They finally brought charges against Jose Padilla!

More breaking news:

After sitting in legal limbo for 3 years, Jose Padilla, the suspected "dirty bomber" has finally been indicted.

Amnesty International and other organizations and individuals have for years been petitioning the government to "charge him or release him" (as well as other detainees in the "war in terror". We're not saying he's innocent, just that he has a right to due process in a court of law.

Perhaps justice will finally be served?

From MSBNC:
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In a surprise legal development, suspected "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla has been indicted on criminal charges in Miami and as a result will no longer be an "enemy combatant" in Pentagon custody, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Padilla was indicted on charges that he conspired to "murder, kidnap and maim" people overseas.

A federal grand jury in Miami added Padilla to a pre-existing indictment against four others. While the charges allege Padilla was part of a terrorism conspiracy, they do not include the government’s earlier allegations that he planned to target the United States by using a radioactive dirty bomb and blowing up apartment buildings using natural gas.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he expected Padilla to be alongside the other four when the case goes to trial next September.

"The indictment alleges that Padilla traveled overseas to train as a terrorist with the intention of fighting a violent jihad," Gonzales said at a news conference in Washington. Gonzales declined to answer NBC News questions about why none of the allegations involving attacks in America were included in the indictment.

[...]

Padilla, a Brooklyn-born Muslim convert, has been held as an "enemy combatant" in Defense Department custody for more than three years.

NBC’s Pete Williams reported that Padilla was being transferred from Pentagon custody and into the criminal courts system on Tuesday, ending the long legal battle over whether he should be in military custody.

The Bush administration had resisted calls to charge and try Padilla in civilian courts.

[...]

The indictment avoids a Supreme Court showdown over how long the government could hold a U.S. citizen without charges. The high court had been asked to decide when and for how long the government can jail Americans in military prisons.

"They’re avoiding what the Supreme Court would say about American citizens (as enemy combatants). That’s an issue the administration did not want to face," said Scott Silliman, a Duke University law professor who specializes in national security. "There’s no way that the Supreme Court would have ducked this issue."

Padilla’s lawyers had asked justices to review his case last month, and the Bush administration was facing a deadline next Monday for filing its legal arguments.

"The 'evidence' the government has offered against Padilla over the past three years consists of double and triple hearsay from secret witnesses, along with information allegedly obtained from Padilla himself during his two years of incommunicado interrogation," his lawyers said in their earlier appeal.
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