chargepadilla.org

I've written before about Jose Padilla, the alleged potential terrorist who was arrested in Chicago on May 8th on the suspicion that he might be planning to set off a "dirty bomb".  In June, it was announced that he was being transferred from the criminal justice system to the military one, where he has spent the last 5 months in detention with no charges having been filed and no access to his lawyer on the President's determination that he is an "enemy combatant".

As Time Magazine noted when Padillo (also known as Abdullah al Muhajir) was arrested:

Indeed, rather than a specific conspiracy to detonate a radiological bomb at a designated target, al Muhajir may have been doing a feasibility study. There was no suggestion, for example, that either al Muhajir or any other al-Qaeda operatives might already be in possession of the necessary radiological materials. "They didn't seem to think they'd have a problem getting radiological materials," a U.S. official told the New York Times. "But they didn't have any."

According to the same article, even Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz noted that there was no actual plan in place yet, only that Padillo was here to do reconnisance for a possible target.

One other thing that's interesting about Padillo's arrest is that law enforcement officials had followed him here from overseas, and arrested him immediately after his plane landed in Chicago.  This means that they obviously knew who he was and were able to track his movements reasonably well.  If they believed he was only here on a reconnisance mission, and that whomever he was working with on this possible plot did not yet even have the materials for making a "dirty bomb", why arrest him immediately upon landing rather than continuing to track his movements and find out who else he was working with?  It's not a question that's been answered yet.

Imagine for a moment a group of friends sitting around discussing the possiblity of robbing a bank.  Now, obviously, that's not a good thing for people to do, but just say that's what's happening.  One person says they will go down to the local bank and check it out to see if a robbery there would even be feasible.  At this point, all that's happening is talk.  No equipment has been purchase, no dates set, no real "plans" of any kind have been made.  So far, no crime has been committed, and there wouldn't be any grounds for arresting someone.   Yet, from the reports that have been made public, this is about as far as the whole "dirty bomb" plot got - and this is what Padillo has been jailed for for the last 6 months (counting the first month before he was turned over to the military). 

A new site has been created to help raise awareness of Padillo's situation and to mobilize the public to insist that, at the very least, he be charged with something.  ChargePadillo.org offers information on the case, links to articles and legal materials relevent to Padillo's situation, suggestions for action individuals can take to make their concerns known, and a message board.  The site is young, but well organized and Timothy, the site owner, looks to be taking a very pragmatic approach to Padillo's situation.  As demonstrated by the sites URL, he is not claiming that this is a clearly innocent person who's being maltreated, but recognizes that, yes, Padillo may, in act, be guilty of something - but even if he is, he deserves to be treated with the basic rights that are guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and he should be charged with whatever counts are appropriate and given a fair trial.