Padilla.

This is coolbert:

Good article in the Chicago Tribune today concerning the trial, on going, of Jose Padilla.

“Padilla tapes suggest a man adrift”

Accused of giving material aid to terrorists.

Was originally arrested at O’Hare airport in Chicago as he got off the plane from Pakistan. Had attended Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and was purportedly on a mission to facilitate the detonation of a radioactive “dirty bomb”.

[also was supposed to be investigating the possibility of blowing up large high-rise apartment complexes.]

Padilla was declared an unlawful enemy combatant and held in a Navy brig for a number of years before going to trial. Has claimed he was “tortured”.

The case of Padilla has been controversial. Is now being tried on LESSER charges.

“accused of a conspiracy to commit violence overseas and providing material support for terrorism.”

[albeit still serious charges.]

Padilla has had a very checkered past. Was a member of a Puerto Rican street gang in Chicago as a youth.

Did a lot of mayhem in his lifetime. Served time in prison for murder [of another gang member?].

Became a Muslim while in prison [don’t they all!!].

Was allegedly recruited to Al Qaeda while living in Florida.

APPARENTLY, WAS UNDER SURVEILLANCE FOR SOME TIME PRIOR TO 9/11??

“Because from the summer of 1998, when he moved from Florida to Egypt, through the spring of 2000 . . . his own and in his associates wiretapped conversations.”

Padilla is the type of recruit that Al Qaeda is looking for? Outward appearance would seem to indicate so. A person with a proven track record of violence. Hardened by prison life, a convert to Islam [converts can be the most zealous], a person who can easily move within American society and NOT draw attention to himself!

THE REALITY IS THAT PADILLA IS JUST POOR MATERIAL FOR RECRUITMENT TO ANY KIND OF ORGANIZATION!! MUCH LESS A GROUP OF TERRORISTS OPERATING IN A CLANDESTINE AND SURREPTITIOUS MANNER!!

An undisciplined, lazy, shiftless, not-very-bright, basically worthless person who has aimlessly bounced around his whole life! Thought he saw in radical Islam a vehicle for redressing his grievances against American society and bringing meaning to his life.

[in this regard Jose is quite similar to Derrick Shareef, the Rockford, Illinois, terrorist wannabee. The disaffected, pissed off young man who wants to take it out on all of society for his own marked failures!!]

As to his lackadaisical and lazy attitude and life style:

“He struggled to learn Arabic, with one of his friends describing him with some exasperation as a slow learner’ - - so lazy that Padilla would learn only if they put a dictionary in his bed.”

From the conversations of his associates:

“Is he speaking Arabic, or he hasn’t learned anything yet?”

“No. He basically, uh, basically, he is a slow learner. I mean he is a slow learner.”

“So during the time he spent there, did he learn anything?”

“Basically, he doesn’t speak, sheikh. Basically, he doesn’t want to speak. I mean, the man doesn’t - - doesn’t move.”

Don’t have ANY sympathy or pity for Jose. He is just a plain old ordinary bad guy who is either a spy/terrorist facilitator or an unlawful enemy combatant whose intention was to commit mass murder on behalf of a foreign power [Al Qaeda].

“Accused terrorist was frustrated, lethargic”

AND NOT VERY BRIGHT EITHER!!

coolbert.