CIA agent links al Qaeda form to Padilla - CNN.com
MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- A covert CIA officer permitted to testify wearing a disguise and using an alias described in court Tuesday how U.S. officials in Afghanistan obtained a truckload of al Qaeda documents, including a form later linked to alleged operative Jose Padilla.
The officer, whose true identity is classified, gave his name as Tom Langston. He appeared in court with a beard and glasses, although the nature of the disguise was not obvious or made public. Prosecutors declined to say if any concealment was even used.
The arrangement was approved by U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke at the request of the CIA, which sought to protect the officer's ability to continue doing clandestine work overseas. It was not disclosed to the jury.
Langston testified that he was working in December 2001 at a classified CIA site in Kandahar, Afghanistan, when an Afghan man driving a pickup truck showed up with thousands of pages of documents.
Among them was a bright blue binder containing what appeared to be dozens of forms in Arabic, one of which allegedly turned out to be Padilla's. Prosecutors say his fingerprints are on the "mujahedeen data form," which had questions on language skills, military experience, religious education and other areas.
The form is crucial to the government's case because it could link Padilla and his two alleged co-conspirators -- Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi -- to al Qaeda. The three are charged with being part of a U.S.-based support cell for Islamic extremists around the world, including al Qaeda.
MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- A covert CIA officer permitted to testify wearing a disguise and using an alias described in court Tuesday how U.S. officials in Afghanistan obtained a truckload of al Qaeda documents, including a form later linked to alleged operative Jose Padilla.
The officer, whose true identity is classified, gave his name as Tom Langston. He appeared in court with a beard and glasses, although the nature of the disguise was not obvious or made public. Prosecutors declined to say if any concealment was even used.
The arrangement was approved by U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke at the request of the CIA, which sought to protect the officer's ability to continue doing clandestine work overseas. It was not disclosed to the jury.
Langston testified that he was working in December 2001 at a classified CIA site in Kandahar, Afghanistan, when an Afghan man driving a pickup truck showed up with thousands of pages of documents.
Among them was a bright blue binder containing what appeared to be dozens of forms in Arabic, one of which allegedly turned out to be Padilla's. Prosecutors say his fingerprints are on the "mujahedeen data form," which had questions on language skills, military experience, religious education and other areas.
The form is crucial to the government's case because it could link Padilla and his two alleged co-conspirators -- Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi -- to al Qaeda. The three are charged with being part of a U.S.-based support cell for Islamic extremists around the world, including al Qaeda.
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