While it seems a long way from small-time street thug to Al Qaeda operative, the government asserts that the 31-year-old Padilla, who grew up in Logan Square, was trained in terror at a Pakistani safe house.
Padilla was arrested in 1985 in connection with a Chicago murder and held in juvenile detention until his 18th birthday. He went on to face several other criminal convictions before converting to Islam and eventually leaving the country.
A recently released government memo says Padilla was taught by a senior Al Qaeda leader to build a bomb that spreads radiation without a nuclear explosion.
But Padilla’s attorney says the government’s case against her client is weak, and that Padilla, who has not been charged with any crime, is being held illegally.
While Padilla’s attorney and federal prosecutors continue to argue over his status, the government continues to hold the man President Bush designated as an “enemy combatant.”
