Jose Padilla, a US citizen held without charge for more than three years after being accused of planning to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb” in a large American city, was yesterday indicted on the lesser charges of conspiring to “murder, kidnap and maim persons” overseas.
The original allegations against Mr Padilla, a Brooklyn-born Muslim convert who until yesterday was being held as an “enemy combatant” at a navy prison in South Carolina, were used by the White House as evidence of the continued threat posed by al-Qaida to the US homeland.
Announcing the charges against Mr Padilla yesterday, the attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, refused to comment on why no allegations involving attacks on America were included.
See also “US man guilty of Bush death plot”, BBC News, 22 November 2005