October 18, 2007
Terror Suspect Wants Hearing Closed
Why? So the public won't hear his confession.
Via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A federal judge on Friday denied a motion to bar the public from an upcoming hearing in which statements a terrorism suspect gave to authorities will be played aloud in court.More here and here.Atlanta attorney Jack Martin, who represents Syed Haris Ahmed, had filed a motion contending his client may not be able to get a fair trial if the news media reports the details of Ahmed's allegedly incriminating statements.
But U.S. Magistrate Gerrilyn Brill said the motion "does not come close" to giving her legal grounds to close the hearing.
At issue are more than 12 hours of statements Ahmed gave to authorities over a nine-day period in March 2006. Ahmed, a former Georgia Tech mechanical engineering student, is charged with Ehsanul Sadequee of Roswell in a four-count federal indictment here of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Both men have pleaded not guilty.
Question: If casing targets for terrorists is material support of terrorism, is spreading al-Qaeda propaganda, under al-Qaeda's flag, with the intent of mitigating damage to al-Qaeda's al-Furqan media also material support?
More on this shortly.
Image Credit: Northeast Intelligence Network.
