In their closing arguments Monday, Hassoun's lawyers said their client was merely providing humanitarian relief such as clothing, food and medicine for Muslims being persecuted in violent struggles with Russians, Serbs and other oppressors. They called the attacks against Muslims "ethnic cleansing."
A likely story. Where did they ever get the idea that Serbs were persecuting Muslims?
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/202371.html
Posted on Tue, Aug. 14, 2007
Feds: Padilla a star recruit
BY JAY WEAVER
Terrorism defendant Jose Padilla tried to keep a low profile during his long trial by not putting on a defense, but on Monday a prosecutor billed him as a ''star recruit'' for al Qaeda during closing arguments in Miami federal court.
Padilla, 36, is accused of being sent by a South Florida-based cell to the Middle East to train as a soldier for the terrorist organization. The former Broward County resident, arrested in Chicago eight months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was once designated as an ''enemy combatant'' by the Bush administration.
''Padilla was the star recruit of a terrorist support cell, and he was discovered right in our backyard,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier said.
Frazier peppered his statements with details of Padilla's Mujahedin application and travels in the Middle East between 1998 and 2002. The prosecutor also accused Padilla's mentor, Adham Amin Hassoun, and Hassoun's colleague, Kifah Wael Jayyousi, of providing money, equipment and personnel for ''violent jihad'' overseas.
Prosecutors, citing FBI-wiretapped phone calls, said the three men talked in code to disguise their true intentions of supporting terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, using words such as ''football'' for jihad.
''Playing this kind of football was more important than anything else to these men,'' Frazier said. ``What they were playing was no game.''
The prosecution has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the three defendants -- Padilla, Hassoun and Jayyousi -- conspired to provide material support for terrorists seeking to create radical Islamic states abroad during the 1990s.
The three men are also charged with conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim people abroad in jihad theaters such as Chechnya, Bosnia and Kosovo.
On Monday, the prosecution set up a a slide projector showing black and white pictures of the three defendants wearing kaffiyeh, an Arab headdress, as 12 jurors heard the closing arguments.
''What al Qaeda did writ large, these defendants did on a smaller scale,'' Frazier said.
In their closing arguments Monday, Hassoun's lawyers said their client was merely providing humanitarian relief such as clothing, food and medicine for Muslims being persecuted in violent struggles with Russians, Serbs and other oppressors. They called the attacks against Muslims ``ethnic cleansing.''
''Mr. Hassoun only intended to help others,'' said attorney Ken Swartz. ``Intent is what this case is all about.''
Swartz also disputed the prosecution's allegations of code: ``Football, as Adham talks about it, is not about murder -- it's all about helping people.''
Jayyousi's lawyers plan to mount a similar defense argument today. Padilla's lawyers, who have asserted that the government lacks sufficient evidence against their client, did not put on a defense during the three-month trial.
Jury deliberations in this high-profile trial are set to begin Wednesday. If convicted, each defendant could face up to life in prison.
U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke on Monday instructed the Miami-Dade jurors that they cannot consider whether the defendants' conduct was justified by Islamic law or meant to protect embattled Muslims overseas.
Cooke told jurors that the defendants can be convicted even if they ``may have believed that the conduct was religiously, politically or morally required, or that ultimate good would result.''
© 2007 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com
The three men are also charged with conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim people abroad in jihad theaters such as Chechnya, Bosnia and Kosovo.
So now they were jihadists? When the U.S. government was bombing Serbia, they were "freedom fighters."
http://www.miamiherald.com/459/story/203403.html
Posted on Tue, Aug. 14, 2007
Defense: Padilla isn't al Qaeda `star recruit'
BY JAY WEAVER
Jose Padilla -- dubbed the ''dirty bomber'' by the Bush administration -- didn't fill out an al Qaeda application, didn't train with the terrorist group and didn't plot to kill anyone in the name of Islam, his defense lawyer said at his federal trial Tuesday.
Federal public defender Michael Caruso made his impassioned points during closing arguments before a dozen Miami-Dade jurors in the high-profile terrorism case.
Speaking before a packed courtroom that included Padilla's mother, Caruso called into question every aspect of the government's case against his client. He repeatedly told jurors that the former Broward resident traveled to Egypt in 1998 solely to study Arabic and Islam, not as a jihad recruit for an alleged South Florida-based terrorist cell.
''His own words showed an intent to study -- not murder,'' said Caruso, referring to FBI-intercepted phone calls between Padilla and his mentor at a Fort Lauderdale mosque.
The jury, which received instructions from U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke on Monday, begins deliberations Wednesday. If convicted, Padilla, 36, and co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, both 45, face up to life in prison.
The prosecution has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the three defendants -- Padilla, Hassoun and Jayyousi -- conspired to provide material support for terrorists seeking to create radical Islamic states abroad during the 1990s. The three men are also charged with conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim people abroad in jihad theaters such as Chechnya, Bosnia and Kosovo.
Padilla's lawyer accused prosecutors of exaggerating his client's role as a ''star recruit'' for al Qaeda. He said they had no proof of his being an Islamic radical, training with the terrorist group or joining ''violent jihad'' in any Muslim struggles overseas.
''This is a giant game of six degrees of separation based on artificial associations and suspicion,'' Caruso said.
He challenged allegations that Padilla's Mujahedin application, recovered from a suspected al Qaeda safe house in Afghanistan in fall 2001, was his -- despite a government expert's testimony that his prints were all over the front and back of the five-page form in Arabic.
He strived to imply that Padilla may have handled the form while he was in U.S. military custody as an enemy combatant from June 2002 until November 2005. He was accused of, but never charged with, plotting a radiological dirty-bomb attack on U.S. soil.
''Jose's fingerprints are only consistent with someone who handled the form, not with someone who filled out the form,'' Caruso said.
Padilla's legal team -- Caruso, Anthony Natale and Orlando do Campo -- did not put on a defense for their client during the three-month trial. By design, they sought to isolate him from the other defendants, especially Hassoun. Padilla never met Jayyousi.
Both Hassoun, a computer programmer from Sunrise, and Jayyousi, a civil engineer who worked as a school administrator, argued in their defense that they were merely aiding persecuted Muslims overseas. They denied involvement in any militant Islamic battles.
Defense lawyers said the prosecution has distorted their humanitarian efforts through the ''lens of 9/11'' to scare jurors.
''The government is trying to appeal to your fears,'' said Jayyousi's attorney, William Swor. ``They know the facts of this case do not establish a crime. It's snake oil.''
© 2007 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com
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