After being held as an "enemy combatant" for 3 1/2 years, Jose Padilla's terrorism charges appear to be much smoke and little to no fire.

When federal prosecutors begin to present evidence Monday against terrorism suspect Jose Padilla, their case is expected to rest heavily on a single document: his alleged application to become an Islamic warrior.

The federal indictment says Padilla filled out the mujahedin data form on July 24, 2000, "in preparation for violent jihad training in Afghanistan." The indictment alleges Padilla and two codefendants sought U.S. recruits and funding for foreign holy wars.

Nowhere in the indictment is there mention of the sensational charges leveled against Padilla when he was arrested at O'Hare International Airport in May 2002. Then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said U.S. agents had thwarted a plot between Padilla, who is a U.S. citizen, and top Al Qaeda figures to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" or blow up apartment buildings in U.S. cities.

The case against Padilla, now 36, has come a long way since then, and illustrates how the administration's policies of detaining suspects in the war on terrorism can backfire.

The allegations that Padilla was part of a dirty-bomb plot were dropped in November 2005, when the Pentagon transferred him out of a military brig in Charleston, S.C.

He had been held at the brig for 3 1/2 years as an "enemy combatant" with status more like the detainees at Guantanamo than a U.S. citizen incarcerated for the charges he would eventually face in federal court. Much of the time he was without human contact, daylight, any timepiece or a mirror. He was subjected to "stress positions" and extremes of heat, noise and light. And interrogations without an attorney present, the government has said, elicited information the Justice Department included in a widely publicized June 2004 report on Padilla's alleged contacts with Al Qaeda.

Does anybody want to bet that this guy does not serve any time and turns around and tries to sue the administration? I believe he may be the first of a long line of improperly incarcerated "terrorists" who's charges will be dramatically reduced or dropped all together.

Now I certainly don't like the idea of these assholes trying to join Al-Qaeda, but do we really think we have negatively impacted their ability to recruit by treating Jose Padilla in this fashion? It must have been so much harder to convince new recruits that America was the "great Satan" before George Bush came along to prove their point.