Jose Padilla, the accused “dirty bomb” terrorist has been formally charged with terrorism-related offenses, but no charge directly related to the radiological terrorism he was accused of plotting. Is this a tacit admission by the White House that they were wrong?

[Posted By Snark]

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By NBC News and news services
Republished from MSNBC

Criminal charges mean case will avoid Supreme Court showdown

WASHINGTON – In a surprise legal development, suspected “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla has been indicted on criminal charges in Miami and as a result will no longer be an “enemy combatant” in Pentagon custody, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Padilla was indicted on charges that he conspired to “murder, kidnap and maim” people overseas.

A federal grand jury in Miami added Padilla to a pre-existing indictment against four others. While the charges allege Padilla was part of a terrorism conspiracy, they do not include the government’s earlier allegations that he planned to target the United States by using a radioactive dirty bomb and blowing up apartment buildings using natural gas. ttorney General Alberto Gonzales said he expected Padilla to be alongside the other four when the case goes to trial next September.

“The indictment alleges that Padilla traveled overseas to train as a terrorist with the intention of fighting a violent jihad,” Gonzales said at a news conference in Washington. Gonzales declined to answer NBC News questions about why none of the allegations involving attacks in America were included in the indictment.

Names of others

The others indicted earlier are: Adham Amin Hassoun, Mohammed Hesham Youssef, Kifah Wael Jayyousi and Kassem Daher.

Hassoun also was indicted on eight additional charges, including perjury, obstruction of justice and illegal firearm possession.

Hassoun, a Palestinian computer programmer who moved to Florida in 1989, was arrested in June 2002 for allegedly overstaying his student visa. Prosecutors previously described him as a former associate of Padilla.

Padilla, a Brooklyn-born Muslim convert, has been held as an “enemy combatant” in Defense Department custody for more than three years.

NBC’s Pete Williams reported that Padilla was being transferred from Pentagon custody and into the criminal courts system on Tuesday, ending the long legal battle over whether he should be in military custody.

The Bush administration had resisted calls to charge and try Padilla in civilian courts.

No Supreme Court showdown

The indictment avoids a Supreme Court showdown over how long the government could hold a U.S. citizen without charges. The high court had been asked to decide when and for how long the government can jail Americans in military prisons.

“They’re avoiding what the Supreme Court would say about American citizens (as enemy combatants). That’s an issue the administration did not want to face,” said Scott Silliman, a Duke University law professor who specializes in national security. “There’s no way that the Supreme Court would have ducked this issue.”

Padilla’s lawyers had asked justices to review his case last month, and the Bush administration was facing a deadline next Monday for filing its legal arguments.

“The ‘evidence’ the government has offered against Padilla over the past three years consists of double and triple hearsay from secret witnesses, along with information allegedly obtained from Padilla himself during his two years of incommunicado interrogation,” his lawyers said in their earlier appeal.

Padilla, a former Chicago gang member, 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 has been held at a Navy brig in South Carolina. Following the indictment, which was handed up last Thursday, President Bush sent a memo to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordering Padilla transferred to the federal detention facility in Miami.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.