Enemy Label in ‘Dirty Bomb’ Case Probed

A judge cleared the way Wednesday for an appeals court to decide whether President Bush had the authority to designate a U.S. citizen as an enemy combatant and let him be questioned indefinitely in an alleged Al Qaeda plot to set off a radioactive “dirty bomb.”

U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey signed an order permitting the government to take legal questions in the case of Jose Padilla to the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals earlier than usually allowed.

Padilla, 31, a former Chicago gang member, has been held at a naval brig in Charleston, S.C., since Bush designated him an enemy combatant. He was arrested last May as he returned from a trip to Pakistan.

Initially held as a material witness in a grand jury probe of the Sept. 11 attacks, Padilla was later accused of approaching Al Qaeda’s top terrorism coordinator in Afghanistan in 2001 and plotting to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb” in the United States.

Such a weapon uses conventional explosives to disperse radioactive materials. The government has said Padilla twice met with senior Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan and discussed the plot.

The government said Padilla had no rights as an enemy combatant, even to meet with lawyers.

The judge has twice ruled that Padilla should be allowed to meet with lawyers. But government lawyers challenged the rulings, saying such a meeting would threaten national security because it could break down the relationship between Padilla and the U.S. government, thwarting efforts to stop future attacks.

Andrew Patel, a lawyer seeking to meet with Padilla, said he was pleased Mukasey sent the major issues to the appeals court, because they were bound to end up there.