Court to Hear Case of Sept. 11 Suspect
A federal appeals court is the next stop in the case of an American citizen challenging the U.S. government’s anti-terror authority to jail him indefinitely and deny him access to a lawyer. The case of Jose Padilla, 31, was set to be heard Monday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He is suspected of plotting with al-Qaida operatives to detonate a radioactive “dirty” bomb. Padilla, who is Muslim, has been in a naval brig in Charleston, S.C., since being designated an enemy combatant by President Bush in June 2002. The designation strips a person of the right to counsel and allows the government to detain him for as long as it wants without charging him. Full Story