Not gonna snitch? Ok, you’re a terrorist
Jose Padilla convicted after refusing to turn informant
Agent: FBI sought ‘dirty bomb’ suspect’s help
By Curt Anderson
07/20/06 “AP” – – MIAMI – The FBI initially sought terror suspect Jose Padilla’s cooperation to help prevent what intelligence sources indicated might be an imminent al-Qaida attack, an FBI agent testified Monday.
Padilla refused and was later implicated in an alleged radioactive ‘‘dirty bomb’’ plot and declared an enemy combatant.
‘I didn’t want to arrest him’
Russell Fincher, an agent in the FBI’s New York-based unit investigating Osama bin Laden, testified at a pretrial hearing for Padilla that he met him at O’Hare Airport in May 2002 believing he could gain information on al-Qaida’s plans.
‘’I believed there was a terrorist act that was going to happen. I believed he had knowledge of that. I needed his help,’’ Fincher said of Padilla. ‘‘I didn’t want to arrest him.’’ </i>
