Document: Padilla Was Planning Terror Attack In Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The latest WikiLeaks postings on the Internet suggest a plan was being cooked up in the year after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to carry out terrorist actions in Chicago.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Bernie Tafoya reports, WikiLeaks put a U.S. military document on the Internet Monday. It says former Chicago gang member Jose Padilla met with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Pakistan in 2002.
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The document says Mohammed directed Padilla to rent an apartment in Chicago and "initiate a natural gas explosion to cause the building to collapse." Mohammed also told Padilla to "study the feasibility" of setting fire to a hotel or gas station, the assessment says.
Padilla was charged in 2002 with plotting to detonate a "dirty bomb," but those charges were later dropped, in part because he was interrogated about the plot in military custody with no lawyer present and was not read his Miranda rights.
But Padilla was still convicted of federal terrorism charges in 2007, stemming from plots with two other reputed al-Qaeda operatives, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi. Padilla was sentenced to 17 years and 4 months in federal prison on a conviction of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas.
The Defense Department on Monday condemned the release of the classified documents, saying they were written between 2002 and early 2009 and "based on a range of information available then," and thus "may or may not represent the current view of a given detainee."
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