Jose Padilla Indicted

- "Dirty Bomb" suspect Jose Padilla, held by the U.S. as an enemy combatant for more than three years, has been indicted on federal charges in Miami, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was expected to discuss the indictment at a news conference in Washington.

Padilla, a Brooklyn-born Muslim convert, has been held as an "enemy combatant" in Defense Department custody for more than three years. The Bush administration had resisted calls to charge and try him in civilian courts.

The indictment avoids a Supreme Court showdown. Padilla's lawyers had asked justices to review his case last month, and the Bush administration was facing a deadline next Monday for filing its legal arguments.

The Padilla case is interesting because Padilla was an American citizen who was captured as he was reentering the US from Pakistan. One of the thorny questions was whether he should continue to be treated as a US citizen, or as an enemy combatant.

Padilla was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in 2002 after returning from Pakistan. The federal government has said he was trained in weapons and explosives by members of al-Qaida.

Although the Justice Department has said that Padilla was readying attacks in the United States, the charges against him and four others allege they were part of a conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim persons in a foreign country and provide material support to terrorists abroad.

The charges are really what the prosecutors think may be the strongest case and what they can prove in court without revealing intelligence sources.

This is a developing story, and expect the usual suspects to be on top of the legal issues involved (Instapundit, Volokh Conspiracy, etc.)

UPDATE:
Here's a copy of the indictment, which includes interesting note that Padilla and his codefendants were followers and supporters of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who is currently serving life without parole after being convicted for crimes stemming from the 1993 WTC bombing and additional terror plots against targets in the New York metropolitan area. The indictments are for conspiracy to commit murder outside the US for the purpose of expanding violent jihad.

The terrorists that have struck at the US are part of a very small cadre of leaders who have dedicated their lives to inflicting mass casualties on the US. Their animus is directed by a select few - Osama bin Laden is one. Sheik Rahman was another. This article has more about those at the top.

UPDATE:
SCOTUSblog has more, as does Orin Kerr, who notes that the timing of this indictment is no coincidence; it comes only six days before the pending certiorari before the US Supreme Court. Kerr thinks that while the indictment was filed to make the writ moot, there is still a possibility that the Court will take up the issue, just as they did in the Hamdan petition.

UPDATE:
Some media outlets are looking at today's indictment and comparing them to earlier statements made by the Administration about Padilla's involvment in trying to detonate a dirty bomb in the US. Is this a major shift in the Administration's case against Padilla, a massive overstatement of the case, or based on new evidence that has been gathered in the past three years? Or, some combination of the above?

One of the things that people need to realize is that terrorism against the US didn't start on 9/11, or even in 1993. We've been dealing with Islamic terrorists for a long time, and that various groups are interrelated to each other. Many were inspired by the 1993 WTC bombers, including bin Laden.

Keep your eye on the linkages to Sheik Rahman. And on Padilla's co-defendants. See Michelle Malkin for more.