By CURT ANDERSON
The Associated Press
Tuesday, July 3, 2007; 2:46 PM
MIAMI -- The prosecution's star witness in the Jose Padilla trial on terrorism-support charges apologized Tuesday after being admonished by the judge for speaking to CNN about the bomb investigation in Britain.
"I'm not pleased," said U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke. She has expressed repeated concerns that jurors could be swayed by news accounts of terrorism-related events around the world, which have occurred throughout the eight weeks of testimony.
"It is very difficult, or could be very difficult, if one of our jurors were to see you," Cooke told the expert, Rohan Gunaratna, before jurors arrived in court. "I cannot force you not to speak. I would strongly urge you not to."
Gunaratna apologized and said he would not do it again while still a witness in the trial of Padilla and co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi.
"I will not speak to any media on my specialty until I finish my testimony," said Gunaratna, an al-Qaida expert and head of the Singapore-based International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research.
The three defendants are charged with being part of a North American support cell that provided financing, supplies and recruits to Islamic extremists around the world. Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant on suspicion of plotting with al-Qaida to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the U.S., but those allegations are not part of the trial.
Jayyousi attorney William Swor had asked Cooke to admonish Gunaratna for his TV appearance, in which he discussed how and why groups such as al-Qaida are able to attract highly educated people such as the physicians being questioned in the London and Glasgow investigations. Swor noted that his client, Jayyousi, has a doctorate.
"It was inappropriate. He's not supposed to be testifying outside of court," Swor said.
The terrorism investigation in Great Britain is only the latest incident to make front-page news and appear on television screens since the Padilla trial began May 14. Also drawing heavy media coverage: U.S. disruptions of alleged terrorist plots at Fort Dix, N.J., and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport as well as flare-ups of violence in Lebanon, Iraq and elsewhere.
Cooke, however, has been reluctant to sequester the 16 jurors and alternates for the long trial, preferring instead to repeatedly remind them not to read or watch any news accounts of the case and not to let outside events they do learn about sway their thinking.
The jurors are also told not to discuss the case among themselves. Yet it's clear they do talk to each other, in part because they frequently show up in court in coordinated clothing.
One time it was all black. Last Friday all the women wore pink and the men blue, and Tuesday they were in rows of red, white and blue, presumably for July Fourth.
Cooke dismissed the jurors until Monday for an Independence Day break.
Prosecutors said they expect their case to wrap in a week to 10 days, to be followed by defense testimony lasting into August. If convicted, the defendants face possible life prison sentences.
