http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/us/09padilla.html?ref=us
F.B.I. Agent Tells Padilla Jury of Coded Plans for Jihad By <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/abby_goodnough /index.html?inline=nyt-per> ABBY GOODNOUGH New York Times June 09, 2007 MIAMI, June 8 - Jurors in the federal terrorism case against <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/jose_padilla/i ndex.html?inline=nyt-per> Jose Padilla heard his voice for the first time Friday, discussing - by the government's account - secret plans to travel overseas and wage jihad. In a decade-old wiretapped conversation, Mr. Padilla, an American convert to Islam, assured Adham Hassoun, the co-defendant accused of recruiting him: "It's going to happen soon. Trust me." The conversation was among more than two dozen that prosecutors played in court this week, mostly between Mr. Hassoun and various men the government says he conspired with. They discussed playing football, going "on the picnic" and smelling "fresh air" - all code for engaging in jihad, said a federal agent serving as a government witness. Mr. Padilla, Mr. Hassoun and a third defendant, Kifah Jayyousi, are accused of conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap people abroad. The <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal _bureau_of_investigation/index.html?inline=nyt-org> Federal Bureau of Investigation says it recorded some 300,000 calls over years of building evidence for the case; 123 will be played at trial. The voice of Mr. Padilla, a former Chicago gang member who attended a mosque in South Florida in the mid-1990s, is heard in seven conversations. Mr. Padilla, 36, made international headlines when he was arrested in 2002, accused of planning to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the United States and called an enemy combatant. But that accusation does not figure into the case here. The government transferred Mr. Padilla last year from military to civilian custody, adding him to the terrorism conspiracy case of Mr. Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian computer programmer, and Mr. Jayyousi, a Jordanian-born engineer. The intercepted calls, many in Arabic, are crucial to the government's case. But on the surface, they seem to have nothing to do with terrorism - one caller, for example, tells Mr. Hassoun of plans to go on a picnic and smell fresh air. All week, defense lawyers fiercely protested the government's plan to let an F.B.I. agent who led the investigation tell jurors his interpretation of such words, so-called code for terrorist activities. The agent, John T. Kavanaugh Jr., testified that the defendants spoke in code because they suspected their calls were being monitored. Judge Marcia G. Cooke responded to the defense by limiting what Mr. Kavanaugh could say about the conversations and telling the jurors his interpretations were nonexpert opinions. Mr. Padilla mumbled and chuckled throughout the conversation played Friday, sometimes calling Mr. Hassoun "bro." Mr. Hassoun appeared impatient, asking Mr. Padilla if he was "ready." "Inshallah, brother," Mr. Padilla replied, using the Arabic for "God willing" and urging Mr. Hassoun to have patience. "You know, it's going to happen." Mr. Padilla, who met Mr. Hassoun at the South Florida mosque, is described in the indictment as Mr. Hassoun's recruit. It says Mr. Padilla traveled to Egypt in 1998 and then to Afghanistan, where he filled out an application to attend a terrorist training camp. The call was recorded in July 1997. Other calls played Thursday and Friday, as interpreted by Mr. Kavanaugh, focused on jihad activities in Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Kosovo. There was talk of "brothers" who had been "married" - code for killed in battle, Mr. Kavanaugh said - and of interference by "the dogs," or the United States government. Mr. Kavanaugh also said a reference to "eating cheese" was code for waging jihad. But he said he had no idea what a reference to a "reservation on the female donkey" meant. Defense lawyers will probably try to convince jurors that the code theory is nonsense and that the conversations were innocent. In opening arguments last month, they said their clients were merely passionate and vocal Muslims with no connection to <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/al_qaed a/index.html?inline=nyt-org> Al Qaeda and no intent to support terrorism. The government's case is politically motivated, they said, and was fueled by the nation's dread after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "In this case," Anthony Natale, Mr. Padilla's lawyer, said in opening arguments, "you will see how in the absence of hard evidence, a suspicion can be fueled by fear, nourished by prejudice and directed by politics into a criminal prosecution." The proceedings, almost four weeks along, have been constantly interrupted by defense objections, and Friday was no exception. The jurors, who include a makeup artist, a software developer and a dispatcher, read transcripts of the tapes as they were played and occasionally took notes. They have not been told of Mr. Padilla's former status as an enemy combatant, nor his claims that he was tortured while in military custody. The trial is expected to last months, and Judge Cooke has taken pains to keep jurors happy - letting them take Monday off, for example, because one is getting married over the weekend and wants a break. Terry Aguayo contributed reporting. . <http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=11648958/grpspId=1705447214/msgI d=34799/stime=1181386189/nc1=3848611/nc2=3848642/nc3=3848541> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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