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CNN Live Today

Man in Custody in Pakistan Possible Coconspirator with Padilla

Aired June 11, 2002 - 12:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now first today, the alleged plot to expose an American city to potentially deadly radiation. U.S. officials say a second man is in custody in Pakistan in connection with the dirty bomb plot. He is identified as a possible coconspirator of the U.S. citizen arrested in Chicago on return from Pakistan.

CNN's Kelli Arena has the latest now on this story from Washington -- hi, Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra.

We do have a lot of information coming, so stick with me. First of all, we have some conflicting information coming in on Jose Padilla. Now one overseas intelligence agencies said that it had received information on him before 9/11. Now that suggests that he has been under surveillance for quite some time. But at least one U.S. official disputes that claim.

What we know for sure is that Abu Zubaydah, who is the senior al Qaeda operative who remains in U.S. custody, gave investigators some information on the dirty bomb plot two weeks before Padilla's arrest. Now investigators then interrogated other detainees, which led to the fingering of Padilla and that accomplice you just mentioned who is in custody in Pakistan.

Now, meanwhile, criticism continues to mount over the fact that Padilla has not been charged and is in military custody. He is being held in a military brig in Charleston, South Carolina. Well today, in Budapest, Hungary, Attorney General John Ashcroft defended that decision, saying that the indefinite imprisonment is proper because of the seriousness of the threat that he poses.

Now justice has left open the option of filing charges in the criminal system, but Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld today suggested that the U.S. is actually more interested in getting information out of Padilla rather than in punishing him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We are not interested in trying him at the moment, we are not interested in punishing him at the moment. We are interested in finding out what in the world he knows. Here is a person who unambiguously was interested in radiation weapons and terrorist activity, and was in league with al Qaeda.

Now our job, as responsible government officials, is to do everything possible to find out what that person knows.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARENA: Right now, there is no time line on how long Padilla will remain in custody. The best that anybody can do at this point is to say indefinitely -- Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: Kelli Arena, thanks for the latest details on that.

And the American suspect in the alleged al Qaeda plot has a history of violence.

CNN's Jeff Flock is in Chicago, where the suspect's rap sheet began -- Jeff good to see you.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, good to see you.

I was just thinking about what Kelli was reporting. It sort of dovetails with what we are getting here as well. I've got a lot of information here, too, so bear with me as well.

We just now obtained all of Mr. Padilla's arrest records in Cook County here over the course of his adult time here. Of course he has a separate juvenile bunch of records. And the only picture, as we said that we have from is the Florida arrest. We do not have any mug shots here. We, of course, do have the Florida mug shot.

But this is some of the documents we've just obtained. In the documents, not only his arrest record, but the fact that he used multiple aliases at different times. And there are many of these crimes that he apparently did not appear back in court for, jumped bail on.

So there may be other crimes out there for which he has been charged that have not yet been adjudicated. So when the defense secretary says they are not interested in prosecuting for anything they have got at this time, there may be some folks in Cook County who have something to say about that, as well as down in Florida.

Now let's give you a tour of this man's time spent both here, as well as in Florida. First of all, to the juvenile detention center. As we mentioned, he had a juvenile record that dates back to 1985 when he was 15 years old. He served time in a cell like this one in the Cook County detention center.

He then was moved to St. Charles, Illinois. He was sentenced to a term out there. Spent, we believe, about three years out in suburban Chicago and this Cain (ph) County Juvenile Detention Center in St. Charles, Illinois.

And then separately, almost a year in Florida in the Broward County Jail. He wound up there on charges in connection with a road rage incident in Broward County, Florida. Wound up in the jail awaiting trial. Eventually was convicted, but the time served was apparently enough to cover the sentence and so was released there.

Again, the defense secretary saying they are looking more for cooperation than prosecution. But this is a man who also has a long history of not cooperating with authorities. When you go through some of these arrest records, it appears in almost every one of them there was some sort of a resisting arrest for a battery charge, or arguing with police.

So, again, a man with a long history of not cooperating is the man that they really want the most cooperation from. Kyra, that's the latest from here -- back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Jeff Flock, thank you. And your information comes at perfect timing. We're going to take it to Deborah Feyerick now. She's in New York. She was in the courtroom for the proceedings that are taking place concerning Jose Padilla -- what can you tell us, Deb?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the lawyer who was in court is the lawyer who was representing Jose Padilla before he was taken away to South Carolina and put under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense.

The lawyer, Donna Newman, is arguing that Jose is being held unlawfully, and she's trying to get his material witness warrant tossed out. That material witness warrant is under seal. So the lawyer says that outside of news reports, she is not even clear why Padilla is being held.

Now he was here for about a month. He was held in New York City at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on a high security floor where other al Qaeda operatives were also being kept and where they are held before U.S. embassy bombers were there pending their trial last year.

Now she says that she met frequently with her client. She discounts the government's contention that he has been uncooperative. She says as far as somebody who is being held, he is being very cooperative, at least in her opinion.

She says Jose Padilla has not been able to make any phone calls out, not that he is not allowed to, he just has not been able to make those calls. Now he has been in court at least two times, but all of this, Kyra, is under seal. So it is very difficult for her to divulge what she knows, because she does not even know that much according to go her.

So the big issue right now is just how much control or power she has over this man. He was under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice. That is why he was being held under a material witness warrant. But the judge said that was taken away on Sunday. And so right now he is basically in custody of the government, not the Department of Justice.

So she doesn't know how much access she will have to him, if any, or whether in fact she will have any say in what his outcome is -- Kyra. PHILLIPS: All right. Deborah Feyerick with the latest there from the courtroom. Thank you so much.

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