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U.S. challenges Padilla detention claim

Padilla

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors are asking a court to dismiss a defense attorney's claim that the U.S. government is holding alleged "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla illegally.

Padilla's attorney also is asking that he be released from custody.

But in a document filed with the U.S. District Court in Lower Manhattan late Wednesday, prosecutors said Padilla's status as an "enemy combatant" -- which the government has cited as a constitutional reason to detain him -- is not diminished by the fact that he is a U.S. citizen.

Prosecutors also said a New York court lacked jurisdiction and that Padilla's attorney lacked legal standing to make the claim.

"Citizens who associate themselves with the enemy, and with its aid, guidance and direction enter this country bent on hostile acts, are enemy belligerents," the prosecution document said.

The prosecutors said Padilla, 31, was trying to infiltrate the United States covertly for the al Qaeda terrorist network, which remains a "serious threat" to the United States. As such, he qualifies as an enemy combatant who is being held consistent with the laws of war.

EXTRA INFORMATION Read the case documents:  • Government motion to dismiss: Padilla v. Bush  • Amended petition for writ of habeas corpus  (FindLaw documents; PDF format)     CNN NewsPass Video    •  'Dirty bomb' case raises questions   •  Lawyer: Padilla's rights violated  MORE STORIES   •  Central Asia 'dirty bomb' fears   •  Worst 'dirty bomb' materials hardest to get   •  No sign 'dirty bomb' has ever been used   •  New device could spot 'dirty bombs'   •  Explosion, not radiation, dirty bomb's worst fallout   •  Zubaydah: Al Qaeda had 'dirty bomb' know-how  RESOURCES   •  On the Scene: How to survive a 'dirty bomb'   •  Map: Dirty bomb: The potential impact   •  Timeline: Abdullah Al Muhajir's rap sheet   •  Interactive: The bomb, the suspect   •  What is a dirty bomb?   •  TIME.com: Person of the Week: Jose Padilla

"The authority of the United States to seize and detain enemy combatants is well settled -- and vital to our core military objectives," the document said.

Unlawful combatants, it said, are "those who, during time of war, pass surreptitiously from enemy territory into our own for the commission of hostile acts involving destruction of life or property," according to case law.

Padilla was arrested May 8 in Chicago on a material witness warrant and then detained in a federal jail in New York before being declared a "military combatant" and taken to a Charleston, South Carolina, military brig June 9.

Attorney: Evidence for indictment not there

The Justice Department alleges Padilla flew to the United States on an al Qaeda scouting mission to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" -- a conventional bomb laced with radioactive material, in the United States.

Padilla -- who also goes by the name of Abdullah Al Muhajir -- was arrested at O'Hare International Airport after arriving from Pakistan on a connecting flight through Zurich. A Muslim convert with a violent criminal record in the United States, Padilla had spent recent years in the Middle East.

Padilla's court-appointed defense attorney, Donna Newman, called for Padilla's release in a document known as a petition for habeas corpus. In her petition, Newman noted that Padilla has not been formally charged with any criminal activity.

"There is insufficient evidence for the government to obtain an indictment," she wrote.

"Among the rights which the government has violated are: His right to due process, his right to be free from unreasonable seizure, his right to counsel, and his right to a grand jury."