Al-Qaida American 'plotted to kill hundreds'

A former Chicago gang member held as an al-Qaida suspect for two years, sought to blow up hotels and apartment buildings in the United States in addition to planning an attack with a “dirty bomb” radiological device, the US government said today.

The Justice Department, under pressure to explain its indefinite detention of a US citizen as an “enemy combatant,” detailed Jose Padilla’s alleged al-Qaida training in Afghanistan.