Up until now the only thing I've seen in my Globe was whether he was going to have to shave the beard:
"Fort Hood suspect readies defense" Associated Press, June 04, 2013
FORT HOOD, Texas — The Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage said Monday he will use a ‘‘defense of others’’ argument when he represents himself at his upcoming murder trial.
Major Nidal Hasan did not elaborate when announcing his strategy Monday, shortly after a military judge agreed to allow him to represent himself. But it was the first time Hasan hinted at his reasoning behind the worst mass shooting on a US military installation.
Okay, the first thing I thought was, yeah, that defense will really win over a military court.
Hasan, 42, faces the death penalty or life without parole if convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.
Hasan, who was set to deploy to Afghanistan with some of the troops killed that day on the Texas Army post, likely will try to show that he was trying to defend Muslims against US troops in a war that he believes is illegal and immoral, military law experts said. To prove a ‘‘defense of others’’ argument, a defendant must show a threat was imminent.
Hasan also asked for a three-month delay to prepare. The judge said she would decide that issue Tuesday, a day before jury selection was scheduled to begin.
After questioning Hasan for about an hour, the judge, Colonel Tara Osborn, ruled that Hasan was mentally competent to represent himself and understands ‘‘the disadvantage of self-representation.’’
He is not on any prescription pharmaceuticals because this defend yourself thing.... ?
She urged him to reconsider his request, noting that the lead prosecutor has more than 20 years of experience and that Hasan will be held to the same standards as all attorneys regarding courtroom rules and military law.
Doesn't that seem a bit crazy (unless you want to be convicted)?
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"Ft. Hood suspect says he was protecting Taliban; Wants judge to allow ‘defense of others’ strategy" by Manny Fernandez | New York Times, June 05, 2013
KILLEEN, Texas — Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people, told a judge Tuesday that he believed he was defending the lives of the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan from US military personnel when he went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in November 2009.
I don't think that will win acquittal.
Hasan’s remarks were the first public explanation about the motive for one of the deadliest mass shootings at a US military base. His comments came a day after the judge granted his request to release his court-appointed military lawyers so that he could represent himself.
On Monday, one of Hasan’s first legal maneuvers had been to ask the judge, Colonel Tara A. Osborn, for a three-month delay for the start of his trial, scheduled to begin July 1. His primary reason in asking for the delay was to change his defense to “a defense of others,” but he had not elaborated on the identity of the “others.” At a new hearing Tuesday, Osborn asked him pointedly whom he was defending.
“The leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban,” he said, specifically naming Mullah Omar, the founder of the Islamic insurgent group.
His comments, delivered in a soft, matter-of-fact tone, stunned many in the courtroom. Seated in the gallery behind him were Army soldiers, military police officers, and relatives of some of his victims. Osborn then asked him to explain his defense, and Hasan asked for a recess to gather his thoughts.
When the hearing resumed a few minutes later, the judge again asked him to explain the facts supporting his defense, and he said he preferred to submit his thoughts in written form. “I don’t want to brainstorm in front of the court,” he told her.
But the judge pressed him further. When she asked if he was defending one person or a group of people, he said it was the group of Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, including Omar. The judge asked him to explain the connection between the Taliban leaders and the people he is accused of murdering and attempting to murder.
“They’re part of the United States military,” he said.
The judge delayed the start of jury selection, which had been set to begin Wednesday, to give Hasan one day to find the legal authority to apply such a defense to his case. He was ordered to submit a brief to the judge by Wednesday morning, and Army prosecutors were asked to submit their own brief in response. She did not rule on whether to grant Hasan’s request for a delay, but instead set another hearing for Wednesday afternoon to further discuss the “defense of others” issue.
The “defense of others” strategy requires a criminal defendant to prove the defendant was compelled to use force against an aggressor to protect a person or a group from being harmed or killed by that aggressor. In this case, Hasan asserts that he was protecting Taliban leaders from death by using deadly force against Fort Hood military personnel deploying to Afghanistan.
The defense is not typically used in military trials, and Osborn seemed to question whether Hasan had any facts or evidence.
Military legal experts called his theory ludicrous and said it fell outside the legal parameters of “defense of others” cases. They said that those with a legitimate “defense of others” case must prove that the people being protected were victims of unlawful force and were facing an immediate threat or danger.
Well, the drone strikes and ongoing operations....
Those two elements do not apply to the Fort Hood shooting, they said, because Taliban leaders were lawful objects of attack and faced no immediate threat from anyone at Fort Hood that day.
“I think the defense in this context makes no sense at all,” said Richard Rosen, director of the Center for Military Law and Policy at the Texas Tech University School of Law in Lubbock.
On Tuesday, two of Hasan’s former lawyers sat at the defense table with him, and a third sat behind him. The judge had ordered them to remain as standby counsel, and Hasan frequently asked questions of his former lead lawyer throughout the hearing.
Hasan is accused of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others at the Fort Hood base on Nov. 5, 2009. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
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Related:
"The military judge overseeing the trial of an Army psychiatrist charged in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage may not allow him to claim that he killed to defend Taliban leaders, military specialists said Wednesday. And such a decision could lead to even more delays in a case that’s already dragged on for years."
Also see:
Fort Hood suspect’s paralysis could affect trial
MSM Covering Up Military Munity at Fort Hood
Taking the Hood Off the AmeriKan MSM
UPDATE:
Fort Hood suspect’s defense banned
Judge rejects delay request, sets start date for Fort Hood trial
"Major Nidal Hasan, who is serving as his own lawyer, did not take notes or confer with his former defense lawyers."
While we are in a Texas courtroom trying terrorists:
"Texas man gets 25 years in plot to kill Saudi official; Sought hitman at behest of Iran, prosecutors say" by Benjamin Weiser | New York Times, May 31, 2013
NEW YORK — An Iranian-American used-car salesman from Texas who was accused of plotting to hire assassins from a Mexican drug cartel to murder Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday in US District Court in Manhattan.
The defendant, Mansour J. Arbabsiar, a naturalized US citizen living in Corpus Christi, Texas, was arrested on Sept. 29, 2011, at Kennedy International Airport, and he ultimately pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme.
When the case was made public, it riveted Washington and raised already-heightened tensions between the Sunni royal family that rules Saudi Arabia and the Shi’ite-controlled government in Iran.
At the time of Arbabsiar’s arrest, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said that the plot had been “directed and approved by elements of the Iranian government and, specifically, senior members of the Quds force,” which is part of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Is there anyone out there who believes in Holder the Perjurer, even as he seems to have survived this current round of heat (he must know a lot of secrets)?
The Iranian government has denied that it had anything to do with the plot.
How sad it is that the word of the "enemy" is often the truth in my jewspaper?
The plan, according to government officials, involved Arbabsiar paying a member of the Los Zetas drug cartel $1.5 million to plant a bomb at a Washington restaurant while the Saudi ambassador, Adel al-Jubeir, dined.
The Los Zetas are "former" military soldiers trained by the U.S. to fight drugs.
But Arbabsiar, who had been drawn into the plot by a cousin in Iran who was a high-ranking member of the Quds Force, turned to a man in Mexico he believed was an associate of a drug cartel to hire a team of assassins. The man turned out to be a confidential informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Judge John F. Keenan noted before imposing the sentence that when Arbabsiar was told that there would probably be 100 to 150 people in the restaurant when it was bombed, he replied, “No problem,” or “No big deal,” according to a recording of the conversation made secretly by the drug agency’s informer.
“Nothing in the record before me warrants a sentence of less than 25 years,” the judge said. “In a case like this, deterrence is of supreme importance.”
He added, “Others who may have financial or political purposes in engaging in acts of violence against the United States or its interests must learn the lesson that such conduct will not be tolerated.”
Preet Bharara, the US attorney in Manhattan, whose office had sought the maximum 25-year sentence, called Arbabsiar “an enemy among us — the key conduit for, and facilitator of, a nefarious international plot concocted by members of the Iranian military to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States and as many innocent bystanders as necessary to get the job done.”
Uh-huh.
Arbabsiar, 58, addressing the judge before he was sentenced, said: “Whatever I did wrong, I take responsibility for it. I can’t change what I did. I have a good heart. I never hurt anyone.” He added, “My mind sometimes is not in a good place.”
Prescription pharmaceuticals?
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Arbabsiar’s lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, a federal public defender, had sought a 10-year term, arguing that her client’s crime had been the result of a longstanding untreated bipolar disorder. In court, she also cited his cooperation with authorities after his arrest.
Authorities have said that Arbabsiar knowingly and voluntarily waived his rights to remain silent or to have a lawyer present during his interrogation in his first 12 days in custody, and that he confessed to his role in the plot and shared “extremely valuable intelligence.”
This whole thing stinks like another set-up.
Shroff told reporters after the proceeding ended that she did not believe the sentence would be an effective deterrent. “Who is the message going to?” she said. “Does Iran really care?”
Does anyone care about U.S. shenanigans these days?
“The person has to matter,” she added. “Unfortunately for Mr. Arbabsiar, neither the United States nor the Iranian government cares. He’s expendable.”
For most of the proceeding, Arbabsiar sat still, hands in his lap, looking straight ahead except when he turned to speak with Shroff, who put her hand on his back to comfort him while the judge delivered the sentence. When the judge finished reading, Arbabsiar gave a small nod and rubbed his chin, showing little emotion.
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Related:
This Post is the Bomb
U.S. Government Uses Texas Used Car Salesman to Sell Terror Plot
You aren't buying that, are you?
