Terrorism trial ‘going forward,’ judge says
BOISE — Any hopes defense attorneys had of short-circuiting the government’s terrorism case against University of Idaho graduate student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen were dashed Friday when a federal judge said prosecutors had provided enough evidence to reasonably support the charges.
U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge told Al-Hussayen’s attorneys they could ask to dismiss the charges on grounds that they had not been substantiated “for the record, but we’re going forward. We’re not going to spend a lot of time” on the petition.
Lodge, who had indicated several weeks ago that might throw the terrorism charges out as unsupported, told lead defense attorney David Nevin to be ready to call his first witness on Monday after the prosecution wraps up the final details of its case.
The government has accused Al-Hussayen of using his computer skills to promote terrorism. The trial will be start its seventh week Monday.
Lodge will announce Monday whether the jury can hear testimony from two American men the government claims were persuaded to train as terrorists in 2001 by material posted on Internet sites linked to Al-Hussayen.
“These witnesses are the living, breathing proof of what these materials say they want to do and what the experts say they are supposed to do,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Lindquist said. “These witnesses can show the jury that these materials really do have that effect.”
Nevin countered that both men were recruited by others to fight in Afghanistan, not by Internet materials focusing on Chechnya and the Middle East, and that their appearance is a dubious attempt to tie Al-Hussayen to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the East Coast.
Lindquist denied the accusation and renewed his pledge to avoid referring to both the 2001 terror attacks and Osama bin Laden. The government conceded months ago that Al-Hussayen had nothing to do with either.
Al-Hussayen, a 34-year-old Saudi national who was only months away from receiving his doctorate in computer science, is accused of turning the Web site of the Islamic Assembly of North America into the foundation of an Internet network that helped finance and recruit terrorists. He claims he was just a volunteer lending his technical skills to keep the assembly’s Web sites running.
Lodge dismissed the jury early Thursday so he could hear the core of the testimony that would be provided by Yahya Goba of Buffalo, N.Y., and Khwaja Hasan of Fairfax, Va. Both Muslim men are serving federal prison sentences on terror-related charges. He will decide over the weekend whether it is relevant or unduly prejudicial.
Compounding his problem is a defense claim that it has been refused access to Juma Al-Dosari, who is in federal custody at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Nevin maintains Al-Dosari may be able to dispute the Goba’s claims that the Internet was an issue in his recruitment.
Lindquist said it would be impossible under federal restrictions to give the defense access to Al-Dorsari, and Nevin argued that without that access the recruits should not be allowed to testify.
Goba, one of six men involved in what the government said was a terror cell in Buffalo, trained at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in May 2001.
Hasan, who was part of a Virginia group using paintball games in the summers of 2000 and 2001 to prepare to fight for Islam, trained at a Lashkar-e-Taiba camp in Pakistan just weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. The Lashkar group was not designated a terrorist organization until the end of 2001.
Prosecutors contend videos of Muslim fighting in Bosnia and Chechnya were seen by both men and played key roles in their decision to enter the camps to fight in Afghanistan.
But the defense pointed to sworn statements in which each declared he was recruited by specific individuals. The statements made no mention of the Internet or videos obtained from it.