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Jos PadillaJos Padilla (also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir) (born 1971) is accused of being a terrorist by the United States government. He is currently being detained without charge in a South Carolina military prison under orders of George W. Bush. The U.S. administration describes him as an illegal enemy combatant however this is not a legal definition because he has not been in front of a "competent military tribunal", as stipulated under Article 5 of the Third Geneva Convention, to ascertain if he is an enemy combatant who has broken the laws of war. Born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, Padilla became a gang member after moving to Chicago, Illinois, and was arrested several times. During his gang years, he maintained several aliases, such as Jos Rivera, Jos Alicea, Jos Hernandez and Jos Ortiz. After serving his last jail sentence, he converted to Islam. He went to the Masjid Al-Iman mosque in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with Adham Amin Hassoun, who at that time was the registered agent for Benevolence International Foundation, a charity which U.S. investigators have accused of funding terrorist activities. Padilla and Hassoun became friends. U.S. authorities accuse Hassoun of consorting with radical Islamic fundamentalists, possibly including Al-Qaida. Hassoun was arrested in 2002 for overstaying his visa. In the wake of the attack on 9/11 2001 the United States Congress passed a resolution know as the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF)on September 18 2001. In this Congress invoked the War Powers Resolution and stated: - That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.
Padilla traveled to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. On his return, he was arrested by federal agents at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on May 8, 2002 and held as material witness on the warrant issued in New York State about the 2001 9/11 attacks. On June 9, 2002 President Bush issued an order to Secretary Rumsfeld to detain Padilla as an "enemy combatant". The order legaly justified the detention by leaning on the AUMF which authorized the President to "..use all necessary force against those nations, organizations, or persons..." and in the opinion of the administration a U.S. citizen can be an enemy combatant (This was decided by the United States Supreme Court in the case of ex parte Quirin). Padilla is currently being detained without charge in a naval brig at Hanahan in South Carolina and is accused by the Bush Administration of being an illegal enemy combatant and a nuclear terrorist planning to set off a dirty bomb. On December 18, 2003, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals declared that the Bush Administration lacked the authority to designate a U.S. citizen arrested on U.S. soil an "illegal enemy combatant" without clear congressional authorization (per 18 U.S.C. 4001(a)); it consequently ordered the government to release him from military custody within thirty days. However, the court has stayed the order pending appeal. On February 20, 2004, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the government's appeal. The Supreme Court heard the case, Rumsfeld v. Padilla, in April 2004, but on June 28 it was thrown out on a technicality. The court declared that New York State, where the case was originally filed, was an improper venue and that the case should have been filled in South Carolina, where Padilla was being held. On February 28, 2005, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, U.S. District Judge Henry Floyd ordered the Bush administration to either charge Padilla or release him. He relied on the Supreme Court's ruling in the parallel enemy combatant case of Yaser Hamdi (Hamdi v. Rumsfeld), in which the majority decision declared a "state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens." External links Footnotes - see
- Feds arrest man linked to 'dirty bomb' suspect June 15, 2002 CNN MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Federal officials in Miami told CNN Saturday they had arrested a south Florida Muslim activist with ties to "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla.
- US Congress' joint resolution of September 18, 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force ("AUMF"); public law 107-40, 115 Stat. 224
- Authorization for Use of Military Force: Padilla v. Bush: Jose Padilla under the Joint Resolution The Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce, issued by the Syracuse Collage of Law
- http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/padilla/padillabush60902det.pdf
- Appeals Court Says Bush Can't Hold U.S. Citizen Published on Thursday, December 18, 2003 by Reuters
- Judge Says Terror Suspect Can't Be Held as an Enemy Combatant The New York Times March 1, 2005
Padilla, Jose Padilla, Jose Padilla, Jose Padilla, Jose
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