The days I attended:
"Sudbury terrorism suspect’s trial to begin" by Milton J. Valencia | Globe Staff, October 23, 2011
Boston has not seen a terrorism case quite like this before, one in which a man charged with the ugliest of crimes has nonetheless managed to build support in saying that his opposition to US foreign policy and his alleged call for the death of US troops was controversial but free speech protected by his First Amendment rights as a US citizen....
I only call for the death of war criminals and Wall Street looters, but not by my hand. I sure as hell ain't gonna stand in the way of the mob, though.
What is clear is that the case is bound to test the balance between a US citizen’s rights to state one’s beliefs and the notion that those beliefs morphed into actual support for terrorists....
James Forest, a University of Massachusetts Lowell professor specializing in terrorism and national security studies, said that the case against Mehanna represents a larger strategy in federal counterterrorism to confront Al Qaeda’s propaganda movement.
Without discussing Mehanna’s case directly, Forest said it is clear that prosecutors must “stem the tide of the propaganda and ideology, because that’s the fuel that feeds the fire from which other individuals then draw their inspiration and go on and do operational activities that do lead to death and injuries.’’
We call it a newspaper.
“For every one terrorist incident, there are probably dozens of individuals who helped inspire, motivate, encourage, and facilitate the attack,’’ Forest said. “A network, terrorist organization like Al Qaeda has transformed itself. Words are a huge aspect of their strength, their power.’’
I'm just wondering what "Al-CIA-Duh" they are talking about?
The "fake-CIA-Duh?"
The made-up "Al-CIA-Duh?"
Or the "Al-CIA-Duh" CREATION for the COURTROOM!?
Related:
Prop 101: Al-CIA-Duh and the OSI
Prop 101: Al-CIA-Duh's Greatest Hits
Prop 101: The "Terrorism" Business
New York Times Admits War on Terror is U.S. Creation
Oh, AmeriKa's MSM KNOWS ALL ABOUT and yet STILL PUSHES the CHARADE, huh?
That means THEY ARE PART OF IT!!!
But legal analysts also said the case against Mehanna can be challenging because he is a US citizen, and his speech is protected. The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts has even come to his defense, trying unsuccessfully to submit a motion to have several of the charges in the case dismissed, saying Mehanna’s actions were protected by the First Amendment.
“As long as they can’t connect that free speech to an actual terrorist organization, we’re saying that free speech is protected,’’ said Nancy Murray, director of education for the ACLU, arguing that federal prosecutors have become overzealous in trying to connect dissent to terrorism.
“We’re really finding there’s been a big slippery slope with these terrorist cases, and people can be put away for a very long time for what amounts to a thought crime,’’ she said. “And that is very much against the spirit of the First Amendment, even the letter of the First Amendment.’’
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The only day of testimony I needed to see:
"State trooper details secret house search; Task force collected evidence as terror suspect vacationed" by Milton J. Valencia | Globe Staff, October 28, 2011
Investigators secretly searched Tarek Mehanna’s Sudbury home in August 2006, while he and his family were vacationing in Egypt, and found materials promoting violent jihad, a member of an investigative task force told a jury yesterday in Mehanna’s federal trial on terrorism charges.
Oh, a SNEAK, PEEK, and PLANT operation, huh?
The “clandestine” search, which began at dusk and continued through that late summer night, years before Mehanna, a 29-year-old American citizen, was ever charged, was approved by a court, said State Trooper Thomas Sarrouf, who was assigned to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
During the search, investigators found documents supporting jihad as well as a transcript of what he called an unreleased interview with Osama bin Laden, who says, “The battle has moved to inside America, we will continue this battle, God willing, until victory or we meet God.”
In addition, Sarrouf said, investigators found videos urging Muslims to engage in violent jihad and showing combat scenes in Bosnia, Chechnya, and Iraq.
“They depicted jihadist scenes, combat scenes, in areas of conflict around the globe,” Sarrouf said.
No objects were taken during the search, only photographed, and investigators made a copy of Mehanna’s computer hard drive.
“My role in this case was to look at and identify any object of potential intelligence,” he said.
It doesn't say they didn't leave anything, does it?
Sarrouf was the first witness to testify in Mehanna’s trial in US District Court in Boston on charges of conspiring to support Al Qaeda and conspiring to kill in a foreign country, and lying to federal investigators. He faces life in prison.
Prosecutors say Mehanna traveled to Yemen in 2004 seeking terrorism training, but failed to find what he was looking for.
So he NEVER ACTUALLY DID any "terrorism," huh?
When he returned, he started to translate and distribute Al Qaeda propaganda on the Internet, which prosecutors said was in response to the terrorist organization’s call to spread its message of jihad.
That is what NEWSPAPERS are FOR!!!
Defense lawyers argue that Mehanna only traveled to Yemen to look for schools to further his education of Arabic laws and history. They did not deny that Mehanna translated documents and wrote about them on the Internet, saying he had a First Amendment right to speak about his beliefs – no matter how controversial.
The defense lawyers argue, however, that at no time did Mehanna do anything in cooperation with or at the direction of Al Qaeda, the standard required for a federal crime. At one point, they said, he refused a request by an Al Qaeda-related group to translate a document promoting jihad.
Defense lawyer Sejal Patel yesterday peppered an FBI cyber security agent, who also testified yesterday, with questions about computer technology, trying to establish that some of the materials found on Mehanna’s computer may have been attached to the websites he visited, even if he never downloaded them.
Two other witnesses testified about how the FBI extracted information from Mehanna’s computer, though they did not specify what was found.
During Sarrouf’s testimony, defense attorney Janice Bassil questioned the manner in which the search of Mehanna’s home was carried out. She has said in previous hearings that the warrant for the search was authorized by a secret court, and that it was known as a “sneak and peek” search. The Mehanna family never knew anyone was in the home.
Would you know if the FBI had been in yours?
In pre-trial proceedings, lawyers and prosecutors revealed that a secret court was used under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows for the secret surveillance and search of people during national security investigations.
Bassil sought to establish that many of the items Mehanna had in his home were general Arabic writings and materials.
“Do you remember if they were books in Arabic on theology and law?” she asked. Sarrouf said he did not.
Sarrouf also said he did not know that a massive flag hanging in Mehanna’s home was the flag of Saudi Arabia, a country, the defense argues, that Al Qaeda opposes.
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"Mehanna defense to sum up case" by Milton J. Valencia | Globe Staff, December 10, 2011
The defense team in the terrorism trial of Tarek Mehanna could rest its case some time next week, following the questioning of scholars on Islamic law and the history of Al Qaeda.
Responding to more than five weeks of prosecution witnesses, lawyers for the 29-year-old Mehanna have sought to use the testimony of terrorism analysts and scholars of Islam and Al Qaeda to argue that their client was a young, budding scholar, not a radical terrorist supporter, as prosecutors have argued.
Yesterday, the defense used the testimony of Mohammad Fadel, an associate law professor at the University of Toronto who specializes in Islamic law, to argue that Mehanna had spiritual beliefs that were often at odds with the views of Al Qaeda.
Mehanna rejected, for instance, the concept that American civilians could be targeted because of the decisions of their government or because they pay taxes, and he often debated the intricacies of Islamic law, so that he could follow them correctly, Fadel said.
Then I'm dismissed from the jury because that's what the Globe's coverage of this trail has done to me.
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The verdict:
"Tarek Mehanna guilty of terror charges; Sudbury man attempted to promote, join war against US, jury finds" by Milton J. Valencia | Globe Staff, December 20, 2011
Tarek Mehanna, the pharmacy college graduate from the quiet, affluent suburb of Sudbury, was convicted yesterday of providing material support to Al Qaeda, in a swift and sweeping verdict that found he sought paramilitary training in Yemen so he could carry out jihad, or holy war, against US soldiers in Iraq.
Mehanna was also convicted of using his knowledge of Arabic to translate and distribute documents promoting Al Qaeda’s ideology, to inspire others to violent jihad.
Just wondering when the lying war-promoters known as newspapers are going to be put on trial (other than the one they undergo here).
The 29-year-old remained calm and poised as the verdict of guilty was announced repeatedly in US District Court in Boston, a total of seven convictions for counts of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, conspiring to kill in a foreign country, and of lying to authorities in a terrorism investigation.
Once the jury was discharged, he yelled out, “I love you’’ to his crying mother, Souad, to his father, Ahmed, and his younger brother, Tamer, and he thanked dozens of supporters.
He is slated to be sentenced on April 12 and faces life in prison.
His father would only say: “I’m stunned, I can’t believe it.’’
I'm not; I would have been stunned had he been acquitted.
Prosecutors said the verdict was just.
“The job of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors is to bring terrorists to justice,’’ US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz told reporters after the verdict. “And it is vitally important that we prevent incidences of terrorism before they happen.’’
Then why are your instigating informants running around framing pathetic patsies?
Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston division, said: “The FBI has a clarion mission to investigate all potential threats to the United States in order to protect our community from harm. The FBI fulfilled its most important mission by stopping Mehanna’s conspiracy to support terrorism, the goal of which was an unlawful affront to our nation’s cherished ideal of peaceful dissent.’’
Tell it to the cops busting up Occupy all across the country.
Mehanna continued to receive support yesterday from family members, friends, and civil rights groups who said the prosecution for his translation and distribution of documents was an infringement of his rights, as an American citizen, to free speech. Mehanna had argued that he was devoted to his religion and the rights of Muslims to defend themselves, but said he never worked for Al Qaeda.
“It’s an incredibly sad day for us,’’ one of Mehanna’s attorneys, Janice Bassil, said after the verdict was read. “. . . It is a sad day for civil rights. It is a sad day for the First Amendment.’’
Another attorney, J.W. Carney Jr., said Mehanna knew he was innocent.
“I think innocent people sit there with a level of comfort and ease that was reflected in Tarek Mehanna,’’ Carney said. “He knew in his heart that he was not guilty of these charges. And frankly, nothing that the prosecutors say, nothing that the judge says, indeed nothing that the jury says, will change that.’’
Related: "Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth"
Carney said Mehanna will appeal the verdict, in large part on the argument that prosecutors sensationalized the trial by repeatedly referring to and showing pictures and videos of Osama bin Laden and suicide bombings, as a strategy to scare and prejudice jurors.
The jury of six men and six women deliberated for about 10 hours before rendering its verdict, following 31 days of testimony by more than 40 witnesses in what both sides agree was a complex trial. Several jurors contacted by the Globe refused to comment on their deliberations....
The case against Mehanna stirred much controversy within the greater Muslim community, after Mehanna said he had been threatened by FBI agents with prosecution for failing to cooperate and serve as an informant.
See: FBI Case File: The New Informant
See what happens when you don't cooperate with the FBI?
Maybe someday you will be missing me because if they ever come near me with the instigating informants they'll be getting a big "Fuck you."
Many who never met Mehanna rallied to his cause and attended the two-month trial.
Mehanna never fled after he was first contacted by authorities in 2006, his supporters point out. He was not charged until 2008, as he was about to board a flight to Saudi Arabia to begin a career as a pharmacist.
Ortiz said yesterday that Mehanna was charged based on his own conduct.
“We do not prosecute people for expressing their beliefs, for exercising their freedom of speech and their First Amendment rights,’’ she said. “We prosecute people for conduct and the intent that they have when they engage in certain conduct.’’
Mohamed Islaam, who described himself as a friend of Mehanna’s from New York, walked out of the courthouse convinced Mehanna had been punished for refusing to work as an informant.
Islaam also pointed out that Mehanna left the courtroom with the same sense of inner calm that he had when he entered it.
“His head was held high,’’ he said. “He’s an honorable man. He knows he’s innocent.’’
So do we.
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Also see: Tarek Mehanna's conviction draws sharply divided reactions
Related: FBI Case File: The Truth About Tariq Mehanna
I didn't miss this:
"FBI intercepts its own terrorist plot against US Capitol, Pentagon" Saturday, October 01, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
(NaturalNews) Truth be told, the biggest terrorist threat that Americans currently face does not originate from al-Qaeda. In a shocking revelation that essentially confirms the US government's involvement in funding, promoting, and even initiating terrorism, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was recently exposed for intercepting what can only be considered its own terrorist plot to send drone bombs into the US Capitol and the Pentagon.
Prison Planet cites a BBC News report about Rezwan Ferdaus, the 26-year-old US citizen that had apparently told undercover FBI agents at one point that he was interested in organizing terrorist attacks against the US. However, Ferdaus did not have the means to actually carry out any sort of attack -- it was, by all accounts, simply an idea without much possibility of ever becoming a reality.
But in order to maintain a high level of fear and paranoia amongst Americans about terrorists running loose on US soil and planning attacks, the FBI took advantage of this "opportunity" by approaching Ferdaus under cover, and supplying him with the tools he needed to stage his attacks. The US government supplied Ferdaus with grenades, machine guns, C-4 explosives, and even a remote-controlled, bomb-equipped drone plane to fly into buildings.
In their dealings with Ferdaus, undercover FBI agents essentially posed as fellow terrorists, and encouraged Ferdaus to commit acts of terrorism. They also told him morbid stories about the weapons they gave him, including that they had successfully killed US soldiers in Iraq -- the agents knew, of course, that this was exactly what Ferdaus wanted to hear, and that it would prompt him to move forward with the attacks.
It is a classic case of malicious entrapment on behalf of the US government, whose fear-mongering agenda is now clearly apparent for the world to see. And in reality, the FBI agents in this case are just as "guilty" as Ferdaus, if not more so, in plotting a terrorist attack. But the two parties received far different treatment for their actions.
Ferdaus, of course, was arrested and could face a combined total of 35 years in prison for allegedly "providing support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization," and for "attempting to destroy national defense premises," even though he never actually committed any crime.
The FBI agents, on the other hand, who were the ones that actually supplied the weapons to perform the attacks and enabled them to take place, are considered by some to be the heroes.
If Ferdaus is to be charged as a potential terrorist, then the FBI agents who conspired with him deserve the same treatment. These agents are not only guilty of the same two charges that Ferdaus faces, but they are also guilty of inciting undue fear and panic amongst the populace in order to perpetuate the never-ending foreign wars that continue to take place under the guise of fighting terrorism.
Sources for this story include:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/boston-...
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Also see: Ashland Assholes
Ashland man pleads not guilty to terrorism charges
Ashland terror suspect Rezwan Ferdaus ordered held without bail
Sorry, I missed those last two.
