We'll never find out in court if Jose Padilla (aka Abdullah al Muhajir) really did plot to explode a “dirty bomb” and spread radioactive waste in a major metropolitan area. That's because he's being held by the military as a “combatant”. He hadn't started building a bomb, and there's been no evidence that he was planning a specific attack–Padilla was busted May 8 as he got off a plane from Pakistan. All they know is that he allegedly surfed the web for information on how to build a dirty bomb.

The Wall Street Journal quotes deputy Defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz: 'There as not an actual plan. We stopped this man in the initial planning stages.”

No plan. No overt criminal acts. No trial–maybe a military tribunal. And what–life in a military prison in isolation? A firing squad?

Nobody seems to have picked up on the hidden precendent here yet. Think about this: if you surf the web looking for the “anarchist cookbook”, you could find yourself in a military prison, classified as a combatant. No trial. No burden of proof. No appeal.

If you're curious, you could be a terrorist.

Click here to become an illegal combatant.

Now, CBS News is reporting that officials are backing off from the “dirty bomb” claims, saying essentially, “we don't know what he was up to, but it was definitely no good.”