The Buffalo News today reports that relatives and lawyers of those arrested on terror charges insist the men were duped.

"Relatives of the Lackawanna men accused of forming a terrorist sleeper cell say the young men never intended to train with al-Qaida forces and think they were strung along by those who recruited them for religious studies in Pakistan."

"Defense lawyers, who stop short of admitting their clients trained at the al-Farooq camp in Afghanistan, said the young men left friends and family in Lackawanna in the spring and summer of 2001 for religious studies, not military training. Or at least intended to. "

Bail hearings are scheduled for later today.

Two other men are being sought. One, Kamal Derwish, 29 is believed to be the leader of the alleged cell and is now the subject of a world-wide manhunt.

Josh Marshall makes an excellent point today in Talking Points Memo about the way decisions are being made on how to treat those arrested or captured in the Terror War.

"John Walker Lindh, a US citizen, gets a straightforward civilian trial. Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen, gets a straightforward civilian trial. Jose Padilla, a US citizen, is held indefinitely and without counsel as an enemy combatant. Yasir Hamdi, another US citizen, is also an enemy combatant being held indefinitely, but he may get a lawyer. The folks down in Guantanamo, well, who knows? "

"A military tribunal, civilian trials, various sorts of detention -- cases can be made for each method of proceeding. But the essence of the rule of law is having rules in place for how you're going to deal with people before you catch them, not making them up afterwards."

Atrios/Eschaton takes the argument one step further:

"We can debate about what the rules should be and when, but most importantly there should be rules. When talking heads get on TV and say with a straight face that the government should choose this system of justice over another one because it would be easier to get a conviction that way, our justice system has become a complete farce. If only it were funny."

It's not just tv-talking heads. Check out the options and reasons set out by "legal and government experts" in this Washington Post article today:

"In the Moussaoui case, the government also may balk at calling Binalshibh as a courtroom witness because of concerns over disclosure of classified information and the need to provide him with counsel, several officials and legal experts said yesterday."

According to one legal expert, "Bringing him here as a witness raises real complications...The government's best scenario is to get information from Binalshibh that helps them gather evidence to be used against Moussaoui and others."

A senior law enforcement official agreed: "He will be most useful as a way to gather leads that could lead us to more evidence. Direct testimony might not be the best option."

A law professor at the University of Maryland's Center for Health and Homeland Security "noted that the government repeatedly has invoked the need for interrogation in arguing for the detention of foreign prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and American prisoners in U.S. jails. That argument is particularly strong in the case of Binalshibh. They're not going to be putting him in a situation where he will be subject to [legal] process or subpoena or anything of that nature."

So the choices at this juncture seem to be:

The case against the six Buffalo suspects recently charged with providing material support to terrorists is a strange one.

Michael Niman, a professor of American studies at Medaille College in Buffalo and Alternet contributor, asks Is the Buffalo, NY Terrorist Cell For Real?.

Niman charges that "the FBI has not yet presented any evidence, argument or charges that would indicate the Lackawanna men comprised an "al-Qaeda terrorist cell," as alleged by the Justice Department and countless newspaper headlines. "

According to Niman, at the press conference held after their arrest, the FBI special agent in charge reported that no weapons had been seized and "there was no evidence that the suspects were supporting or planning any specific terrorist actions. " (Since then, the agent in charge has corrected the statement to say two guns and a stun gun were seized.)

"The entire case against the five Americans consists of the fact that they allegedly, while on a pilgrimage to study Islam in Pakistan, took a side trip into Taliban Afghanistan and visited what later became known in the American media as the "al-Farooq terrorist training camp."

Ramzi bin al-Shibh, aka Binalshibh, captured in Pakistan Wednesday, is on his way to an undisclosed location in the custody of the United States.

First, a name issue. In the Moussaoui Indictment, he is named Ramzi bin al-Shibh. The Washington Post is referring to him as Binalshibh. But we're talking about the same guy.

We are very interested in Mr. bin al-Shibh because of his alleged relationship to Zacarias Moussaoui, now awaiting trial in Virginia.

The government's theory has been that Mr. bin al-Shibh (former roomate of hijacker Mohammed Attah) was supposed to be the 20th hijacker on September 11. When he couldn't get a visa to enter the U.S., Moussaoui was picked to be the 20th hijacker in his stead. Bin al-Shibh sent some money to Moussaoui. The week before the 9/11 attacks, bin al-Shibh allegedly went to Spain and hadn't been seen by law enforcement since, until his arrest Wednesday.

We don't think Moussoui was going to replace bin Al-Shibh, or be the 20th hijacker. We think the French are more on target with their theory that Moussaoui was training for a different, later mission --in part based on the fact that Moussoui was trying to learn to fly a 747 and none of the 9/11 hijacked planes were 747's. Another popular theory is that Moussaoui was going to be used for a later mission involving crop-dusting planes.

In motions unsealed today, accused "shoe bomber" Richard Reid told authorities during his interrogations that he was acting alone. In the Indictment against him filed last December, prosecutors alleged Reid had been trained at an Al Qaeda camp in Afganistan (Count II).

Reid maintains he was angry at Jews and wanted to take it out on the U.S. because of its support for Israel.

More on the possible Saddam/OKC/WTC terrorism conspiracy theory that Instapundit came across today and about which he says, "I'd call this case not proven, but worthy of further investigation."

Well, there does seem to be a rather striking resemblence between sketches of John Doe II and Padilla as we've pointed out before, and we will continue to report on any further developments. We doubt we'll take sides on this one though, at least not here, for reasons we hope are fairly obvious.

John Walker Lindh is now cooperating and seeking forgiveness according to his lawyers.

"Lindh never contemplated that he would be fighting in a war that Americans would enter, the lawyers said. He now believes he made a terrible mistake by enlisting with Afghanistan's former harsh Islamic rulers and wants Americans to forgive him..."

"Lindh understands Americans' extremely negative feelings toward him, West said. He wants his countrymen to know that he was not a terrorist and never joined Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, even though he met bin Laden in a military training camp in Afghanistan."

"He understands Sept. 11 changed the way people view Islam and that he came into national consciousness at a time there was a great deal of justified national pain and anger," West said."

"He made a mistake. He admits he made a terrible mistake. No one wants to be judged by the worst mistake they made when they were 20 years old."

Lindh is awaiting sentencing. His plea agreement calls for a 20 year sentence but others have opined he could get as little as 13 if the terrorism adjustment does not apply.

The Rocky Mountain News is reporting that before indicting James Ujaama this week for conspiracy to provide assistance to Al Qaeda by scouting training camp sites and designing a website, the Feds considered offering him immunity.

According to Ujaama's Denver lawyer, Dan Sears, one of the leading and most respected defense lawyers in the state,

"There have been discussions concerning an application for 'use immunity' by the prosecutors' office back in Virginia" where Ujaama is held, Sears said. "I understand that representations were made that application (for immunity toward Ujaama) was going to be made by the Department of Justice U.S. Attorney's office back east. But whether that application was ever made or not, I don't know."

"Sears also said that discussions with the U.S. Attorney's office in Seattle included Ujaama making a "proffer" - in which a witness provides testimony that lets prosecutors decide whether an immunity offer is appropriate."

"Although immunity never was offered formally to Ujaama, Sears said the fact that prosecutors even discussed it indicates that federal authorities are looking at bigger targets, beyond him."

"If you're going to indict and convict someone, you don't even talk about the prospects of offering use immunity," said Sears, a former federal prosecutor. "

Sears is right about how it usually works. An offer of immunity is made to people who can help the Government fry bigger fish (or at least more of them.) With exceptions, (Sammy Gravano in the John Gotti case immediately comes to mind) a defendant who did something really bad is usually allowed to plead to a lesser crime, not given immunity from prosecution--which is a walk.

Ujaama has proclaimed his innocence.. It may be he didn't want talk to the feds or he doesn't have the information they think he has, and that's why the offer wasn't made. And the opportunity for Ujaama to resolve his own case by cooperating may come up again in the future.

Of course we are just speculating here, trying to read between the lines of what his attorney is saying.

The Justice Department is staying mum.

The AP reports that:

"Zacarias Moussaoui, who has derided his court-appointed lawyers as "bloodsuckers," is working through an intermediary to get legal help from the attorneys he despises as he prepares for his Jan. 6 trial as an accused Sept. 11 conspirator."

Recent pleadings filed by Moussaoui as well as those filed by his legal team indicate Moussaoui and his lawyers are communicating through Muslim professor, Sadiq Reza of New York Law School in Manhattan.

"It appears that Mr. Moussaoui, without changing his view that we are adverse to him, will be seeking assistance from Professor Reza, who has indicated he will need assistance from us precisely in the areas related to our discovery (evidence) review," the court-appointed team said in an Aug. 16 motion."

In another defense team motion, the lawyers said Moussaoui is communicating with them but still will not allow them to initiate motions on his behalf.

A review of the filings show that the lawyers have submitted legal authority in support of several of Moussoui's own motions--and some have been granted.

Is Moussaoui grateful or becoming more subdued about his dislike for his lawyers? Hardly.

"As a protection against any pig disease there will be no more unsanitize [sic]contact with the affected horde of standby lawyers," he wrote in an Aug. 8 motion. He still calls the team "bloodsuckers" in his motions."

Moussaoui can hate his lawyers all he wants. We still want him to receive a fair trial. It is the only way any future verdict of guilty or sentence to death can have any integrity.

As we've said before, Moussaoui has defenses both to the substantive charges and to the death penalty. He has the right to raise them and it is our duty to see that he is given the opportunity.

The Moussaoui trial has been moved to January at the request of his standby lawyers. Moussaoui is still planning on representing himself, but the Judge has told the lawyers to get ready.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff (Southern District of NY) believes the Government misled him in the case of Abdallah Higazy, the Egyptian who was detained for 30 days after the FBI arrested him alleging that an aviation radio was found in his hotel room overlooking the World Trade Center. Turns out, a pilot later acknowledged the radio belonged to him and a security guard, who had claimed to have found the radio in Higazy's room safe, recanted his story.

Today Judge Rakoff ordered the release of more than 100 pages of court documents in the case.

At a hearing on March 18, Judge Rakoff expressed concern over misleading statements by a prosecutor about a supposed confession by Higazy, made during a polygraph test. The confession was false. Hizazy says the FBI extracted the confession by making" veiled threats" against his family in Egypt.

Charges against Hizazy were ultimately dismissed.

Thanks to How Appealing for pointing out Dahlia Lithwick's op-ed on the apparent failure of the Government's case against Moussoui:

What Was Moussaoui's Crime?

"...our legal system must reflect the principles by which we live: no one should be found guilty of a crime he did not commit. Unless we intend to try every Qaeda member we can find with capital conspiracy for Sept. 11, we must try Mr. Moussaoui for whatever crimes he committed, and not for the crimes we wish we could avenge."