Padilla, José (1970–)

An American-born convert to Islam, José Padilla became known in the U.S. media as the “Dirty Bomber.” He was accused by the U.S. government in 2002 of being tasked by al Qaeda's leadership to detonate nuclear materials inside the United States. Subsequent investigations revealed that Padilla had indeed consorted with al Qaeda's mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and discussed attacking the United States, but his plan involved blowing up apartment buildings using natural gas. Initially detained in a Navy brig as an enemy combatant, Padilla was later charged in a civilian court for his role in a South Florida–based recruitment network and sentenced to 17 years in jail.

Born in Brooklyn in 1970, José Padilla moved as a child to Chicago, where he grew up in an underprivileged neighborhood with his mother and four siblings. As a teenager he joined a gang and was frequently involved in criminal activities. At age 14 he served his first stint in jail after he and a friend killed a Mexican immigrant they had tried to rob. He was placed in juvenile detention until he was 19.

Shortly after his release, Padilla relocated to South Florida, where he served additional time for other felonies. At 21 he obtained a job at a local fast-food outlet and, together with his Jamaican girlfriend (soon to be his wife), became interested in Islam. Upon converting he abandoned his criminal life and immersed himself in religious studies. While attending the Masjid al Iman mosque in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Padilla met Adham Hassoun, the head of the Florida chapter of Benevolence International Foundation, an al Qaeda–linked charity shut down by U.S. authorities after 9/11. Hassoun was also at the center of a nationwide network that recruited for various jihadist causes throughout the 1990s.

In 1998 Padilla left his wife and moved to Egypt, ostensibly to study Arabic and live in an Islamic environment. He married a local woman, but soon began spending extensive time in Yemen, where he met an al Qaeda recruiter who sponsored him to travel to Afghanistan. There, in the fall of 2000, he completed basic training at al Qaeda's al Farouq training camp under the name Abdullah al Espani (Abdullah the Hispanic).

At al Farouq, Padilla met Muhammad Atef, then al Qaeda's military commander. Atef became a mentor for the young American militant and tasked him with a mission to return to America and blow up apartment buildings using natural gas. Padilla accepted and went on to train with an explosives expert at a site near Kandahar Airport. However, disagreements between Padilla and his designated accomplice, fellow Florida resident Adnan Shukrijumah, brought the plan to a halt.

A few weeks later, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, U.S. forces attacked Afghanistan and Atef was killed in the bombing of his hideout. Padilla barely escaped with his life and fled to Pakistan. Near the Afghan-Pakistani border Padilla met the senior al Qaeda official Abu Zubaydah, who had assumed the role of coordinating the activities of the al Qaeda militants fleeing Afghanistan after the [Page 456]U.S. invasion. Padilla presented Zubaydah with a plan to detonate explosives wrapped in uranium (a “dirty bomb”) on U.S. soil. Zubaydah was skeptical about the feasibility of the plan but nevertheless referred Padilla to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and al Qaeda chief of operations.

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