http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/06/01/padilla.documents/
U.S.: Suspected 'dirty bomb' plot included plan to blow up apartmentsU.S.: Suspected 'dirty bomb' plot included plan to blow up apartments


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Jose Padilla -- the American citizen held in a U.S. military prison without charges since his arrest two years ago -- admitted to training at al Qaeda camps and to having dealings with al Qaeda members, according to documents declassified by the U.S. government Tuesday.

Additionally, the federal summary of Padilla's activities allege that Padilla sought to blow up hotels and apartment buildings in the United States in addition to planning an attack with a "dirty bomb" radiological device, the government said Tuesday.

The details were released by U.S. Justice Department officials who are under pressure to explain the indefinite detention of a U.S. citizen as an "enemy combatant."

At a Tuesday news conference, Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Comey called the chronicle of Padilla's plotting "remarkable for its scope, its clarity and its candor.

"We have decided to release this information to help people understand why we are doing what we are doing in the war on terror and to help people understand the nature of the threat we face," he said.

Comey asserted that if Padilla had been handled by the more conventional criminal justice system, he could have stayed silent and "would likely have ended up a free man." (Transcript of news conference)

Donna Newman, Padilla's defense attorney, called the information "a one-sided exposé of their version of the events without Mr. Padilla having the right to put forth his version of the events."

"As they concede, he denies all this," she said, referring to a footnote on page six of the seven-page document.

The U.S. government footnote says: "There are a number of instances in his statements where Padilla attempts to downplay or deny his commitment to al Qaeda."

"There is a dispute. That's what the courts resolve," Newman said. "If Mr. Padilla is as dangerous as they say, why not have a trial?"

In revealing the federal allegations, Comey also said the Justice Department is unlikely to file criminal charges any time soon against Padilla -- in part because the evidence against him comes from admissions he allegedly made during Defense Department interrogations without the presence of an attorney.

Padilla, an American citizen, has sued to obtain his release; the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule by the end of the month on his case challenging President Bush's right to declare him an enemy combatant -- the same classification as detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Abu Ghraib in Baghdad. (The Supreme Court enemy combatant case)

The seven-page U.S. government summary of Padilla's activities was based largely on admissions the Pentagon says he made while in federal custody.

Top al Qaeda officials "wanted Padilla to hit targets in New York City, although Florida and Washington, D.C. were discussed as well," the government summary of interrogations said, according to a report from The Associated Press.

Like the first visit, Newman's second meeting was monitored and recorded by the government.

Some of the previously classified material had leaked and was subsequently confirmed by Justice Department officials in advance of Tuesday's news conference by the Justice Department.

Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Padilla's arrest from Moscow on June 9, 2002, saying that an "unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb" had been disrupted, an attack with the potential to cause "mass death and injury."

Padilla was originally picked up by the FBI at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on May 8, 2002, and held as a material witness in a grand jury investigation of the September 11 attacks.