Terrorism case goes to jury

BOISE – Sami Omar Al-Hussayen is being targeted with terrorism charges because he’s a Muslim and a Saudi Arabian, defense attorneys charged Tuesday in closing arguments.

“I’ll say to you this case is wrong,” lead defense attorney David Nevin told jurors. “This is an assault on Sami’s right to expression, and when you slaughter his rights, you slaughter all of our rights. And we must not, must not permit that to happen.”

The full day of arguments was the final push in the University of Idaho computer science student’s eight-week trial on terrorism and immigration charges. Now, the case is in the hands of 12 jurors, who will begin deliberating this morning.

Nevin said that in these times, with the threat of terrorism, there’s an “irresistible impulse” to scapegoat people who are different. “He’s a Muslim. . . . He’s got an unfamiliar name, he comes from an unfamiliar culture. How easy it would be to turn on him.”

But prosecutors took issue with that point. Pointing at the bearded Al-Hussayen, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Lindquist declared, “This man, regardless of his nationality, regardless of his language, regardless of his color, regardless of the fact that he’s different in some ways, this man came to this country under false pretenses, and availed himself of the freedoms of this country in order to engage with others in the business of providing material support to terrorism. And now he’s trying to take advantage of the very freedoms . . . in order to avoid accountability.”

Both sides agreed that the 34-year-old student, son of Saudi Arabia’s retired education minister, helped operate and maintain Web sites for a religious group, the Islamic Assembly of North America. But while defense attorneys characterized those activities as volunteer work for a legitimate group, prosecutors said they constituted material support to terrorists. They said some of the materials posted on the sites, or accessible through links from the sites, were designed to raise funds and drum up recruits for international terrorists, including those in Israel and Chechnya.

The IANA hasn’t been charged.

Lindquist, in his closing argument, downplayed the First Amendment issues in the case, though jurors were warned by the judge that freedom of speech is protected unless that speech incites imminent lawless action. Publishing on the Internet is considered a form of speech.

“If the purpose of these things is recruitment and funding of terrorism, speech is no protection, religion is no protection, association is no protection,” Lindquist said.

He also characterized Al-Hussayen’s doctoral studies in computer science as “fictitious,” saying they were merely a cover for support for terrorists.

“Oh, he was at the University of Idaho as a candidate,” Lindquist said, “but ask yourselves what evidence you’ve seen of a significant doctoral program?”

Defense attorneys had planned to call various witnesses from the University of Idaho, including Al-Hussayen’s doctoral adviser, to testify about that, but then decided instead to rest their case after calling just one witness.

John Dickinson, the doctoral adviser, sat through the closing arguments Tuesday and said afterward, “I got so mad at Kim Lindquist when he talked about this ‘fictitious’ Ph.D. That’s bad-mouthing me, the department and the University of Idaho.”

Dickinson said Al-Hussayen had completed three chapters of his dissertation in computer science when he was arrested in February 2003. At the time, he had expected the student to complete his degree by May or June.

“He is still working with me,” Dickinson said. “I have met with him a couple times in jail to go over aspects of his dissertation. . . . The concepts and the ideas are there.”

Nevin told the jurors it was his decision to rest his case early. “It was a decision that I made because of my conclusion that the government had not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.

He noted, as did Lindquist, that the government has the burden of proof – not the defense.

Nevin said he considered not putting on any defense at all. But he said he decided jurors should hear from former longtime CIA official Frank Anderson, who said the Web sites Al-Hussayen helped operate were religious and analytical, and weren’t terrorist recruitment or fund-raising tools.

Lindquist said repeatedly that Al-Hussayen lied about coming to the United States “solely” to study, and that the real reason he came here was “his passionate religious commitment to jihad, violent jihad.”

He painted a picture of a conspiracy in which Al-Hussayen, the IANA and two Saudi sheiks allegedly worked together to provide fund raising and recruitment, via a network of Web sites, to help two Chechen rebel groups and Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization.

“That network contained extreme jihad materials, the purpose of which was recruitment and funding, and they knew it,” Lindquist said. “The defendant knew it, and wanted it to be so.”

Nevin said that “not a shred of evidence” showed such knowledge or intent. The materials prosecutors pointed to, such as four fatwas, or Muslim religious treatises, that offered religious justifications for suicide bombings, are materials that are widely circulated on the Internet, in books, and in political debate in the Middle East, he said. He also noted that the vast majority of what was published on the Web sites didn’t pertain to violence or jihad, but covered such topics as religion, politics and the Quran.

Al-Hussayen has maintained his innocence, and stressed the peaceful nature of his religion in public statements and press releases he issued condemning the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He is the former president of the UI’s Muslim Students Association.

Dickinson said: “It just seems like the jury’s job is to work out which story makes more sense. The story of Sami coming to this country to build Web pages makes less sense than the story of his coming to this country to get a Ph.D., because you can build Web pages anywhere.”