The trial of Saudi graduate student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, accused of operating web sites and raising money and recruits for terrorists, begins in Boise, Idaho tomorrow.

Al-Hussayen has been indicted on charges of terrorism and immigration fraud, accused of working his considerable computer skills for a jihadist network stretching from Saudi Arabia to the United States, from Chechnya to the occupied territories. The indictment says Al-Hussayen's efforts succeeded in inspiring Muslims to join the jihadist movement.

The Government once again is relying upon the "providing material support to a terrorist organization" statute to make its case. The case made the news in February of 2003 when the feds swooped down on the University of Idaho Campus. We wrote about it here, here and here.

What's unique about the case is that it will be the first time the Government tries to convict someone for providing material support to a terrorist organization chiefly for promoting militant Islam online. The Wall St. Journal reports (subscription required):

If you think that the prescription drugs you take are a personal, private matter between you and your doctor and maybe your insurance company, and you live in Florida, you might want to move because Jeb Bush has a different idea:

A proposal Gov. Jeb Bush is championing to create a massive electronic tracking system of who is prescribing and who is using prescription drugs is in trouble in the Florida Legislature. With three weeks left in the 2004 lawmaking session, Bush is doing high-pressure lobbying to persuade leaders of his own party about the merits of the database. It could allow doctors, designated medical assistants and pharmacists to look up online the pharmacy records of patients over the age of 17 to ensure they haven't been shopping for multiple prescriptions.

Every pharmacy record for certain classes of potentially addictive drugs, such as anxiety-fighting Xanax, mood-changing Valium and painkilling OxyContin, would be monitored.

The new issue of Vanity Fair arrived today. We just finished reading Dominick Dunne's column on the Martha Stewart verdict. It's refreshing to see Mr. Dunne take the side of a defendant for a change. Dunne reported one item we hadn't seen before. Remember Mariana Pasternak, Martha's long-time friend who delivered the devastating testimony that while on a Mexican vacation, Martha said "Isn't it nice to have brokers who tell you these things?" Mariana had been on the tarmac with Martha while her plane was being refueled when Martha received the critical phone call from Douglas Faneuil advising that Waksal was selling his ImClone stock. Dunne reports,

The fateful telephone call from Douglas Faneuil to Martha in San Antonio telling her that Sam Waksal was dumping all his stock....was on Dec. 27. Late that same day, there were rumors on Wall Street that Waksal's drug Erbitux was not going to be approved by the F.D.A. In Westport on December 28, Dr. Bart Pasternak, Mariana's ex-husband and the father of her daughters, sold $600,000. worth of ImClone shares --far more than Martha sold.

Interesting. We wonder if Mariana called her ex to tell him the news about Waksal. And if during the conversation, she perhaps said to him, "Isn't it nice to have brokers who tell you these things?" If so, perhaps her testimony on cross that she couldn't remember if Martha actually spoke those words or if that's just what Mariana was thinking, is closer to the truth.

Did the feds ever think that Mariana passed the tip on to her ex-husband? Dunne reports that Martha paid "tens of thousands of dollars" of Mariana's legal fees "before she began speaking with the government in 2002 about Stewart's ImClone sale." If Mariana wasn't under investigation for wrong-doing, why were her legal bills so high?

Has anyone else reported on this?

by TChris

As TalkLeft discussed here and here, Darryl Hunt won his freedom after DNA tests and the true perpetrator's confession established that he didn't commit the 1985 rape and murder that sent him to prison. Hunt's lawyers recently presented North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley with a request for a "pardon of innocence." Granting the pardon would open the door to Hunt's ability to recover $360,000 in compensation for the 18 years of wrongful incarceration that he endured.

Hunt's lawyer, Reuben Young, thinks a pardon would be just.

"I don't know what the argument would be against pardoning him. He's innocent. And if he's innocent, the state stole 18 years of his life."

Gov. Easley has only granted one pardon of innocence, but in that case (as in Hunt's) DNA proved the defendant's innocence. If Gov. Easley uses that case to guide his decision in this one, Darryl Hunt may eventually get some of the help he'll need to rebuild his life.

by TChris

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, responding to a letter from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press that criticized federal Marshals for seizing and erasing tape recordings of speeches he gave to students, announced that he is revising his policy "so as to permit recording [of his speeches] for use of the print media." He said that he has also written letters of apology to the reporters involved. TalkLeft's background on this controversy is available here and here.

In his letter to the Reporters Committee, Scalia, 68, said he doesn't control the marshals' actions and will express his "preference'' that they not confiscate recordings.

In other words, Justice Scalia now prefers that the Marshals obey the law, which prohibits the seizure of notes or recordings from journalists under most circumstances. The Committee's letter (pdf) to John Ashcroft and the Marshals has not been answered, but a spokeman for the Marshals' office promised a response after the letter has been reviewed.

Update: from New York Times Columnist Bob Herbert:

When agents acting on behalf of a Supreme Court justice can just snatch and destroy information collected by reporters, we haven't just thumbed our nose at the Constitution, we've taken a very dangerous step in a very ugly direction. The depot at the end of that dark road is totalitarianism.

[hat tip to Sean Paul at The Agonist]

by TChris

Facing growing criticism of his administration's handling of the war in Iraq and unresolved questions about his attention to terrorism prior to 9/11, President Bush will return to the White House to give a prime time press conference tomorrow night. The conference will be held in the East Room, perhaps to underscore the gravity of the questions he is likely to address.

The East Room of the White House is usually reserved for formal events. Only two of Bush's 11 press conferences have been held there -- one on Oct. 11, 2001, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, and another on March 6, 2003, on the eve of the Iraq invasion, the White House said.

The press conference will begin at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Seven more Americans are missing in Iraq.

Two U.S. soldiers and seven employees of a U.S. contractor were still missing after an attack on a convoy west of Baghdad, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said Monday. A wave of kidnappings continued with the capture of seven Chinese and two Czech civilians. The U.S. military said the contractors were working for Kellogg, Brown & Root, a unit of oil field services company Halliburton Co., the largest contractor in Iraq. They vanished after an attack on a U.S. convoy in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad. Two U.S. soldiers also disappeared in the incident.

The Christian Science Monitor posits: Have We Miscalculated in Iraq?

Terry Nichols' lawyers asked the court today to dismiss the charges against him, alleging that the Government has withheld critical information. The last time this occurred, the Judge said he would throw out the case if it happened again. He has taken the motion under advisement.

The motion claims prosecutors have withheld a video showing suspects leaving the Ryder rental truck that delivered the bomb just over three minutes before the detonation. No such video has been shown to exist. It also claims prosecutors failed to disclose a phone call McVeigh made to a right-wing enclave in Oklahoma known as Elohim City after he rented the Ryder truck. Allegations have surfaced over the years that McVeigh might have received help from people living there.

The motion also says prosecutors did not provide defense attorneys with documents disclosed in a series of Associated Press stories raising the possibility of additional accomplices in the bombing. Those documents included two 1990s teletypes from then-FBI Director Louis Freeh's office citing possible connections between McVeigh and a gang of white supremacist bank robbers.

A video showing suspects leaving the Ryder rental truck that delivered the bomb just over three minutes before the detonation? That's news to us, and if it exists, that would be powerful, new evidence.

by TChris

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has affirmed the convictions (pdf) of four Chicago Police Department officers “who devoted a considerable amount of effort to making money from local drug dealers (and undercover agents whom they mistook for drug dealers) through robbery and acts of public extortion at the expense of their public duties.” The Internal Affairs Division, assisted by the FBI, used informants and an undercover officer masquerading as a drug dealer “to lure the suspect officers into a trap.” Reacting to the informants' tips, the officers would search drug dealers (including an IAD sergeant posing as a dealer), find drugs and cash, and give the dealers a choice: “We get all the money, or you go to jail.”

The undercover cop recruited officers to act as armed escorts when he went on his fake “drug runs.” The officers also robbed drug houses, confiscating “drugs and drug paraphernalia, money, and jewelry, none of which was reported or inventoried according to CPD protocol.” The officers were convicted of "various racketeering, extortion, robbery, drug, and weapons violations."

This eyewitness account from Fallujah written at 10 pm Baghdad time, Sunday night, charges that Americans are slaughtering civilians. Report from a medical clinic:

As I was there, an endless stream of women and children who'd been sniped by the Americans were being raced into the dirty clinic, the cars speeding over the curb out front as their wailing family members carried them in. One woman and small child had been shot through the neck -- the woman was making breathy gurgling noises as the doctors frantically worked on her amongst her muffled moaning. The small child, his eyes glazed and staring into space, continually vomited as the doctors raced to save his life. After 30 minutes, it appeared as though neither of them would survive.

One victim of American aggression after another was brought into the clinic, nearly all of them women and children. ....What I can report from Falluja is that there is no ceasefire, and apparently there never was. Iraqi women and children are being shot by American snipers. Over 600 Iraqis have now been killed by American aggression, and the residents have turned two football fields into graveyards. Ambulances are being shot by the Americans. And now they are preparing to launch a full-scale invasion of the city. All of which is occurring under the guise of catching the people who killed the four Blackwater Security personnel and hung two of their bodies from a bridge.

You can read more about the Fallujah massacre over at Democracy Now.

Update from today:

The Miami Herald reports that Guantanamo is granting the media greater access to facilities at Guantanamo:

For the first time since terrorism suspects were brought to the base two years ago, authorities in recent weeks opened the door to rooms used for interrogations, provided limited information on efforts to gather intelligence from prisoners and showed off a courtroom where military tribunals likely will be conducted.
They also allowed some photographs of restricted areas and permitted interviews with interrogators and others who deal with the prisoners. The new access comes as attorneys for the families of 16 captives are seeking access to federal courts to challenge their indefinite detention. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on April 20.

With Ashcroft set to testify tomorrow before the 9/11 commission, American Progress has compiled the original internal FBI and DOJ documents that show how he de-emphasized terrorism and cut funding. You can access them here. Over at Salon, Progress Reporter Judd Legum has a list of ten questions the Commission should put to Ashcroft.