Jose Padilla Trial Opens in Miami

MIAMI -- The trial of suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla opened Monday with federal prosecutors arguing the U.S. citizen and two co-defendants provided money, recruits and military equipment for nearly a decade to Islamic extremists involved in violence worldwide.

"The defendants were members of a secret organization, a terrorism support cell, based right here in South Florida," Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier told the jury in his opening statement. "The defendants took concrete steps to support and promote this violence."

Defense attorneys accused the government of distorting the meaning of words such as "jihad" and "mujahedeen." They argued that defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, both 45, were simply assisting oppressed Muslims in war-torn regions and that Padilla, 36, was a peaceful Islamic convert interesting in studying his religion overseas.

Anthony Natale, Padilla's attorney, said the case was the product of "the politics of fear" in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"Political crises can cause parts of our government to overreach. This is one of those times," he said.

Natale said Padilla wanted to become an imam _ an Islamic religious leader _ and asked him to stand for the jury to see. "He's a young man who has been wrongly accused," Natale said.

William Swor, lawyer for Jayyousi, said that his client spoke out about anti-Muslim acts around the world and wrote about them in a newsletter, but that he never supported terrorists or violence.

"The government really is trying to put al-Qaida on trial in this case, and it doesn't belong in this courtroom," Hassoun attorney Jeanne Baker said. "There's a lot of rhetoric, but there's no evidence."

Evidence includes hundreds of FBI wiretap intercepts translated from Arabic, boxloads of documents ranging from bank records to passports and dozens of witnesses.

If convicted of the main charge of conspiracy to "murder, kidnap and maim" people overseas, the three defendants could face life in prison. They also face terrorism material support charges that carry lesser sentences.

Padilla, a former Chicago gang member, has been in federal custody since his May 2002 arrest at O'Hare International Airport. He was initially accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the United States and held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant at a Navy brig, but those allegations are not part of the Miami indictment.

He was added to the Miami case in late 2005 amid a legal battle over the president's wartime detention powers involving U.S. citizens. His lawyers had fought for years to get him before a federal judge.