Tuesday, June 01, 2004 (Foxnews.com)
WASHINGTON — Jose Padilla, a highly-trained "soldier of our enemy," planned to blow up hotels and high-rise apartment buildings in the United States, Deputy Attorney General James Comey alleged at a news conference Tuesday...
The Justice Department on Tuesday detailed his alleged Al Qaeda training in Afghanistan and contacts with the most senior members of the terrorist network, his travel back into the United States and preparations to rent apartments and set off explosives...
"Padilla and the accomplice were to locate as many as three high-rise apartment buildings which had natural gas supplied to the floors," the government summary of interrogations said. The alleged accomplice is in custody....
"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 papers alleged...
Comey said Padilla suggested to his handlers that he detonate a nuclear bomb that he thought he could make from instructions on the Internet, or that he set off a dirty bomb that would release deadly radiation in a small area. His handlers did not think either was feasible, Comey said, and wanted him to focus instead on the apartment-building plot...
Padilla was to conduct an Internet search on buildings that had natural gas heating, open a bank account and obtain documents needed to rent an apartment, the government said. The plot called for blowing up 20 buildings simultaneously, but Padilla allegedly said he could not rent multiple apartments under one identity without drawing attention...
Comey traced Padilla's alleged transition into a terrorist as beginning in earnest in March 2000, when he joined a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia and met an Al Qaeda recruiter. Two months later, he met someone in Yemen who arranged training for him in the Afghan terrorist camps, Comey said...
He said Padilla signed an application joining Al Qaeda in July 2000. During his training, Comey said, Padilla met senior Al Qaeda officials including Abu Zubaydah, the network's operations chief in Afghanistan; and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks...
"We have decided to release this information to help people understand why we are doing what we are doing in the war on terror and to help people understand the nature of the threat we face," he said...
He asserted that if Padilla had been handled by the usual criminal justice system, he could have stayed silent and "would likely have ended up a free man."
