I added that final exclamation point because, of course, we've had all kinds of terrorist convictions over the years only to see them over-turned on appeal. And then there's the case of Sami Al-Arian, the South Florida university professor who was acquitted but still isn't entirely free because he refused to turn states' evidence on matters he probably doesn't know anything about.
The convictions of the five principals of the Holy Land Foundation will probably be over-turned eventually as well. But, as of now,
Five Convicted in Terrorism Financing Trial
By GRETEL C. KOVACH
Published: November 24, 2008
DALLAS — On their second try, federal prosecutors won sweeping convictions Monday against five leaders of a Muslim charity in a retrial of the largest terrorism-financing case in the United States since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
That date is such a convenient hook. As best one can tell, the defendants are actually accused of supporting Hamas six years prior to the event with which Hamas had no connection.
The five defendants, all leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, based in Richardson, a Dallas suburb, were convicted on all 108 criminal counts against them, including support of terrorism, money laundering and tax fraud. The group was accused of funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, an Islamist organization the government declared to be a terrorist group in 1995.
The jury, which deliberated for eight days, reached a starkly different result than the jury in the first trial, which ended in a mistrial on most charges in October 2007, after nearly two months of testimony and 19 days of deliberations.
The government shuttered the Holy Land Foundation in December 2001 and seized its assets, a move President Bush heralded at the time as "another step in the war on terrorism."
I find the prosecutor's argument of particular interest.
The prosecutor, Barry Jonas, told jurors in closing arguments last week that they should not be deceived by the foundation’s cover of humanitarian work, describing the charities it financed as terrorist recruitment centers that were part of a "womb to the tomb" cycle.
Given that it's a Republican pattern to accuse others of what they themselves are guilty of, one is reminded that "it takes one to know one."
As someone who happens to consider the proliferation of eleemosynary foundations and non-governmental non-profit entities as proponents of international policy under the guise of performing good works a worrisome development that's designed to circumvent democratic institutions, it strikes me that the prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation is a risky proposition. What if it sets a precedent for other nations taking exception to the activities of organizations like the Clinton Global Initiative, the International Republican Institute, the Council of the Americas, etc? How, for example, would John McCain's Media Support Center Foundation fare if Kyrgyzstan were to determine that a U.S. sponsored propaganda press is a national security threat?
Seems like we're in slippery slope territory here.
As far as Sami Al-Arian is concerned, George W. Bush had better hope that there's no evidence that the persecution and prosecution of the Palestinian professor isn't related to the fact that, at one time, George was palin' around with Sami.