To Be Identified By Name Would Subject Them To Reprisals

This article is based on interviews with "current and former government officials", who "spoke a day after Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales repeatedly refused at to address questions a news conference about why the government had not brought criminal charges related to the most serious accusations."

The Feds are making a lot of noise about "not backing off its initial assertions about the seriousness of Mr. Padilla's actions." On the other hand, the criminal charges mention nothing about the "dirty bomb", which was why the Feds picked Jose up in the first place. Remeber? Supposedly he was going to blow up Chicago?

The folks the Times talked to "were granted anonymity, saying to be identified by name would subject them to reprisals for addressing questions that Mr. Gonzales had declined to answer." NYTimes (11.23.05):

"The Bush administration decided to charge Jose Padilla with less serious crimes because it was unwilling to allow testimony from two senior members of Al Qaeda who had been subjected to harsh questioning, current and former government officials said Wednesday."

Shift on Suspect Is Linked to Role of Qaeda Figures

"The Qaeda members were Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, believed to be the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and Abu Zubaydah, a top recruiter, who gave their accounts to American questioners in 2002 and 2003."

These two "were the main sources linking Mr. Padilla to a plot to bomb targets in the United States".

Khalid and Abu "continue to be held in secret prisons by the Central Intelligence Agency, whose internal reviews have raised questions about their treatment and credibility, the officials said.

One review "by the C.I.A. inspector general, found that Mr. Mohammed had been subjected to excessive use of a technique involving near drowning in the first months after his capture".

By going light on Jose, the Feds are thinking Khalid and Abu will not be called as witnesses. The Feds say if they were, their testimony would "expose classified information". Whatever else this "classified information" might contain, it probably would provide the defense more than enough to argue that Khalid and Abu's "earlier statements [implicating Jose] were a result of torture".

As well, "part of the bombing accusations hinged on incriminating statements that officials say Mr. Padilla made after he was in military custody - and had been denied access to a lawyer."

"'There's no way you could use what he said in military custody against him,' a former senior government official said."

Well this was a big deal, right? AP (11.23.05):

"Jose Padilla was recruited into an Islamic terrorist support cell that sought money and fighters for violent struggles abroad, the government says in its indictment.

However, over nine years the group raised less than $100,000 and recruited just a handful of people, including Padilla, according to federal prosecutors."

Indictment: Padilla Recruited by Terrorists

Wow. Really on to something there, eh?

Even at the time Jose was arrested, "FBI Director Robert Mueller said the plot was in the 'discussion stage' when the suspect, Abdullah Al Muhajir, was arrested." In other words, the most they were doing was talking about it.

Big deal? Yeah. Big, fucking deal.

Big John, however, felt that Jose was nothing less than "a serious and continuing threat to the American people and our national security."

Golly. The facts really proved that one up, eh? Arkin's Early Warning (11.23.05):

"The government is oh so happy to sweep Mr. Padilla's three-year confinement in a Navy brig under the rug. Lost in the shuffle is the dirty bomb threat, a threat both hyped and insignificant.

The threat, nonetheless, is at the center of a money wasting, incompetent government industry."

Jose Padilla's Dirty Secret

And by the way, for whatever it was that numbskull Jose was doing, he was a US citizen. And our government held him for more than three years without charges.