Damning information has come out during the Jose Padilla case, indicating that he was deeply involved in plans to target American civilians in Islamic terror attacks. From Reuters:
WASHINGTON – Supreme Court justices read the newspapers, and they cannot help but ponder powerful new allegations that the subject of one of their biggest cases this term was heavily involved in terrorist plots against U.S. civilians, lawyers say.
The Bush administration gave a detailed accounting Tuesday of the alleged terrorist connections and training of Jose Padilla, a New York-born former gang member and convert to Islam.
Much of the government’s case is corroborated by information seized in Afghanistan. Still, the issue comes down to civil rights under the U.S. Constitution.
“I don’t believe that we could use this information in a criminal case, because we deprived him of access to his counsel and questioned him in the absence of counsel,” Comey said.
“The questioning of Jose Padilla … was not undertaken to try and make a criminal case against Jose Padilla. It was done to find out the truth about what he knew about al-Qaida and threats to the United States.”