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Padilla case going to appeals courtIssues include enemy combatant status
From Phil Hirschkorn
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A federal judge has agreed to ask an appeals court to review his opinion declaring that President Bush has the authority to name and detain "enemy combatants." In an order issued Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey also asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review his opinion that defense attorneys have the right to visit with Padilla, which the government has refused to allow. So far, the government has won the central legal argument in Mukasey's court -- that the president acted lawfully last June when he labeled Padilla an unlawful combatant and transferred his custody from the Justice Department to the Defense Department. Since then, Padilla, a 31-year-old American with a criminal history, has spent 10 months in a Charleston, South Carolina, Navy brig unable to speak to anyone but his captors. The government suspects that Padilla, a convert to Islam also known as Abdullah al Muhajir, was plotting with al Qaeda, the Muslim terrorist group behind the September 11 terrorist attacks, to steal radioactive material to detonate a so-called "dirty bomb" -- a conventional explosive laced with radioactive material -- possibly in Washington, D.C. Mukasey ruled December 4, saying Bush's determination could be upheld in the future if the government provided "some evidence" to support it. On March 11, Mukasey ruled that Padilla should be able to consult with counsel in order to contest the government's evidence and asked both sides to submit conditions for attorney-client meetings. The government declined, saying such meetings could undermine ongoing negotiations and thus jeopardize national security, and asked Mukasey to reconsider his order. Defense attorneys Donna Newman and Andrew Patel want access to Padilla five hours a day over a five-day period. They want to speak to him without audio monitoring and take notes that won't be confiscated. Unshackled visitsThey also want Padilla unshackled when they meet with him and no partitions between them. The attorneys also have asked that Padilla be relieved of any sensory deprivation interrogation techniques, if they are occurring, at least three days before their arrival. "It is moving the process along," Patel said of the order, although it left out the proposed meeting conditions for appellate review. "Hopefully, the appeals court will vindicate Judge Mukasey's ruling that an American citizen has the right to appear in court, through counsel, to contest the legality of his detention," Patel said. U.S. Attorney James Comey had no comment. It is unknown how quickly the appeal will be heard. The FBI initially detained Padilla last May as he arrived at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on a trip from Pakistan. Officials have said top al Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubaydah, now a captive, provided a key tip about Padilla. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Chicago, Padilla has served prison time for a juvenile murder in Illinois and for a gun possession in Florida.
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