Has there been a single terrorism case post-9/11 that wasn’t a complete farce?
Remember the scary paintball terrorists? (innocent – convicted anyway)
How about the falsely convicted and later released in the Detroit Case? You know, the one where the prosecutor is now being prosecuted?
Wow, we sure felt like we needed government the week they were arrested, huh?
There was the “worst of the worst” in the form of Mr. Hamdi, who was set free by the military after the court said he was eligible for a writ of habeus corpus.
You may not have heard of Ali al-Timimi. He was convicted of talking, and was sentenced to life +70.
Remember the “sleeper cell” in Buffalo? “Plead guilty or we’ll turn you over to Don ‘personally involved in torture‘ Rumsfeld.”
That poor lawyer in the Spanish train bombing case who “fingerprints matched”? He’d have gone to the chair if Spanish authorities hadn’t proven his innocence.
Then there’s Abu Ali, who was tortured by the Saudis into “admitting” that he planned to kill Bush. The judge said evidence gained under foreign torture was perfectly acceptable, evidence that he was tortured was not. He’s doing 30 years.
Don’t forget Jose Padilla, who Paul “Liar” Wolfowitz finally admitted was innocent of the accusation – fittingly announced by former Attorney General John Ashcroft from Moscow – that he was going to set off a radioactive “dirty bomb,” and blow up apartment buildings.
After 3 years in a Navy brig as an “enemy combatant,” this American citizen arrested on American soil was finally turned over to the court system before the USSC could get a hold of his case.
Now, we arrive at the trial of the “terrorist sleeper cell” in Lodi California. Turns out, the people of that town – who were as frightened of terrorists as they had once been of Saddam’s nukes after the arrest with great fanfare last summer – were absolute fools to fear their neighbors for a single minute.
Funny thing is that if the federal infomant hadn’t so obviously perjured himself on the stand, this father and son would surely have been kidnapped and locked away for many years. They may yet – the jury deliberates…
From Knight-Ridder:
“The government introduced no evidence that Hayat plotted any specific terrorist acts. Other than Hayat’s own disputed admissions, prosecutors produced no evidence that he actually received any training.
“The government’s case relies largely on the testimony of its star witness, a convenience-store manager who received $230,000 in FBI payments for infiltrating the Lodi mosque to target its conservative clerics. The informant, Naseem Khan, stunned the court when he testified that he had seen Osama bin Laden’s top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, at the Lodi mosque in 1999.”
From the AP:
“Defense attorneys and terrorism experts said it was highly unlikely they would have been in the United States, a point prosecutors conceded later in the trial.”
It’s high time that all law enforcement powers over the citizen in this country are returned to the state governments and county courts.
The leadership of the US Department of Justice have proven themselves nothing but liars and murderers.
And don’t give me Moussoui, they could’ve stopped the attack in the first place if they’d listened to the agents in Minnesota.
Discussion over at Stress.
Update: The stupid jury convicted the kid.