You may recall the well-fed college prof in Florida who was tried for (and found guilty of) fundraising for Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
He denied it up and down, and his pals at CAIR, a propaganda group, swore to every one of his lies.
Well, he got a surprising sentence: the maximum (plus deportation, later.)
A federal judge yesterday lambasted a former Florida college professor, Sami Al-Arian, as a liar and "master manipulator," before sentencing him to nearly five years in prison for providing support to a Middle Eastern terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Under a plea deal finalized last month, Al-Arian, 48, agreed to admit guilt and accept a possible sentence of 46 to 57 months and eventual deportation from America. Prosecutors agreed to join defense attorneys in recommending a sentence at the low end of the range, but the judge, James Moody Jr., ignored those suggestions and imposed the maximum sentence allowed by the plea bargain.
But here's the payoff line:
Recall that al-Arian operated with impunity from his academic perch on American soil for years while American intelligence monitored his every move -- until the passage of the PATRIOT Act enabled his prosecution based on the intelligence work.
Jay Bullock's new hero was certainly not talking about THIS "Patriot Act," was he?
Another interesting note: the Federal judge is a Clinton appointee...
HT: Powerline
It isn't so much the laws that the administration follows that bothers me; it's the laws they don't.
ReplyDeleteNot everything in the U.S.A.P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act is bad; one mistake people on your side make often is that if we liberals oppose parts of the law, or seek protections of civil liberties against abuses of the law, we must be opposed to the whole thing. That's simplistic and false.
OK, thanks. I'm a simpleton.
ReplyDeleteSo which laws is GWB NOT obeying?
FISA, for one.
ReplyDeleteAnd at least 750 others.
FISA? or the interpretation of FISA enforced by Jamie Gorelick--who has been accumulating baggage at a rapid rate, particularly with her "no see, no hear, no speak" on the 9/11 Commission regarding Able Danger...Gorelick placed the Iron Curtain between CIA-FBI regarding terror surveillance in this country, not a Court.
ReplyDeleteLook, I'm far more concerned about Big Gummint than you are (most likely.) Recall that both Sensenbrenner AND Feingold objected, strenuously, to the first version of PATRIOT. After Sensen was satisfied (some provisions were dropped, others acquired Congressional oversight, others were placed under "sunset" provisions)--then I was comfortable.
Finally, the Boston Globe article you use as a source is opinion--on the first page, the author does not properly nuance the term "US citizen" when referring to those who are making overseas phone calls.
Abdul, a US citizen (or resident) who is calling Afghanistan to order a couple hundred sticks of dynamite is hardly comparable to your aunt Mabel calling her sister in Germany to wish happy birthday.