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Terror Suspect Troubled Early On
Tuesday, June 11, 2002
By Ken Thomas
Associated Press Writer

"He was so quiet, so nice. He doesn't look like a person who would do something like that. It would surprise me if he did it," Nelly Ojeda, 64, who lives in the same Chicago three-story flat where Padilla lived as a teen, said.

MIAMI -- AP
Jose Padilla was a former street gang member who spent a stretch in prison for armed robbery and another term behind bars for opening fire on a motorist.

Now he is accused of plotting a larger mayhem: seeking to detonate a radioactive "dirty" bomb.

Padilla, 31, also known as Abdullah al Muhajir, lived in Florida through much of the 1990s and converted to Islam after serving time in a South Florida jail, officials said.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said Padilla traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan during 2001 and met with al-Qaida officials, where he "trained with the enemy, including studying how to wire explosive devices and researching radiological dispersion devices."

The alleged bomb plot possibly targeted Washington but got only as far as the planning stages, authorities said.
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2002 © The Associated Press.

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