WITNESS WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE OF PADILLA TESTIFIES IN CASE

Abby Goodnough writes in today's The New York Times that the government's star prosecution witness, Yahya Goba, was one of the Lackawanna Six to plead guilty to attending a "terrorist training camp."

What this has to do with Jose Padilla is another matter. Mr. Goba did not know Mr. Padilla, was not at the camp with Mr. Padilla, and has no first-hand knowledge idea what happened to Mr. Padilla or what Mr. Padilla did when Padilla was in Pakistan.

“If we are not allowed to put this evidence in,” a government prosecutor, Brian Frazier, told Judge Cooke on Friday before the jury was brought in, “our knees are cut out from under us.”

"As the defense forcefully pointed out and as Judge Cooke agreed, Mr. Goba has no material connection to Mr. Padilla or his co-defendants, Adham Hassoun and Kifah Jayyousi, who are charged with recruiting Mr. Padilla for terrorist training.


“What Goba did is not relevant to anything in this case, period,” William Swor, a lawyer for Mr. Jayyousi, argued before the jury came in.

"Judge Cooke allowed Mr. Goba to describe just his experience at the camp and the form he filled out. To the government’s frustration, she instructed the jury not to draw any inference from Mr. Goba’s testimony that Mr. Padilla attended the camp."

So Mr. Goba is not testifying that he saw Jose Padilla at the camp. Goba has no first-hand knowledge that Padilla was, before or after his time, at the same camp. Goba does not know if or why Padilla travelled to Pakistan.

So where is the evidence of the prosecution that Mr. Padilla did anything wrong? Or that he did anything against the law of the United States or that attended a "terrorist training camp?"

The reporter in The New York Times adds:

"Mr. Goba has also testified for the government at trials of terrorism suspects in Australia, Idaho and New York.

"Under cross-examination, he testified that he expected to enter the witness protection program after his 10-year prison term. He conceded that “muhajid” means “brother who fights for Islam,” and does not necessarily connote physical fighting.

"He also said his training at the camp was not “terrorist training,” but, as Michael Caruso, a lawyer for Mr. Padilla, said, “strictly military training, similar to a boot camp.”"