Wednesday, September 01, 2004
From NYTimes and everybody else: Detroit Terrorism Convictions Dismissed:
The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to throw out terrorism convictions against two Arab men accused of forming a sleeper cell... The move abandons the crucial charge in what was the first major terrorism trial after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The department has also conceded errors in its handling of the case
Expect to see more of this. The Justice Dept. has been proceeding with all the bluster and incompetence they can muster, clearly violating the rights of citizens and non-citizens alike, creating extra-legal arenas (Guantanamo), extra-judicial punishments, secret incommunicado imprisonment (e.g., the Portland lawyer), and so on. These are the same people, after all, who formally advised that the President can legally give illegal orders, the same people who fought to nullify the letter and spirit of the Geneva Convention and other prohibitions of torture. And in cases like the ones reversed today, Ashcroft sought to create public fear by inflating the appearance of terrorist infiltration in essentially contrived prosecutions.
And again we see a thread of the story showing fascistic enforcement of government secrecy through illegal and direct reprisal:
The lead prosecutor, Richard Convertino, was removed late last year and is being investigated for misconduct. He, in turn, has filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department and accused his superiors of retaliating against him after he agreed to testify before the Senate Finance Committee about terrorism. The committee's chairman, Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican and a persistent critic of the Justice Department, has characterized Mr. Convertino as a whistle-blower.
New prosecutors said at a hearing in December that they had discovered important evidence that had been withheld and should have been turned over to the defense, including material that raised questions about the credibility of the government's star witness.
At the hearing, the federal judge, Gerald E. Rosen, admonished Mr. Ashcroft for violating an order barring discussion of the case.
The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to throw out terrorism convictions against two Arab men accused of forming a sleeper cell... The move abandons the crucial charge in what was the first major terrorism trial after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The department has also conceded errors in its handling of the case
Expect to see more of this. The Justice Dept. has been proceeding with all the bluster and incompetence they can muster, clearly violating the rights of citizens and non-citizens alike, creating extra-legal arenas (Guantanamo), extra-judicial punishments, secret incommunicado imprisonment (e.g., the Portland lawyer), and so on. These are the same people, after all, who formally advised that the President can legally give illegal orders, the same people who fought to nullify the letter and spirit of the Geneva Convention and other prohibitions of torture. And in cases like the ones reversed today, Ashcroft sought to create public fear by inflating the appearance of terrorist infiltration in essentially contrived prosecutions.
And again we see a thread of the story showing fascistic enforcement of government secrecy through illegal and direct reprisal:
The lead prosecutor, Richard Convertino, was removed late last year and is being investigated for misconduct. He, in turn, has filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department and accused his superiors of retaliating against him after he agreed to testify before the Senate Finance Committee about terrorism. The committee's chairman, Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican and a persistent critic of the Justice Department, has characterized Mr. Convertino as a whistle-blower.
New prosecutors said at a hearing in December that they had discovered important evidence that had been withheld and should have been turned over to the defense, including material that raised questions about the credibility of the government's star witness.
At the hearing, the federal judge, Gerald E. Rosen, admonished Mr. Ashcroft for violating an order barring discussion of the case.
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