Let's see now. Why is it that as soon as government must make a case that awful "evil-doers" have been doing "bad" things in front of a jury something goes really really wrong.
"DALLAS, Oct. 22 — A deadlocked federal jury here did not convict any leaders of a Muslim charity who were charged with supporting Middle Eastern terrorists, and the judge today declared a mistrial in what has been widely viewed as the government’s flagship terror-financing case.
The case, involving the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and five of its backers, is the government’s largest and most complex legal effort to shut down what it contends is American financing for terrorist organizations in the Middle East. President Bush announced he was freezing the charity’s assets in 2001, saying that the radical Islamic group Hamas had “obtained much of the money it pays for murder abroad right here in the United States.”
But at the trial, the government did not allege that the foundation, which was based in a Dallas suburb, paid directly for suicide bombings. Instead, the prosecution said, the foundation supported terrorism by sending more than $12 million to charitable groups, known as zakat committees, which build hospitals and feed the poor.
The prosecution said the committees were controlled by Hamas and contributed to terrorism by helping Hamas spread its ideology and recruit supporters. The government relied on Israeli intelligence agents, using pseudonyms, to testify in support of this theory.
But prosecutors appeared to have made little headway in convincing the jury..
The case involved a total of 197 counts, including providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, years of investigation and preparation, almost two months of testimony and more than 1,000 exhibits, including documents, wiretaps, transcripts and videotapes dug up in a backyard in Virginia.
After 19 days of deliberations, the jury acquitted one of the five individual defendants on all but one charge, on which it deadlocked. A majority of the jurors also appeared ready to acquit two other defendants of most charges, and could not reach a verdict on charges against the two principal organizers and the foundation itself, which had been the largest Muslim charity in the United States until the government froze its assets in late 2001.
No Convictions in Trial Against Muslim Charity
Leslie Eaton
October 22, 2007
New York Times
Could it be, gads what a thought, that even some of George W. Bush's fellow Texans might not think that funding charitable groups which provide hospitals and feed the poor are a threat.
Jesus, what's the world coming to!
"The decision today is “a stunning setback for the government, there’s no other way of looking at it,” said Matthew D. Orwig, a partner at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal here who was, until recently, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.
“This is a message, a two-by-four in the middle of the forehead,” Mr. Orwig said. “If this doesn’t get their attention, they are just in complete denial,” he said of Justice Department officials, whom he said may not have recognized how difficult such cases are to prosecute.
David D. Cole, a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University, said the jury’s verdict called into question the government’s tactics in freezing the assets of charities using secret evidence that the charities cannot see, much less rebut. When, at trial, prosecutors “have to put their evidence on the table, they can’t convict anyone of anything,” he said. “It suggests the government is really pushing beyond where the law justifies them going.”
No Convictions in Trial Against Muslim Charity
Leslie Eaton
October 22, 2007
New York Times
Well, I guess in cases like this, involving financing or funding, the ultimate message for thugs in charge of the government idea of justice is: freeze the assets - confiscate them. Then render the individuals charged to Poland (Are their camps still open?) or Egypt or some other friendly brute's place and beat a "true" confession out of the them.
Oh heck, save all that bother and money and just do the beating up someplace in North America. No serious person in any executive or legislative arm of government would complain since it is self-evident that all secret government action is in the national interest.
Heavens, funding hospitals and feeding the poor in the Middle-East.
Subversive terrorism, you can bet on it. Jesus h Christ!
Incidentally, I wonder what he might think of caring for the poor and needy.
""Most definitely a crucifying issue. "
JHC
33 AD
Jerusalem
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