More Lodi...
At midpoint, terror trial against Lodi men reveals murky picture
http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2006/03/14/terrorism/3_trial_060314.txt "Security consultant Howard Safir, a former New York City police commissioner, called the Hayat case an important prosecution despite the lack of hard evidence of a confirmed terrorist plot.
"We can't minimize the fact that al-Qaida was trying to set up cells in the United States," said Safir, who also held posts with the U.S. Marshall's Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration. "I think al-Qaida is like the Statue of Liberty: 'Send me your hungry, your poor ... ' They'll take anybody and see if they're useful."
... According to trial transcripts, he was awaiting orders to attack targets that included hospitals, banks and grocery stores.
When an FBI agent asked him to explain why food stores were possibilities, Hayat responded, "I think just to hurt people," according to a transcript of the interrogation.
...Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, those who the government believes to be top terrorists often are never charged but rather are kept overseas for interrogation.
"The rationale has been their value is intelligence, and the aim is to prevent future attacks, rather than conviction and punishment," said George Harris, one of the attorneys who represented John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban" who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he was captured during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
Traditional prosecutions are often reserved for alleged lower-level operatives who have little information to reveal in open settings that might damage the nation's intelligence-gathering.
In such cases, physical evidence can be sparse, especially if the government acts to disrupt attacks before they can occur.
Photographs or other hard evidence from inside a training camp are unlikely, making interrogations and confessions the most likely evidence jurors may see, said security consultant Oliver "Buck" Revel, who headed the FBI's counterterrorism division for more than a decade.
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1597250/posts
Marriage Hell: Till bombs do us part (how to go after your spouse)
Times of India ^ | 03/15/06
Posted on 03/15/2006 10:00:59 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Marriage Hell: Till bombs do us part
[ Wednesday, March 15, 2006 09:47:42 pm REUTERS ]
A Mexican couple is recovering separately after a marital spat got out of control and saw them firing guns, throwing knives and hurling homemade bombs at each other, the Mexican daily Milenio reported this week.
In scenes reminiscent of the hit romantic comedy Mr and Mrs Smith, which starred Hollywood stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Juan Espinosa and his wife Irma Contreras fought until their house blew up in a homemade gasoline bomb explosion, Milenio said.
Police called to the home in the town of Oxkutzcab arrested Espinosa. Contreras was taken to hospital with third-degree burns. A local police official confirmed the report, but didn’t provide further information. In the violence-filled movie about the fictional Smiths, Pitt and Jolie play married assassins ordered to kill each other.
Espinosa said he was glad his wife had suffered burns, while Contreras said she was only sorry that she had not “hacked off his manhood’’.