After Three Years, An Indictment

Jose Padilla has been held in US jails as an enemy combatant since 2002. During that time the Bush administration has tried to prevent him from having access to the court. This attempt by Bush to strip an American Citizen of basic legal rights was to have reached it's climax, with a Supreme Court hearing next week. Facing that reality, the Bush Administration has, at last, produced charges.

A federal grand jury in Miami returned an indictment against Padilla and four others, accusing them of attempting to "murder, kidnap and maim".

"The defendants, along with other individuals, operated and participated in a North American support cell that sent money, physical assets and mujahideen recruits to overseas conflicts for the purposes of fighting a violent jihad," the indictment said.

"Padilla was recruited by the North American support cell to participate in violent jihad and travelled overseas for that purpose," it stated.

But, please note:

The papers, however, made no mention of the central charge on which Padilla was detained in May 2002: he was originally accused of being part of a plot to detonate a radioactive 'dirty bomb' on American soil.

This man has a record of being a less than honorable citizen. If he is guilty lets lock him up, but there is no justification for trying to strip an American Citizen of his constitutionally guaranteed rights, and this message still need to be sent to this corrupt administration.