18 year old Abdella Tounisi is the latest terror sting victim of the FBI. He is a U.S. citizen and a college student. His parents are Jordanian. He's now in federal detention in Chicago charged with providing material support to a terrorist group. The material support he allegedly was willing to provide was personnel -- himself.

He isn't charged with planning anything in the U.S. -- he had decided to go to Syria and fight with jihadists there. The FBI caught him by setting up a pretend Islamic terror recruiting website. He fell for the bait. During their online communications, Tounisi told the FBI he was very physically very small and had no fighting experience. He also told them he had no contacts in Syria. The FBI assured him his size didn't matter, they would train him, and then instructed him on how to make flight arrangements to Turkey. It even sent him a bus ticket for the next leg of his journey. He was arrested at O'Hare after checking in for his flight to Turkey.

According to the Complaint, the FBI monitored his google searches, the You Tube videos he watched, his IP address log-ins, and e-mails. In a later filing, the Government filed a notice it will be relying on FISA evidence. [More...]

The law enforcement leaks are over the top. It is inexcusable that the FBI or law enforcement officials with whom they shared information are leaking details of a purported confession by Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

The Washington Post has more leaks. Among the unnamed sources cited: A senior law enforcement official; a U.S. counter-terrorism official; "a U.S. official who has been briefed on the interrogation and who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing"; and a U.S. intelligence official. [More...]

I spent all day writing my outline on social media dangers and opportunities in criminal cases for the NORML Aspen Legal Seminar next month and am just catching up on the news.

Coincidentally, I see that two big stories today are the release of the Ricin suspect:

Attorney Christi McCoy said her client has been framed by someone who used several phrases Curtis likes to use on social media.

“I do believe that someone who was familiar and is familiar with Kevin just simply took his personal Paul Kevin Curtis: Ricin Letter-Writing Suspect Released on Bond information and did this to him,” McCoy told CNN. “It is absolutely horrific that someone would do this.”

Longer article here.

And someone hacked Twitter sending the Dow plunging for a while. [More...]

It's another Champion's Leage Day, as the semifinals commence with the first leg of a Battle of the Titans: Barcelona vs. Bayern Munich.

The big question: Is Messi healthy? Without him. Barca has looked pedestrian. Bayern has looked tremendous all season (and the rich get richer as Bayern buys their German rival Dortmund's best player, Mario Goetze.)

I took Bayern to qualify (12 units at +140), but I fear Messi.

Tomorrow it's Dortmund vs. Real Madrid.

Open Thread.

R.I.P. Richie Havens.

Federal defenders in Tsarnaev's case filed a motion this afternoon asking that two experienced death penalty lawyers be appointed as co-counsel with them. Federal law provides that in any case with the potential for the death penalty, the defendant is entitled to "learned counsel". Here's the motion. They cite the Jared Loughner and Eric Rudolph cases. Judy Clarke's phone must be ringing off the hook. (She represented both Loughner and Rudolph as well as the Unabomber -- and was also part of Zacarias Moussaoui's team.) If she'd agree, it would be the biggest break Tsarnaev could hope for. When it comes to saving a life, there's no one better. The New York Times had this profile of Judy in 2011 during her representation of Loughner. [More...]

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged by federal complaint yesterday and advised of his rights today at the hospital by U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler.

The judge ordered him removed from the custody of the FBI and into the custody of the U.S. Marshals. He was represented by Assistant Federal Defender William Fick. Also to be representing him: Attorneys Conrad and Watkins.

He has been charged with two counts (Complaint here):

• Destruction 18 U.S.C. s 844(i): Malicious Destruction of Property Resulting in Death
• 18 U.S.C. s 2332a(a): Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction

The 10 page Affidavit with probable cause for the charges is here. From the court minutes on PACER: [More...]

Recommended reading: 10 Essential Points about the Boston Marathon bombers, Islam, and America

Chechnya is a fairly remote region. There are few people on TV with actual expertise about Chechnya. Most of these “instant experts” go to Wikipedia to get their information. Because of the 24-hour news media, we now have created a cult of instant experts who need to be able to fill the airways now about Iraq, now about Afghanistan, now about Chechnya, without necessarily having set foot on these places, knowing their languages, their history, or spoken with their peoples. Complex geo-political realities are collapsed into cliché tropes of “jihad” and “terrorism.”

....Here is one simple revelation: Read the Wikipedia page on Chechnya, and then see how many of its phrases show up in the sound bites of these instant experts.

[More...]

Don't listen to the Doogie Howsers of terrorism -- the self-proclaimed experts who learned their trade on the internet and because their views fit the government's agenda, were able to parlay it into a career of testifying against suspects at trial. The cable news loves to put them on. Everyone is a terrorist to them.

The Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy has been publishing yearly reports on the number of homegrown Muslim-American terror incidents. Their February 1, 2013 report (for which data is provided) shows such incidents continued to decline in 2012, for the third year in a row:

“Fourteen Muslim-Americans were indicted for violent terrorist plots in 2012, down from 21 the year before, bringing the total since 9/11 to 209, or just under 20 per year. The number of plots also dropped from 18 in 2011 to 9 in 2012. For the second year in a row, there were no fatalities or injuries from Muslim-American terrorism. … Sixty-six Americans were killed in mass shootings by non-Muslims in 2012 alone, twice as many fatalities as from Muslim-American terrorism in all 11 years since 9/11.”

[More...]

I don't think I've read any news this week that's not related to the Boston bombings.

I'm turning my attention now to Nurse Jackie, the Good Wife and Celebrity Apprentice.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Update 7:40 pm ET: CNN reports Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is awake and answering law enforcement's questions. No wonder the U.S. Attorney didn't file charges today. They didn't want a lawyer appointed who could demand to see him and advise him not to sign any waivers. The Boston Police Commissioner said today the brothers acted alone. Where's the continuing public safety threat? An internal FBI policy memo that extends the public safety exception beyond what the Supreme Court has authorized is not controlling law.

Can the Federal Defender file a "miscellaneous action" and ask to be appointed now for the limited purpose of advising him of his rights and request an order directing the FBI to allow them to meet with him before it attempts to secure any waivers?

Update 1:18 pm: It looks like the feds won't be able to use the Faisal Shahazad scenario with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He cannot speak at all due to being shot in the throat. Thus, it's unlikely he can be questioned at all, or that he would be able to provide a knowing and voluntary waiver of his right to timely appear before a judge and be appointed counsel after charges are filed and before presentment. Due to his injuries and inability to be questioned, reports now say charges will be filed, perhaps today, a judge will advise him at the hospital, and the public defender's representation would be effective upon advisement. [More...]

The 4/20 marijuana celebration at Denver's Civic Center Park ended abruptly at around 4:40 pm when shots rang out and one or two people were injured. One appears to have been stabbed (photo here, name being withheld), so it's not clear if two people were shot, one was shot and one was stabbed, or some other scenario occurred. The shooting suspects are described as:

Police described the first suspect as a light complexioned black male, about 6-feet tall and weighing about 180 pounds. He was wearing a gray hoodie, black pants and a Carolina blue baseball cap. The second suspect was a black male in a checkered black and white shirt.

The Denver Post was there with its shiny new gigapan camera around 2:30 pm and took this photograph. It took me all of two minutes to find a black male in a checkered black and white shirt. A la Boston, police are asking people to submit their photos. [More...]

Here's a thread to discuss continuing developments in the Boston Marathon Bombing case and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The Federal Defender in MA today said it expects its office to be appointed to be appointed.

What I've been reading:

• Glenn Greenwald on the public safety exception to Miranda rights.
• Emily Brazelon at Slate on why we should care.
• Andrew Cohen on The Legal Way Forward
• The 2010 FBI memo on the public safety exception to Miranda rights
• Montejo v. Louisiana, 556 U.S. 778 (U.S. 2009)(overruling Mississippi v. Jackson)
• New York v. Quarles, 467 U.S. 649 (U.S. 1984)

What I'm not reading: Any of the garbage put out by Lindsay Graham. [More...]