Senator Arlen Specter wants to know why the DoJ held Jose Padilla in a secure location for three years without representation--on the suspicion he was planning a dirty bomb attack--then charged him with something else when faced with the prospect of defending themselves in the Supreme Court.
Specter said that "depending on what responses we get" from the Justice Department, he may hold a hearing on the matter.
It's no secret why the government didn't want to press the dirty bomb charges--the adminstration's only prosecution witnesses were high-value AQ detainees kept in the super-secret eastern European prisons. In light of what we're seen so far in the Saddam and Sami al-Arian trials, it's no wonder the government doesn't want to bring these guys into a US court.
One could say the government knew that early on. Padilla was captured before the AQ prisoners necessary to testify against him were, therefore they had to hold him somehow (letting him go was not an option). Placing Padilla in the criminal justice system would have required a charge within a reasonable amount of time.
Perhaps Specter is curious as to why Ashcroft didn't go after the same secondary counts he's now faced with at the outset. The most likely answer is because FBI/CIA wanted time to extract intelligence information from him, not entirely possible any other way. If true Specter should know that, which would raise a flag as to his motives here. This is something not to be politicized.
In sum, based on the dirty bomb threat (which has yet to be debunked) and from what we've learned from the media, it seems the DoJ did the prudent thing in their handling of Padilla. Yes, the enemy combatant issue could use some clarification, as we'll certainly see more Jose Padillas in the future. Let's just hope that's Specter's true motivation here. We shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
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