Moussaoui case may become latest 'flub'
US record has not been good in high profile terror cases.
This week's discovery of
potential witness tampering in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial, which may strip the prosecution of its one chance to get the death penalty for him, is just the latest in a series of mistakes that have marked terrorist trials in the US.
The
Los Angeles Times reported this week that juries have
rejected the government's arguments in high-profile cases, convictions have been thrown out because of mistakes by US prosecutors, and at least one individual has been falsely accused of participating in terrorist events. And top Bush administration officials have often promised "more than they can deliver" in the prosecutions.
"There have been a lot of flubs," said George Washington University law professor Stephen A. Saltzburg. "I think most observers would say they were underwhelmed by the prosecutions brought so far."
Some of the government's problems include:
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A computer science student in Idaho was accused of aiding terrorists when he designed a website that included information on terrorists in Chechnya and Israel. A jury in Boise acquitted
Sami Omar Al-Hussayen of the charges in June 2004.
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A
Florida college professor was indicted on charges of supporting terrorists by promoting the cause of Palestinian groups. A jury in Tampa
acquitted Sami Al-Arian in December.
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Two Detroit men arrested a week after the Sept. 11 attacks were believed to be plotting a terrorist incident, in part on the basis of sketches found in their apartment. A judge overturned the convictions of Karim Koubriti and Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi after he learned that the prosecutor's key witness had admitted lying to the FBI, a fact the prosecutor had kept hidden.
The Detroit News reported in February that a special grand jury was "
nearing the end of its probe into whether three government officials conspired to obstruct justice and induce perjury in the 2003 Detroit terrorism trial."
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In 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the US had arrested an American citizen, Jose Padilla, and said he had been trying to find a way
to build a dirty bomb to use against the US. Mr. Padilla was held in a US military brig for four years, and when charged with conspiring to aid terrorists abroad in early 2006 in Miami, there was
no mention of any "dirty bomb."
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In early 2004, the FBI arrested Brandon Mayfield, a lawyer and Muslim convert in Portland, Ore. The agency said that they had found
his fingerprints on a knapsack used by one of the bombers in the Madrid train attacks of March 2004. Mr. Mayfield was held for in custody for over two weeks, even though the Spanish police told the FBI the evidence was inconclusive. When finally released, the FBI apologized and blamed the problem on a bad digital image. Mayfield is suing the federal government.
The Washington Post reported that a Justice Department report released on March 10 said that while the FBI did not misuse its powers in the case, "the Patriot Act anti-terrorism law '
amplified the consequences' of the FBI's misidentification of a fingerprint by allowing numerous agencies to share flawed information." One good thing that came out of the Mayfield case, reports the
Chicago Tribune, is that the botched fingerprinting led to "
improved fingerprint identification."
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Capt. James Yee, a Muslim chaplain at the Guant���namo prison camp where many terrorist detainees are held, was arrested and accused of espionage.
Wikipedia.com writes that, "When returning from duty at the Guantanamo Bay naval base, he was arrested on September 10, 2003, in Jacksonville, Florida and charged with five offenses: sedition, aiding the enemy, spying, espionage, and failure to obey a general order. He was then transferred to a United States Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina."
CNN reported at the time that he might also be
charged with treason.
The military never said what country Yee was supposed to have been spying for. He was held for 76 days in detention. All court-martial charges against him
were "quietly" dropped in March 2004. The US military has never offered an explanation for its actions, or an apology to Yee.
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The
LA Weekly reported on March 1 that there are
now doubts about the FBI case against a father and son accused of terrorism in Lodi, Calif. That case went to trial in February. The
Los Angeles Times also reported Wednesday "terrorism experts and even federal officials" are
expressing serious doubts about the testimony from the government's key informant in the case, who said he saw Al Qaeda's number two, Ayman Zawahiri, in 1999 in Lodi. Government sources say that while Zawahiri was in the US in the early 90s, he had not returned to the US since 1995 at the latest.
The Bush administration says that more than 400 people have been charged with terrorism-related crimes and that 228 have been convicted. But LA Weekly points out that "the vast majority of these cases have involved minor crimes not directly related to terrorism, such as immigration violations." In June 2005,
The Washington Post looked at 361 "terrorism-related" cases, as identified by the Justice Department, and found that only 39 convictions for crimes related to national security or terrorism.
David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor, told the
Los Angeles Times that
pressure from the top may have led to many of the errors.
"The government in the war on terrorism has generally swept broadly and put a high premium on convictions at any cost," he said. "That puts pressures on prosecutors ��� to overcharge, to coach witnesses, to fail to disclose exculpatory evidence."
In the Moussaoui case,
USAToday.com reports the prosecutors Wednesday asked US District Judge Leonie Brinkema to
reconsider her ruling that would prohibit testimony from key witnesses because of witness tampering. "The sanction is simply too severe, making it impossible for us to present our theory of the case to the jury," the prosecutors said in their appeal. Judge Brinkema will hear their appeal Thursday.
Also...
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Ex-Guantanamo chaplain: Suspicion of Muslims hinders terror war (Newsday)
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For James Yee, an apology that will never come (NorthJersey.com)
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Map out the global villains - and they aren't us (Charleston Post and Courier)
•
Prepare for long Afghan stay: Powell (Toronto Star)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail
Tom Regan
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