Government Says Padilla Plotted High-Rise Attacks

The Justice Department on Tuesday offered its first detailed account of the activities of Jose Padilla, alleging that in addition to wanting to plant a “dirty bomb,” he also plotted with Al Qaeda to blow up high-rise apartment buildings in the United States.

The former Chicago gang member, according to the newly declassified information, took explosives training in Afghanistan in summer 2001 with Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, one of seven alleged Al Qaeda operatives the Justice Department says may be planning attacks in the U.S.

The intelligence said the dirty bomb threat to which Padilla had been linked since his arrest in May 2002 had been dismissed by Al Qaeda chieftain Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Instead of a plot to wrap radioactive material around conventional explosives, spewing fallout over a limited area, Mohammed reportedly favored a plan to flatten apartment buildings with natural gas explosions.

The unusual public airing of intelligence, released at a Justice Department news conference, reflected what officials said was an effort to aid public understanding of the case. It comes as the Supreme Court prepares to rule soon on whether Padilla’s arrest and detention were constitutional. Padilla, a U.S. citizen, has never been charged.

The timing of the release triggered concern that the Justice Department was trying to influence the case over Padilla’s detention. When the case was argued in April, some justices questioned whether the government had gone too far in denying Padilla a hearing.

“It is an opening statement at a trial which they refuse to let go forward,” said Donna Newman, a New York lawyer representing Padilla. Newman said the intelligence was nothing more than unproven allegations, and she noted that Padilla had consistently disavowed having planned an attack and had denied any formal alliance with Al Qaeda.

“What does it have to do with whether the president of the United States has the authority to have somebody put in a black hole forever?” she asked.

Newman said the revelations were unfair to her client because the Defense Department was preventing her and other lawyers from speaking about the case openly and fully.

Padilla was arrested after arriving at Chicago’s O’Hare airport on a flight from Pakistan.

Although no charges have been filed against Padilla, President Bush has designated him an enemy combatant -- a status that the government says justifies indefinite detention. Until very recently, Padilla was not allowed to see a lawyer.

Padilla’s lawyers argue that his treatment violates due process of law. The Bush administration says its actions are an appropriate exercise of executive branch powers.

At the news conference Tuesday, Deputy U.S. Atty. Gen. James B. Comey Jr. denied that the release was intended to sway the Supreme Court. He said it was the product of months of effort to compile a complete accounting of how and why Padilla was detained.

“People are right to question when the president of the United States orders the military detention of an American citizen in the United States, and I very much wanted to have some of the answers for folks, and now we do,” said Comey, who as U.S. attorney in New York in 2002 oversaw the early stages of Padilla’s case.

The information “enables us for the first time to tell the full story of Jose Padilla,” he said. “It will allow the American people to understand the threat he posed and also understand the president’s decision was and continues to be essential to the protection of the American people.”

Comey said the case illustrated the need to handle a select number of terrorism-related cases outside the traditional boundaries of the criminal justice system. Had Padilla been provided a lawyer early on, he likely would have exercised his right to remain silent and been released, Comey said, adding that it would have been difficult to strike a plea bargain because the government would not want to compromise intelligence sources to make a criminal case.

The information, based on interviews with Padilla and other unidentified people alleged to be accomplices, and Al Qaeda leaders, alleges a four-year journey into the world of terrorism. The Justice Department gave this account of Padilla’s activities:

In March 2000, Padilla met an Al Qaeda recruiter in Saudi Arabia. That fall, the recruit attended the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Farouk training camp in Afghanistan. There he met Al Qaeda military commander Mohammed Atef, who gave him cash and support.

On Padilla’s second trip to Afghanistan, in July 2001, the idea to blow up apartment buildings was raised. Padilla and Shukrijumah received explosives training, but the mission was abandoned because the two “could not get along,” the report said.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Padilla -- still in Afghanistan -- joined a group of Al Qaeda combatants fleeing U.S. air attacks. At the Afghan-Pakistani border, Padilla met senior Al Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubeida.

Padilla and an accomplice approached Zubeida with a new idea -- to go to the U.S. “to detonate a nuclear bomb they learned to make on the Internet.” Zubeida did not think the concept was “feasible,” and pushed the idea of dirty bombs.

With a letter of introduction from Zubeida, Padilla met Mohammed, considered the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, in March 2002. Mohammed was “very skeptical” of the dirty bomb concept, the intelligence said, and suggested instead that Padilla and his accomplice undertake the apartment building operation.

The plans called for Padilla and his accomplice to locate up to three U.S. high-rise apartment buildings with natural gas supplies. “They would rent two apartments in each building, seal all the openings, turn on the gas, and set timers to detonate the buildings simultaneously at a later time,” the report said.

Selection of the target city was left to Padilla. He told investigators that Mohammed preferred to hit targets in New York, although other options were discussed. The report said that according to other sources, Padilla was instructed to conduct the operation in the central U.S., along the U.S.-Mexican border, perhaps in Texas or California.

According to the report, the night before his departure, Padilla and his accomplice attended a dinner with Mohammed and Al Qaeda operative and Sept. 11 co-conspirator Ramzi Binalshibh.

Padilla left Pakistan on April 5, 2002, bound for the U.S. via Zurich, Switzerland, the report said. After a month in Egypt, he arrived on May 8 at O’Hare airport, where -- after denying he had ever been to Afghanistan -- he was arrested by FBI agents.