Does the meaning of “jihad” determine whether or not he was hoping to set off a dirty bomb? From The Associated Press (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):
MIAMI “” Defense attorneys in the Jose Padilla terrorism support trial are going to great lengths to suggest to jurors that jihad is not necessarily Muslim holy war and that mujahedeen could just as easily be freedom fighters as terrorists.
The meaning of words, especially Arabic words, is center stage as federal prosecutors play hours of FBI telephone intercepts involving Padilla and two other defendants charged with participating in an Islamic extremist support network….
The legal battle about definitions goes to the heart of the defense argument that what Padilla, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi were doing from 1994 to 2001 was not supporting terrorism, but providing humanitarian aid to oppressed and persecuted Muslims worldwide.
Prosecutors, however, must show the trio were involved in violence “” that the “jihad” they were fighting involved killing and armed struggle.