Hey, you know Jose Padilla’s al Qaeda job application, posted today by ABC News?

If it looks familiar, you may recall that I posted the whole thing here back in January 2006 after reading about it in the Miami Herald and then obtaining the original document from the US Attorney’s Office in Florida. All it took was a simple phone call.

Secrets of ABC’s crack investigative team revealed!

Look at how they make it look like it was such a scoop to obtain the document:

The application–obtained by ABC News’ Law & Justice Unit–provides a window into a highly sophisticated organization with a corporate structure that resembles that of large American companies.

“It’s a membership application–just the way you or I would fill out an application for a credit card company,” said Jack Cloonan, former head of the FBI’s Osama bin Laden squad in New York and now an ABC News consultant, who reviewed the document. “They’re no different.”

The document’s authenticity was confirmed to ABC News’ Law & Justice Unit by the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami, where Padilla is being prosecuted.

How many people are there in the “ABC News’ Law & Justice Unit” and how long did it take them all to “obtain” the document–more than a year after the Miami Herald reported on it and it was posted in full here?

Next time, try this face-saving measure: Google it.

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January 13, 2006: Document drop – Padilla’s al Qaeda form