] The Defense Department announced Wednesday it has decided
] to grant "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla access to a
] lawyer "subject to appropriate security restrictions."
]
] The FBI arrested Padilla in Chicago, Illinois, in May of
] 2002 on suspicion of being part of a plot to detonate a
] so-called dirty bomb. He was designated an "enemy
] combatant" by President Bush a month later and was
] transferred to the military brig in Charleston, South
] Carolina, in June.
]
] He has been held there ever since and has not had access
] to any legal counsel or been formally charged.

Nice. A U.S. citizen is finally getting due process of law (well, "conditionally" FWIW) after being incarcerated for nearly 2 years? And I suppose its *purely coincidental* that this is happening in an election year too. Of course this isn’t an effort to soften Bush and Ashcroft’s Gestapo image.

LB