Jose Padilla apparently had to apply in writing to become a terrorist. Who knew? In fact, “authorities” found a whole locker full of written applications in Afghanistan following the invasion in late 2001.
As the Miami Herald reports:
A prosecutor produced the alleged document for the first time Thursday in Miami federal court, where Padilla pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges that he was a recruit for a North American terrorist cell with South Florida links that aided Islamic jihad abroad.
His application included his d.o.b. and his nom de guerre, Abu Abdullah Al Mujahir. However, fellow-terrorists liked to call him “the Puerto Rican.”
80 – 100 other mujahadeen aspirants’ “please let me join” documents were in the trunk. And the government has an authenticating witness. Allbeit one who was
convicted in an unrelated case who had once filled out the same Arabic “mujahadeen data form.”
Of course, Padilla’s defense is obvious and it’s the one his lawyers are taking. No direct evidence exists that our guy actually filled the application out. What? Now it’s too embarrasing to be an al-Qaeda terrorist? Ranks right up there with having filled out an application to flip burgers at Mickey-Ds? And here I thought these guys were committed Muslim fanatics, willing to die for their cause.
Padilla’s seeming unwillingness to go down for his membership and his nonperformance of his jihad deed, the alleged plot to detonate a dirty nuclear device on US soil, approaches reasonable doubt as to him being a terrorist, don’tcha think?
On the face of it, he seems more interested in the dress-up factor and misperceived glamor surrounding bin Laden’s boys than anything else. Not to excuse him, of course. But for my money, Mr. Shoe-Bomber more entered into the spirit of the thing than Mr. Puerto Rican. If I were on the jury, I’d find it darned hard to say guilty on the force of this new revelation.
Guess those thousands of hours of intercepted wire taps gleaned between 1993-2001 will have to carry the day. Gawd! What a boring trial this is going to be.
