Appeals Court Balks at Approving Padilla Plan

Under yesterday's order, Padilla's transfer to the federal prison in Miami, where he was indicted, would be delayed until at least Dec. 16. That's the date the 4th Circuit set to receive defense briefs on whether its earlier ruling should be vacated. Government briefs are due Dec. 9.

The three-page order was entered at the direction of Judge J. Michael Luttig, with the concurrence of Judges M. Blane Michael and William B. Traxler Jr. The same three-judge panel issued September's ruling.

Padilla, a Muslim convert, was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in May 2002. He was sent to a naval brig in South Carolina after being designated an enemy combatant.

The government initially alleged that he was plotting a radiological attack. Justice Department officials then outlined separate allegations in 2004, that Padilla had plotted with high-ranking al Qaeda operatives to blow up U.S. apartment buildings using natural gas.

Attorneys for Padilla, joined by a host of civil liberties organizations, blasted the detention as illegal and said they feared that the military would be allowed to hold anyone.

In its September ruling, the 4th Circuit panel accepted the government's argument that Bush not only had the authority to detain Padilla but that such power is essential to preventing terrorist strikes.

Padilla is one of two U.S. citizens held as enemy combatants since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The other, Yaser Esam Hamdi, was released and flown to Saudi Arabia last year after the Supreme Court upheld the government's power to detain him but said he could challenge that detention in U.S. courts.

The indictment unsealed last week in federal court in Miami charged Padilla with being part of a violent terrorism conspiracy rooted in North America but directed at sending money and recruits overseas to "murder, kidnap and maim."

It did not mention the dirty bomb, apartment building allegations or any plot to attack inside the U.S.