all he knew about Al Qaeda.

The defense begins its case today in the terrorism trial of Jose Padilla and two codefendants.

How big are the holes in the case? Journalist Lew Z. Koch, writing at Firedoglake, counts the ways. He concludes:

Ashcroft, then Comey, and now Gonzales, Frazier, Shipley, Killinger and Pell have built a case on fantasy, supposition, prejudice and fear mongering. Can the defense make the jury see the shocking inadequacies of the prosecution’s case?

The Christian Science Monitor asks, Without a Plot, Is Padilla Guilty?

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The Government has rested its case in the Miami terrorism trial of Jose Padilla and his two co-defendants.

The Southern District of Florida blog has a wrap-up of coverage.

Journalist Lew Koch has been writing about the case for Firedoglake. His latest is here, focusing on the jurors playing dress-up.

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Via Discourse.net and the SDFL blog:

In the Jose Padilla trial, jurors showed up today all dressed up. Row one in red. Row two in white. And row three in blue. I’m not kidding.

This reminds me of when when the Scooter Libby dressed in red shirts for Valentine's Day.

The Padilla jury has dressed in coordinating colors before:

One time it was all black. Last Friday all the women wore pink and the men blue.

Analysis, anyone?

The trial of Jose Padilla and two codefendants continues in Miami.

Today, Kifah Jayyousi's attorney, Bill Swor, brought out how his client avoided violence.

William Swor sought to prove his client Kifah Wael Jayyousi was driven by his compassion for his fellow Muslims, a defense that began last week when an attorney for co-defendant Adham Amin Hassoun began cross-examining the case's lead FBI agent, John T. Kavanaugh.

And when Jayyousi was dissatisfied with political situations, his attorney argued, he dealt with it in the most civic-minded of ways.

Jayyousi phoned and wrote newspapers, his congressman and the State Department, Swor said. When he was offended by newspapers' publishing of cartoons he believed were insulting to Muslims, the attorney said, Jayyousi participated in letter-writing and phone campaigns. And when a Lebanese radio station employee encouraged him to threaten the Lebanese government, the defendant did not, his attorney said.

Jayyousi also published newsletters that eschewed violence. He attempted to get a hospital built for refugees in Chechnya.

There were three days of testimony this week in the terrorism trial of Jose Padilla. The prosecution's evidence may or may not be what it claims.

My interest was piqued by the testimony of one the Lackawanna (formerly known as Buffalo) Six defendants. He's testifying for the Government in hopes of reducing his own ten year prison sentence. You may recall in that case there were threats to have the defendants declared enemy combatants and moved to Guantanamo if they didn't plead guilty.

The issue now: Is miltary training at a camp in Afghanistan necessarily terrorist training?

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The trial of so-called enemy combatant Jose Padilla and his two co-defendants, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, starts Monday with opening arguments. (Jury selection was completed last week.)

Here's a profile of the Judge, Marcia Cooke. CBS legal analyst Andrew Cohen writes that the Judge has a daunting task before her as sparks will be flying in the courtroom.

The LA Times reports on how the case has changed in the last five years since Padilla's capture as someone involved in a dirty bomb plot. Those allegations will not come up in the trial, because if they did, the defense could then raise issues related to his confinement in the South Carolina military brig where he was held for three and one half years in solitary confinement without access to counsel.

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Seven men and five women have been selected as jurors in the trial of accused enemy combatent and "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla. Opening arguments begin Monday. The trial could last all summer.

There is no "dirty bomber" charge against Padilla.

Instead, Mr. Padilla and his co-defendants, Adham Hassoun and Kifah Jayyousi, stand accused of participating in a “North American support cell” that, the government says, sent money, goods and recruits abroad to assist “global jihad.”

The prosecution and defense attacked each other's juror exclusions:

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The Government has asked the Judge presiding over the Jose Padilla trial to allow a CIA agent to testify in disguise, complete with wig, glasses and facial hair.

The agent's testimony will be about Padilla's application to participate in mujahadeen training, described as al-Qaeda's holy warrior program.

Authentication of the document will come from a cooperating witness.

After the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan to oust its Taliban rulers in late 2001, authorities found a locker full of applications to join al Qaeda's holy war overseas.

At Padilla's bond hearing in January 2006, [Prosecutor] Pell said [Padilla's application] was found among 80 to 100 other mujahadeen (holy warrior) applications found in the country, which harbored al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before he masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. terrorist attacks.

Pell said Padilla's application was authenticated by a ''cooperating government witness'' convicted in an unrelated case who had once filled out the same Arabic ''mujahadeen data form.'' She said Padilla's date of birth, Oct. 18, 1970, was on his application along with his adopted Muslim name, Abu Abdullah Al Mujahir.

It's not an unprecedented motion.

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A federal judge in Miami today found that Jose Padilla is competent to stand trial.

"This defendant clearly has the capacity to assist his attorneys," Cooke said just hours after she finished four days of competency hearings.

....Cooke said testimony in the competency hearing showed that Padilla understands "legal nuances" of pretrial motions and noted that he had signed a document verifying the truth of allegations made by the defense that he was tortured and mistreated during his years in a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. "At some time, the defendant was able to discuss some things with his lawyers," Cooke said. "The defendant's situation is unique. He understands that."

Padilla had no reaction in court to the decision. I'm not surprised. He probably had no idea what was going on.

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