August 4, 2003
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Federal prosecutors are gearing up for another terrorist trial at the courthouse in Alexandria, a few blocks from my home. With the Zacarias Moussaoui case languishing while Judge Brinkema ponders how to "punish" the government for disobeying her order about producing a witness, she has her hands full in a case involving the "Alexandria 11," alleged holy warriors who were prepared to wage war against India? Or was it the U.S.? Or was it no jihad at all?
Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia were not pleased when a U.S. Magistrate Judge (who tries minor offenses and makes determinations about pretrial release, among other issues) and then Judge Leonie Brinkema did not think that all of the men were so dangerous as to be locked up pending trial. Judge Brinkema does not take a blanket approach to justice. A judge from the old school (when judges judged instead of marching to the tune of George Bush and John Ashcroft), she felt that as to three of the defendants there was "smoke, but no fire." Much to the prosecutors' dismay, she released them on bond.
What do Ashcroft and his prosecutors do when they don't get what they want? Why, the bullies, they up the ante. They will show you, yes they will. They will come up with a way to make you sorry you messed up their plan for your swift conviction.
So it comes as no surprise that The Washington Post reported that the U.S. government is considering upgrading the charges against the 11 Muslim men indicted as part of a "Virginia jihad network."
The original charges arose out of a little used law called The Neutrality Act, which forbids an American from fighting against a country with whom the U.S. is "at peace."
The 11 men are charged with supporting Lashkar-i-Taiba, which opposes Indian control of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which has a mostly Muslim population. They all have pleaded not guilty.
Last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon D. Kromberg told Judge Brinkema that he will be seeking an indictment for crimes of terror. If you have been reading my articles, you know what that entails--threats of long prison terms, even death; worse (yes, there is a fate worse than death in Ashcroft's Department of Injustice), the defendants could be named unlawful combatants and sent to that never-never land where they could die, forgotten, without being charged and certainly without being tried. Such is the fate of Yaser Hamdi and Jose Padilla.
What's the supposed link with terrorism? Lashkar was designated a terrorist organization by the State Department in December 2001. If the defendants have done anything even remotely associated with that organization--including meeting with any members of it or supporting it financially or otherwise--they can be charged with aiding and abetting terrorism.
Defense attorneys have argued that any contact between the men and the militant group occurred before that date and that there was never an intent to attack U.S. forces. The statement about a possible new indictment was a sign of the prosecution's desperation, said Ashraf Nubani, the attorney for Randall Royer.
"I do know they're ratcheting up the pressure, to get others to confess," Nubani said, adding that the men were being singled out for their faith. "The whole Muslim world is involved with [al] Qaeda if we follow the logic of the prosecutors."
The group's link to terrorism is tied to information from one of the 11 who is "cooperating" with the government in exchange for leniency. In plain langugage, this means that a snitch is feeding the government what it needs to seek a new grand jury indictment on more serious charges.
Amazing, isn't it, how quickly a reviled defendant becomes a reliable reporter when the government finds its case crumbling? What a system. What a farce.
This is not the justice you read about in a civics class. This is not the justice of the Constitution. This is Ashcroft justice--whose handmaiden is vengeance, not equity. Where the stick and fist of the bully replace the rule of law.
Posted by Elaine Cassel at August 4, 2003 5:28 AM
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