Closing Arguments Set in Padilla Case

Five years and three months after he was arrested and accused of involvement in an al-Qaida "dirty bomb" plot, Jose Padilla's case will finally be left up to the jury.^[1] Prosecutors were scheduled Monday to begin closing arguments in the trial of Padilla and co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi on terrorism support charges that do not include the "dirty bomb" allegations.^[2]

Prosecutors want jurors to convict Padilla largely on a five-page "mujahedeen data form" he supposedly filled out in 2000 to attend an al-Qaida terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.^[3] The 36-year-old U.S. citizen was held as an enemy combatant for 3 1/2 years.^[4]

The CIA recovered the al-Qaida "mujahedeen data form" that is central in the case in Afghanistan after the U.S. invasion in late 2001.^[5] It susposedly contains seven of Padilla's fingerprints, one of his alleged Muslim alias names, his true birthday, notes the applicant's ability to speak English, Spanish and Arabic and has other identifying details.^[6]

But there is little other hard evidence linking Padilla, a Muslim convert, to al-Qaida or to the alleged North American terror support cell prosecutors say was operated by Hassoun, Jayyousi and others.^[7] Thousands of hours of FBI wiretap intercepts from 1993 to 2001 include numerous conversations of Hassoun and Jayyousi, but Padilla's voice is heard on only seven.^[8]

Padilla's defense called no witnesses on his behalf and introduced no evidence.^[9] His federal criminal defense lawyers adopted the risky strategy of suggesting to the jurors that prosecutors failed to prove he conspired with the others or provided material support to terrorists.^[10] FBI agents testified that the telephone conversations were often in code, with "football" or "tourism" meaning "jihad" and words such as "zucchini" and "eggplant" meaning weapons or ammunition.^[11] Yet Padilla was never heard using such code, testimony showed.^[12]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has discussed Padilla’s case extensively in this blog; these posts can be accessed here.

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^[1] Curt Anderson, Closings Set in Padilla Terror Trial, Associated Press Newswire, August 13, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.
^[11] Id.
^[12] Id.