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.
Hey, in August of 2001 we were still courting the Taliban in trying to get the pipeline through the country.
What you said about Padilla, who bears a striking resemblance to John Doe #2 from OC, is similar to at least 4 out of the Lackawanna 6. They seemed to think it was some adventure game they were on and wanted to come back home when it turned out to be hard work and crazy shit.
Those are the best for jihad, and no one can be an authentic Al Qaeda member unless they have one.
So unless his application includes a photo of him wearing the parka, and a sales receipt from Land’s End, it is phony.
I know this because all the people who email me to pre-apply for Al Qaeda membership always tell me that they are going to get a Land’s End parka as soon as they can talk their mom into it.
I’ve seen pics of him sporting the Arab headdress (veil for men).
or
But I don’t know if he got them from Land’s End.
You won’t see them on their website. They’re in the Special Collection Newsletter. You have to be invited to subscribe. They are trying all these elitist marketing tactics because they are mad because Land’s End got the official Al Qaeda endorsement and they didn’t.
I was beginning to think Bed, Bath & Beyond!
It’s interesting to see that he could have been a hero or at least a regular on and agency payroll in 2000 and heading to fight a US backed insurgency.
It is entirely possible that in Padilla’s selection could be because he could have information that might embarrass US or its allies.
Or he could have been just another punk kid who wanted to do jihad. If that is the case, and if all that in the story is true, it is important to point out that even if one accepts the notion of the US as a legitimate state, it is not illegal to go fight in Chechnya, and it was not in 2000. Nor was it illegal for John Walker Lindh to go fight the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.
American citizens have frequently gone off to fight in civil wars and struggles for independence in far flung lands for centuries, and it is only in the last few years that it has conveniently become some big deal.
I think the more likely story of Padilla, though, is that whatever he was or was not doing on his trip abroad, he serves a very important purpose: to send a message to American citizens who oppose US policies. And the message has more resonance using Padilla than it might had they chosen to do it with Natalee Holloway.
I think it was Terry Nichols’ wife who was a Padilla before marriage. I’m not sure if there was any relation there but there were several coincidences about that John Doe #2 and Jose’s whereabouts around then. Florida was/is a hotbed of suspicious connections to Islamic extremists that seem more connected to organized crime than to religion.
All that you expressed in your comment is true and it’s the most troubling about US policy. The deception of being engaged in actively, financially and morally supporting covert insurgencies and then prosecuting those the agencies actively recruited is ridiculous.
There are travel packages for those countries in 2000 and 2001 for adventure style vacations.
The moral of this is that the powers in charge can prosecute anyone, anywhere, anytime for any reason once they decide to do so.
Has anyone seen if the tracking code from the printer on those applications was ever identified?