Padilla called "star recruit" for U.S. terrorist cell

By Jane Sutton

MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. citizen Jose Padilla was the "star recruit" for a Florida terrorism support cell that sent the former dirty bomb suspect to an al Qaeda camp to learn how to kill, a prosecutor told jurors in closing arguments on Monday.

The high-profile terrorism case against Padilla and two co-defendants is expected to go to the jury on Tuesday.

All three face life in prison if convicted on charges that they provided material support for Islamist terrorist groups and conspired to murder, kidnap and maim people in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia and other countries from 1993 to 2001.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier told jurors that the three were associated with al Qaeda, "which is really just a murder conspiracy with a name."

He said defendants Adham Hassoun and Kifah Jayyousi recruited and financed the training of Islamist fighters who plotted to kill anyone who opposed their plan to establish strict Taliban-style governments everywhere Muslims lived.

Hassoun recruited Padilla at a south Florida mosque both attended and arranged for him to go to an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, Frazier said.

"Training with al Qaeda was a crime because al Qaeda trained people to kill," he said.

Wiretapped phone conversations between Padilla and Hassoun demonstrate that Padilla was patient and secretive, Frazier said.

"This is why he was a star recruit," he said.

Padilla's lawyers, who did not call any witnesses during the three-month trial, argue that he went to Egypt to learn Arabic and study Islam, and that members of the Florida mosque donated money to finance his studies.

Lawyers for Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian, and Jayyousi, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Jordan, said they worked with charities that provided legitimate aid to Muslims who were being slaughtered in Bosnia, Chechnya and elsewhere.

AL QAEDA "APPLICATION FORM"

The main evidence against Padilla is what the government calls an al Qaeda application form bearing his fingerprints, birthdate and similar background. It was recovered in Afghanistan and says the author speaks English, Spanish and Arabic, graduated from high school and trained as a carpenter, as Padilla did.

It used a name prosecutors contend was Padilla's alias, and lists as his sponsor a man whose name was in Padilla's address book when he was arrested.

Padilla's defense is expected to argue his fingerprints could have got on the form when investigators handed it to him to examine after his arrest.