FBI intercepts key in Padilla case

The FBI intercepted more than 300,000 calls during a nearly decade-long investigation into a purported Islamic extremist support cell that suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla eventually joined, an agent told jurors Tuesday.

The tapes form the backbone of the federal case against Padilla and his two suspected co-conspirators, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi. Jurors in the trial of the three men are expected to begin hearing the tapes and reading translations from Arabic to English in the coming days.

Prosecutors say they will show that Hassoun, Jayyousi and others plotted _ often using code words _ to raise money, funnel supplies and identify recruits for violent Islamic causes around the world. Lawyers for Hassoun and Jayyousi contend they were simply helping oppressed and persecuted Muslims.

Padilla, suspected of being one of the support cell's recruits, can be heard on seven calls, and his name is mentioned on about two dozen others, according to court documents. The key piece of evidence against him is a "mujahedeen data form" he allegedly completed to attend an al-Qaida terror training camp in 2000.

Padilla, a 36-year-old U.S. citizen, was arrested in May 2002 at O'Hare International Airport on suspicion that he was on a mission to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the United States. He was held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant and charged in late 2005 in the Miami case, which does not include the dirty bomb allegations.

The terror support cell investigation began years before Padilla came on the scene.

FBI agent Kent Hukill testified Tuesday that about 14,000 of the calls made by Hassoun and Jayyousi were considered "pertinent" to the investigation, which began in 1994. Prosecutors are submitting as trial evidence 123 calls, a tiny fraction of the total collected.

Hukill said he has spoken with Hassoun, who worked as a computer programmer in the suburb of Sunrise, on four occasions and was familiar with the sound of his voice.

"It's the same voice. He has a very distinctive laugh. It's the same tone," he testified.

Defense lawyers attempted to raise doubts about which phone intercepts were chosen by the FBI for evidence out of such a huge number.

"You don't know what's in the tapes that were not summarized?" asked Jayyousi lawyer William Swor.

"Not specifically, I don't," Hukill replied.

Hukill said the telephone surveillance was part of an FBI intelligence investigation, which before the 2001 passage of the Patriot Act antiterrorism law was considered separate from an FBI criminal investigation.

The 2001 law gave the FBI authority to use information gathered for intelligence purposes in criminal cases, and a criminal probe against Hassoun was opened in May 2002. Warrants for the wiretaps were approved by a secret court under the federal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.

Hukill testified that the FBI had wiretaps on four telephone numbers used by Hassoun and at least eight linked to Jayyousi _ a school administrator and engineer _ including numbers in San Diego and Los Angeles. FISA warrants were also approved for Jayyousi surveillance in Baltimore and Detroit, the FBI agent said.

All three defendants face life in prison if convicted.