Jose Padilla has pleaded 'not guilty' to charges of conspiring to murder Americans with a 'dirty bomb'. Personally I'm glad Padilla is no longer being held as an enemy combatant and will now be put into 'the system'. He'll make some big inmate a mighty fine catch, if you get what I mean. I have a feeling being a nuclear terrorist isn't going to go over too well in federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison. Columbian::

Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen who was held for more than three years as an "enemy combatant," pleaded not guilty Thursday to criminal charges alleging he was part of a secret network that supported Muslim terrorists.

The plea, followed by a judge's refusal to set bail for Padilla, came one week after he was transferred from military to civilian custody. His trial was set for Sept. 9.

"Absolutely not guilty," said Michael Caruso, one of Padilla's lawyers. Padilla did not speak during the hearing, other than to confirm the pronunciation of his name (puh-DIL-uh).

In denying bail, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Garber sided with prosecutors who said Padilla likely would flee and that the charges - including allegations that he attended an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan - made him dangerous.

"How much more dangerous can someone be than someone who attended a terrorist training camp?" prosecutor Stephanie Pell said.

Posted by: Rusty at 05:17 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 240 words, total size 2 kb.