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CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Today

CNN reports that Jose Padilla is flying to Miami and scheduled to appear yet this afternoon in federal court in Miami.

At least he'll have a lawyer. And an Article III judge presiding over the process.

Update: Talking Dog posts his interview with Padilla lawyer Andrew Patel

Update: Miami Herald reports that Padilla appeared in court after 5 and has a picture.

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    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#1)
    by kdog on Thu Jan 05, 2006 at 03:25:45 PM EST
    But if Padilla, or any American citizen, is given their day in court to face their accusers, don't the terr'ists win?

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#2)
    by Edger on Thu Jan 05, 2006 at 03:46:12 PM EST
    kdog, come on... you know by now that just asking that question gives aid and comfort to the enemy, don't you?

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#3)
    by Punchy on Thu Jan 05, 2006 at 03:53:03 PM EST
    Q1--What chance does the Gov't have of having all this dismissed via the Levin bill? Q2--Can he legally be found "guilty" of whatever he's now charged with but unlawfully held by the gov't by the SC? Doesn't that seem twisted, that he can be convicted of a charge yet determined to be illegally detained in the first place? What does Mike Luttig think of all this?

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#4)
    by Che's Lounge on Thu Jan 05, 2006 at 05:05:49 PM EST
    Kdog, If (when) they hit us again, it will be YOUR FAULT.

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#5)
    by kdog on Thu Jan 05, 2006 at 05:17:18 PM EST
    The way this layman understands the law, he has to be released or acquitted or whatever you call it when a US citizen is held without trial or charge for a couple years. Here's the real sad part about the govt's reckless lawbreaking. For all I know Padilla is guilty and planned to set off a bomb The govt acts certain he is guilty so I assume they have evidence. Now he must be released. Another bang up job by Bush and the boys. Why on earth didn't they try him and let a jury of his peers decide? I'd rather live with the threat of a bomber on the loose, the lone maniac, than a lawless govt. with midievel detainment powers.

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#6)
    by Punchy on Thu Jan 05, 2006 at 05:45:45 PM EST
    So this is an automatic aquital b/c he's been held so long? That doesn't make any sense. Has he even had a lawyer until now? If not, doesn't that make his charges moot, as a criminal has a right to an attorney (Miranda rights, right?) and he's been denied one while these charges were formenting? I've read where the Admin claims it has the right, if he's found innocent, to re-grab him and re-hold him as a EC AGAIN. Can this be possible?

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#7)
    by Peter G on Thu Jan 05, 2006 at 07:24:22 PM EST
    Punchy & Kdog: Let me try to staighten this out for you, legally speaking. Padilla's case before the Supremes is a request by his lawyers (yes, he has had lawyers since the day after he was arrested at O'Hare, he just hasn't been allowed to see them or talk to them very much!) that they review the decision of the Fourth Circuit. The Fourth (Judge Luttig's court) overturned a habeas corpus order by a federal judge in South Carolina that Padilla be released from unlawful custody (it was a fishy "material witness" warrant from a NY federal grand jury at first, then military custody as a so-called "enemy combatant" began soon after that). If the habeas writ is reinstated by the Supreme Court, Padilla goes "free" from military custody, but not necessarily from anything else. Specifically, afraid that they might lose the habeas corpus appeal -- and afraid even to defend their position on "enemy combatants" before the Supreme Court -- the Dept of Justice recently came up with a new tactic, charging Padilla as a co-conspirator in a long-simmering, very vague, federal criminal indictment that had been pending in Miami against several other individuals, which charges them with plotting to wage international jihad, and thus conspiring to kill Americans overseas (which is a federal crime). The government is now arguing that their releasing Padilla from the challenged custody (to another form of custody) makes his pending Supreme Court petition moot. His lawyers disagree, saying that the govt doesn't disavow their claim that they can put him back in "enemy combatant" status at any time. (They haven't withdrawn the accusation; they've just "voluntarily" withdrawn the custody.) The Supreme Court is scheduled to discuss the case at their private session on Jan. 20, and could announce whether they will hear the case (or dismiss it as moot) on Monday Jan. 23. A ruling that Padilla has been held illegally for years will not require his "acquittal" or dismissal of charges in the criminal case. It has been part of federal law for more than a century that an illegal arrest (even a blatant kidnapping across an international border, for that matter) does not deprive the criminal court of jurisdiction over the person. At most it requires the suppression of evidence (physical or incriminating statements) obtained as a "fruit" of the illegal detention. So, the fact that he has been detained away from his lawyers and possibly illegally for years will make the criminal case in Miami harder to prove, but it doesn't require the court to throw the case out.

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#8)
    by Edger on Thu Jan 05, 2006 at 07:28:07 PM EST
    They're never going to let go of him entirely are they, Peter?

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#9)
    by Peter G on Thu Jan 05, 2006 at 08:05:08 PM EST
    Not as far as I can tell, edger. As Donna Newman, Padilla's first court-appointed lawyer (and still on his team) says, rather wryly, the government doesn't seem to have an exit strategy in his case.

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#10)
    by Edger on Thu Jan 05, 2006 at 08:09:58 PM EST
    An American Citizen. An American Citizen. Doesn't mean much any more does it?

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#11)
    by Edger on Fri Jan 06, 2006 at 12:13:38 AM EST
    Not to the wacks it doesn't.
    Yeah, well... I guess they just don't make 'em like they used to anymore, do they?

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#12)
    by kdog on Fri Jan 06, 2006 at 06:49:27 AM EST
    Thanks Pete.

    edgar.... An American Citizen. Doesn't mean much any more does it? Nope... it sure doesn't. Especially when all you have to do is sneak under the fence...have a baby and bingo...you're a citizen! Besides... people like Padilla, McVie & John Walker Lind (whose main agenda is to kill other Americans) ... are pretty piss poor excuses for citizens don't you think?

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#14)
    by soccerdad on Fri Jan 06, 2006 at 09:46:14 AM EST
    people like Padilla,
    What is the proof to back up your assertion concerning Padilla ?

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#15)
    by Dadler on Fri Jan 06, 2006 at 09:53:26 AM EST
    An enemy combatant who is a CITIZEN and who has NOT engaged in combat against the U.S. Hey, the government now wants to presume him innocent, so I guess they know something we don't. Like how empty this bluster has been. And in the service of what? Fear and control. And their own diseased egos. Protect us, King George, please protect us. I'm going shopping to do my part for the naton. But I'm so afraid. Why does the world hate us?

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#16)
    by jimakaPPJ on Fri Jan 06, 2006 at 10:18:59 AM EST
    Dadler - I think the charge against him was about blowing things up... Time
    Padilla, 31, had prepped hard for his meeting, but his ambition outstripped his guile. Senior U.S. officials tell Time that Padilla, conducting research on the Internet, had come across instructions for building a nuclear bomb—"an H-bomb," as a top official described it. The instructions were laughably inaccurate—more a parody than a plan—but not recognizing that, Padilla took them to Abu Zubaydah and other al-Qaeda planners and said he wanted to detonate such a weapon in the U.S. "He was trying to build something that would attain a nuclear yield," says a senior Bush Administration official monitoring Padilla's case. In response, Abu Zubaydah apparently cautioned his eager job applicant to think smaller—to get some training and attack America with a so-called "dirty bomb," a conventional explosive packed with radioactive waste that would spew when the bomb blew up. "They sent him to the U.S. to see what he could do—plan and execute," the official says. What he did was get arrested as soon as he stepped off the plane on May 8, having come full circle, back to Chicago, the site of his first encounters with the law.
    I would charge him with treason, and if proved, execute him. And no, the government doesn't want to presume him as innocent. They think he is guilty. BTW - Where do you get such things? edger writes:
    Yeah, well... I guess they just don't make 'em like they used to anymore, do they?
    Based on the information from Time, I would say you are exactly right. charlie - The baby is the citizen, but they are called "anchor babies." They are used to bring family members into the country. Educate yourself.

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#17)
    by Dadler on Fri Jan 06, 2006 at 10:43:11 AM EST
    Jim, I'm fully aware of what the government ORIGINALLY claimed about Padilla. But, come on, a three year-old reference from TIME? The entire case has turned out to be a lot of bluster in that span, we know that, or we wouldn't be at this point. Now the feds want you to presume him innocent. Of course they THINK he's guilty of SOMETHING, but that seems to be about it right now -- and they want him in a civilian court and to be presumed innocent and to have all those rights they said he was too dangerous to deserve. They're doing this, as others have noted and opined, in the hope of avoiding the entire "enemy combatant"/illegal detention issue with the SCOTUS. And most likely because they realize Padilla ISN'T and SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN detained in the manner he has, and that using him as a case test wouldn't be in their interest. If you disagree with this opinion, fine, but it's certainly more up to date in its logic than a sorely outdated MSM piece. Go ask Brandon Mayfield if the administration should be trusted on these matters. Jeralyn did plenty of posts about his case, and many others. You've seen them.

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#18)
    by Dadler on Fri Jan 06, 2006 at 10:49:25 AM EST
    Add Jim, And certainly read Peter G.'s earlier post for a much better explanation of the admin's rationale here. He's the lawyer, I just mangle it.

    Especially when all you have to do is sneak under the fence...have a baby and bingo...you're a citizen!
    This statement is completely false.
    Besides... people like Padilla, McVie & John Walker Lind (whose main agenda is to kill other Americans) ... are pretty piss poor excuses for citizens don't you think?
    Padilla may be a piss poor excuse for a citizen, but he is still a citizen and is entitled to be treated as such. What the government did to Padilla is wrong. He should have been indicted years ago, not held in legal limbo as an enemy combatant.

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#20)
    by Sailor on Fri Jan 06, 2006 at 11:10:28 AM EST
    Padilla's parents are citizens, jose is a citizen so I'm not sure where all the obfuscation about anchor babies came from. And I'm not sure why a presumption of innocence doesn't apply to padilla, seeing as how every American enjoys that right. And really, quoting a 3 year old report from an anonymous gov't official when the gov't has been lying all along about this case is just silly.

    soccerdad... What is the proof to back up your assertion concerning Padilla ? Well the proof of his latest crime will come out in court...but as far as his "character" as a so called American citizen...well that's well documented.... "The Brooklyn, New York-born Padilla has previously served prison terms for juvenile murder in Illinois and gun possession in Florida. He converted to Islam when he moved to Egypt in 1998, taking the name Abdullah al-Muhajir. The Government says Padilla then trained at al Qaeda military camps in Afghanistan in 2000, after being recruited by a Yemeni man he met on a pilgrimage to Mecca". Charlie... Wrong again, bigot boy. The baby's the citizen, not the parents. You need to really cool it on the name calling. I'm not calling you any juvenile names am I? ... (although I'd love to because you sure act like one) I realize that the baby is a natualized citizen (which is bad enough) but the parents then can become citizens much easier as well as have a better opportunity to bring even more people over. You obviously missed the whole point... no surprise there as you are too comncerned with calling people schemdricks aren't you? Dismissed & expelled!

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#22)
    by jimakaPPJ on Fri Jan 06, 2006 at 11:38:14 AM EST
    Dadler - My point was that these were the inital charges. They are very serious charges, and deserve to be fully explored. As you know I have always made a distinct difference between non-citizens and citizens. The non-citizens don't have the same rights that citizens do, but neither do they get executed if convictded.

    I realize that the baby is a natualized citizen
    BB, the baby is a natural born citizen, not a naturalized citizen. Definition of a naturalized citizen:
    Naturalization is the process whereby a person becomes a national of a nation, or a citizen of a country, other than the one of his birth.


    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#24)
    by Sailor on Fri Jan 06, 2006 at 01:22:13 PM EST
    Hey charlie, I like the point of most of your posts, but I too wish you could back off on the personal attacks and insults.

    Re: CNN: Jose Padilla to Appear in Miami Court Tod (none / 0) (#25)
    by jimakaPPJ on Fri Jan 06, 2006 at 08:03:53 PM EST
    charlie - When you start providing some proof for your wild statements, maybe someone will take you serious. That certianly isn't the case at this time. All you do is make claims. Sorry Charlie, I just can't keep a straight face when I read your rants.

    This is the fourth night that I have had to go and edit Charlie's insults and name calling. I'd rather be blogging. Charlie, this is your last warning. If you call another commenter a name again, or gratuitously insult them, you will be asked to leave TalkLeft and post your comments elsewhere. Your tone is not compatibile with the site and you are causing too much distraction. Debate the issues, fine, but lay off the insults.