-Caveat Lector-
Detention of Enemy Combatant Upheld
>From Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va. -- A federal appeals court today sided with the Bush
administration and reversed a judge's order that the government either
charge or free "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla.
The three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
unanimously that the president has the authority to detain a U.S. citizen
closely associated with al-Qaida.
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"The exceedingly important question before us is whether the President of
the United States possesses the authority to detain militarily a citizen of
this country who is closely associated with al Qaeda, an entity with which
the United States is at war," Judge Michael Luttig wrote. "We conclude that
the President does possess such authority."
A federal judge in South Carolina had ruled in March that the government
cannot hold Padilla indefinitely as an "enemy combatant," a designation
President Bush gave him in 2002. The government views Padilla as a militant
who planned attacks on the United States.
Padilla's attorney said his client would probably appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court, adding that the 4th Circuit's decision could have grave implications
for all Americans.
"It's a matter of how paranoid you are," Andrew Patel said. "What it could
mean is that the president conceivably could sign a piece of paper when he
has hearsay information that somebody has done something he doesn't like and
send them to jail -- without a hearing (or) a trial."
The administration has said Padilla, a former Chicago gang member, sought to
blow up hotels and apartment buildings in the United States and planned an
attack with a "dirty bomb" radiological device.
Padilla was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in 2002 after
returning from Pakistan. The federal government has said he was trained in
weapons and explosives by members of al-Qaida.
Padilla, now in a military prison in Charleston, S.C., has been in custody
for more than three years.
Padilla, a New York-born convert to Islam, is one of only two U.S. citizens
designated as enemy combatants. The second, Louisiana native Yaser Hamdi,
was released last October after the Justice Department said he no longer
posed a threat to the United States and no longer had any intelligence
value.
Hamdi, who was captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2001, gave up
his American citizenship and returned to his family in Saudi Arabia as a
condition of his release.
Luttig, who has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the U.S. Supreme
Court, was joined in his opinion by Judges M. Blane Michael and William B.
Traxler Jr.
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