Miami ? It’s been nearly five years since then-Attorney General John Ashcroft declared the United States had thwarted an al-Qaida plot to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb” in a major city and had arrested a “known terrorist,” Jose Padilla.

Ashcroft darkly suggested the plot could have caused “mass death and injury” and said President Bush had designated Padilla, a U.S. citizen, as an enemy combatant who would be held in indefinite military custody rather than face civilian charges.

“He was involved in planning future terrorist attacks on American civilians in the United States,” Ashcroft said in June 2002, while the jittery nation still reeled from the Sept. 11 and anthrax attacks in 2001.

However, as jury selection begins Monday, the case against Padilla has no mention of the “dirty bomb” allegations or purported plots inside the United States.

Instead, Padilla, held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant, and co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun, 45, and 44-year-old Kifah Wael Jayyousi face charges of conspiracy to “murder, kidnap and maim” people overseas and of providing support to terror groups. All three pleaded not guilty. They could face life in prison if convicted.

“It has had so many unbelievable twists and turns,” said Michael Greenberger, a University of Maryland law professor who directs the school’s Center for Health and Homeland Security. “It really will be the stuff of legend in terms of how we attempted to deal with terrorists in the war on terror.”