U.S. Wins Court Ruling in 'Dirty Bomb' Case
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court ruled Friday that Jose Padilla, held for more than three years after federal officials said he planned to set off radiological devices, or "dirty bombs," could be detained indefinitely without trial.
The unanimous decision by a panel of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals significantly boosts the Bush administration's program of jailing key Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects without filing criminal charges or holding trials -- whether the detainees were Americans arrested in the U.S. or citizens of other countries seized abroad -- in an effort to squeeze intelligence information from alleged terrorist operatives.
The ruling could have major implications for detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where many, like Padilla, have been deemed "enemy combatants." Judge J. Michael Luttig wrote the decision for the three-member panel in Richmond, Va. He is considered to be on President Bush's short list of candidates to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court.
Padilla's attorneys plan to appeal the ruling to the high court. If they do not prevail, Friday's ruling apparently would seal Bush's controversial use of executive authority to skirt the U.S. courts.
"The court's ruling effectively declares the entire world, including the United States, to be a battlefield subject to military jurisdiction, where American citizens can be stripped of their constitutional rights," said Deborah Pearlstein, director of the U.S. law and security program at Human Rights First, an advocacy group in New York and Washington.
At the heart of the White House argument to indefinitely detain half a dozen terrorist suspects in this country, as well as the captives at Guantanamo Bay, was the fear that they could be acquitted at trial and then released.
The Authorization for Use of Military Force joint resolution, which Congress enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks, allows the president to indefinitely detain suspected terrorists "in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States," the appeals court said.
Equally important, administration officials said, was the need to interrogate suspects to learn about potential attacks.
In Padilla's case, Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales indicated Friday that his continuing incarceration had paid off in new U.S. intelligence about terrorist activities.
