They are ALL SET-UPS by the GOVERNMENT, folks!!!!
"Data leak to terrorist accusation called weak" by John Christoffersen Associated Press January 20, 2008
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Federal prosecutors acknowledge they don't have direct proof that a former Navy sailor leaked details of ship movements. Instead, they hope his coded speech and obsession with security will persuade a jury to convict him of helping terrorists target U.S. citizens.
Attorneys for Hassan Abu-Jihaad say the government's case is weak, echoing civil liberties groups and attorneys who have made similar accusations in some high-profile terrorism cases that have fizzled recently.
In October, the government's biggest terror financing case since Sept. 11 ended in a mistrial. That case, which involved former leaders of a Muslim charity in Texas, followed two other terror financing trials in Chicago and Florida that also ended without convictions on the major counts.
"I think the government has taken a risk with borderline cases and tried to make them into something they're not," said Michael Greenberger, director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland.
Abu-Jihaad, 31, of Phoenix, is facing trial next month. He has pleaded not guilty to charges he provided material support to terrorists with intent to kill U.S. citizens and disclosed classified information relating to the national defense.
He has been held without bail since his arrest in March in Phoenix.
Authorities allege that Abu-Jihaad leaked a document describing the location and vulnerabilities of a Navy battle group to suspected terrorism supporters in London.
Prosecutors say they have e-mails that Abu-Jihaad exchanged with the group in which he purchased violent videos and praised Osama bin Laden and the people who attacked the USS Cole in 2000.
They do not have any e-mail showing he sent the so-called battle group document. Instead, they're asking a federal judge to let them introduce what they say are coded references to terrorism plots that Hassan Abu-Jihaad allegedly made to associates.
Do you trust ANY government "evidence" these days, readers?
I DON'T!!!!!!
Trust those GOD-DAMNED LIARS?!
No way!
In court documents filed last week, prosecutors cite Abu-Jihaad's "obsession with operation security," his use of codes and his suspicion of government surveillance to "explain why there is no forensic footprint that directly links the defendant" to the leaked document.
Authorities said Abu-Jihaad spoke of "hot meals" and "cold meals" in conversations with associates to refer to intelligence that would be useful to strike American military targets.
"I ain't been working ah, in, in, in the field of making meals and or, you know, in a, in a long time," Abu-Jihaad said in one call last year that was cited by prosecutors. "I've been out of that for, ah, over ah, quatro years, you know."
Authorities say that statement is an admission that he provided such intelligence four years earlier while he was still in the Navy.
Abu-Jihaad's attorneys argued in court documents that the statements "relate to an entirely different matter" and should not be admitted.
In 2004, when British computer specialist Babar Ahmad was arrested on terrorism charges, investigators discovered information from the battle group documents among his files.
Abu-Jihaad had exchanged e-mails with Ahmad while on active duty on the USS Benfold, a guided-missile destroyer, in 2000 and 2001, according to an FBI affidavit.
A judge previously rejected the government's attempt to present statements by an associate to a government informant who claimed Abu-Jihaad told him he sent the battle group document. Prosecutors have not disclosed their witness list yet.
Abu-Jihaad, who received an honorable discharge from the Navy in 2002, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
"One cannot confidently predict an outcome in this case," Greenberger said. "I don't think the government can view this as a slam dunk, but they have a plausible case here."
I can predict the outcome.
The KANGAROO COURTS of AmeriKa and its RIGGED JURIES will find SOME GUILT SOMEWHERE -- even if they have to MAKE IT UP!!!!
