Homeland Security

DATE=6/1/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-S TERROR CASE (L ONLY)

NUMBER=2-316374

BYLINE=JIM MALONE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The U.S. government has released new information about Jose Padilla, one of two American citizens being held as so-called enemy combatants in the war on terrorism. We have a report from National correspondent Jim Malone.

TEXT: The Justice Department says Jose Padilla received terrorist training at a camp in Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001.

Deputy Attorney General James Comey told a Washington news conference that Mr. Padilla also met in 2001 with senior al-Qaida leaders who helped him with a plot to use natural gas to blow up apartment buildings in the United States.

/// 1ST COMEY ACT ///

Padilla and the other operative trained under the guidance of this explosives expert and learned about switches and circuits and timers. They learned how to seal an apartment to trap the natural gas and to prepare an explosion using that gas that would have maximum yield and destroy an apartment building.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Comey says the information was revealed by Mr. Padilla through interrogations and is being released to the public because of a request from Congress. He says Mr. Padilla planned to hit apartment buildings in New York City, but that targets in Washington and Florida were also discussed.

Jose Padilla was arrested in May of 2002 when he arrived in Chicago from the Middle East. A month later, President Bush designated Mr. Padilla an enemy combatant, meaning he could be held by the military indefinitely without being charged or given access to a lawyer.

Deputy Attorney General Comey says his designation as an enemy combatant allowed the government to learn about his alleged terrorist activities, including his desire to detonate a radiological, so-called "dirty", bomb somewhere in the United States.

/// 2ND COMEY ACT ///

Two-years ago the President of the United States faced a very difficult choice. After a careful process, he decided to declare Jose Padilla for what he was, an enemy combatant, a member of a terrorist army bent on waging war against innocent civilians. And the president's decision was to hold him to protect the American people and to find out what he knows. We now know much of what Jose Padilla knows and what we have learned confirms that the President of the United States made the right call.

/// END ACT ///

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering an appeal from Mr. Padilla's lawyers as to whether the government has the right to designate American citizens as enemy combatants. The high court is expected to issue a ruling in the case sometime before the end of this month. (SIGNED)

NEB/JBM/RAE/FC