Terror Plotter Can't Fight 'Enemy Combatant' Status

[The Straight Story]

Terror Plotter Can't Fight 'Enemy Combatant' Status

(CN) - Federal authorities did not misuse the enemy combatant designation to detain an American citizen who was later convicted of a "dirty bomb" plot, the 4th Circuit ruled.

Jose Padilla was labeled an enemy combatant with close ties to al-Qaida in May 2002 when authorities picked him up at Chicago's O'Hare airport on a flight from Pakistan via Switzerland.

After several weeks of detention, authorities transferred the Brooklyn-born suspect to a Navy brig where he underwent two years of extensive interrogation without the benefit of counsel, family or friends. Padilla then spent another year and a half in federal custody as various courts weighed in on his rights.

Government officials said Padilla had been convicted of murder in the past and planned to build a dirty bomb that he would detonate in the United States. After prosecutors finally brought federal conspiracy charges in 2006, a Miami jury convicted Padilla the following year and he was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/01/25/43339.htm

[Bandit]

1. Picked up in 2002 and ten years later got an answer from the court

Whether being named an "Enemy Combatant" was correct.. what if it had not been? The Constitution guarantees Citizens the "Right" to a Speedy Trial and a Jury of Peers.. If he was not a soldier how can a military "trial" be considered "Peers"