AP: FBI Initially Sought Padilla's Cooperation

[Eugene]

FBI Initially Sought Padilla's Cooperation

By CURT ANDERSON
The Associated Press
Monday, July 17, 2006; 2:25 PM

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.

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 Chicago's O'Hare
International 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."

<snip>

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/17/AR2006071700701.html

[leveymg]

1. They only arrest people who are incapable of terrorist acts.

The willing, able and qualified all get recruited as double-agents. Those with special abilities, inside knowledge, and substantial resources become agents provocateur.

So it was with the 9/11 hijackers. Explains how they were able to enter the US without proper visas, move around freely (in one case despite an outstanding arrest warrant), evade detection during the last weeks after the FBI was finally allowed to start looking for them, and get onto commercial airplanes using credits cards in their own names.