Posted on 06/25/2007 12:31:35 PM PDT by tcrlaf
HAMMOND, Ind. - A federal trial was expected to start Monday for a Purdue University graduate student facing charges of threatening the life of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, their wives and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Vikram S. Buddhi faces 11 counts in U.S. District Court for comments he made in an Internet chat room in 2005 and 2006. Buddhi is an Indian national who was attending advanced engineering classes at Purdue's West Lafayette campus.
The indictment also alleges that he called for bombings of American infrastructure.
The messages were posted on Yahoo! Finance message boards. Prosecutors say Buddhi attempted to conceal his actions by using someone else's digital identity.
Buddhi's attorney says the comments are protected speech under the First Amendment because they were intended as political banter in opposition to the war in Iraq. Buddhi has also argued that his indictment was too vague and that his exhortations for someone to "Kill GW Bush" and "Rape and Kill Laura Bush" were not true threats because Buddhi was not threatening to do it himself.
To be acquitted, jurors must be convinced Buddhi did not intend to act on his words, even if there was little chance he would be able to, according to Valparaiso University law professor Ivan Bodensteiner.
"A real threat means that this person is intending, whether today or tomorrow, to do these things," Bodensteiner said. "Not whether he could pull it off, it's whether their intending to do damage to this person.
"Just because it's the president and he hears worse, doesn't give you carte blanche."
Halliburton was his favorite boogeyman, as they are connected to the Evil Cheney.
And, just to be clear: I SWEAR I did not forward his postings to the Federal Protective Service!! (snicker...)
Isn’t this just typical daily activity over at DU?
important to note that this student, at least judging by the name, is a Hindu or Buddhist and not Muslim.
odd considering that Bush has never done anything negative to Hindus.
“Isn’t this just typical daily activity over at DU?”
You beat me to it. After Bush was re-elected I saw direct threats to the prez over there including calls for armed revolt. The same statements on one of the gun or patriot sites would get you a visit from the Secret Service or the FBI.
Even better, he was GRAD ASSISTANT at Purdue!
Probably in nuclear engineering school.
Armed revolt? By Libs? But, but I thought they hated guns, cuz guns are evil and kill people. Or maybe they just intended to bring knives to a gun fight. Yeah, that may be it.
“Armed revolt? By Libs? But, but I thought they hated guns, cuz guns are evil and kill people. Or maybe they just intended to bring knives to a gun fight. Yeah, that may be it.”
Seriously, some of those people were telling the others to go out and buy an AK so that they could be prepared for the revolution. That’s one of the rudest and foul mouthed bunch of people I’ve ever seen.
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