"Web site" baffles Internet terrorism trial judge

From Reuters:

LONDON (Reuters) - A British judge admitted on Wednesday he was struggling to cope with basic terms like "Web site" in the trial of three men accused of inciting terrorism via the Internet.

Judge Peter Openshaw broke into the questioning of a witness about a Web forum used by alleged Islamist radicals.

"The trouble is I don't understand the language. I don't really understand what a Web site is," he told a London court during the trial of three men charged under anti-terrorism laws.

Prosecutor Mark Ellison briefly set aside his questioning to explain the terms "Web site" and "forum." An exchange followed in which the 59-year-old judge acknowledged: "I haven't quite grasped the concepts."

Violent Islamist material posted on the Internet, including beheadings of Western hostages, is central to the case.

Concluding Wednesday's session and looking ahead to testimony Thursday by a computer expert, the judge told Ellison: "Will you ask him to keep it simple, we've got to start from basics."

Oh my God! How is this man qualified to judge this case?? Why doesn't he do the right thing and excuse himself from this trial?

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In case you didn't know, Part II

From CNN.com:

U.S. report says Iraq war has fueled terror threat

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A classified intelligence report concludes that the Iraq war has worsened the terrorist threat to the United States, U.S. officials told CNN Sunday.

Some intelligence officials have said as much in the past, but the newly revealed document is the first formal report on global trends in terrorism by the National Intelligence Estimate, which is put out by the National Intelligence Council.

Intelligence officials told CNN the report, completed five months ago, said the war and the insurgency are the main recruiting vehicles for new Islamic extremists.

Duh.

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Lebanon civilian deaths morally not same as terror victims -- Bolton

From Yahoo:

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - US Ambassador John Bolton said there was no moral equivalence between the civilian casualties from the Israeli raids in Lebanon and those killed in Israel from "malicious terrorist acts".

Asked to comment on the deaths in an Israeli air strike of eight Canadian citizens in southern Lebanon Sunday, he said: "it is a matter of great concern to us ...that these civilian deaths are occurring. It's a tragedy."

"I think it would be a mistake to ascribe moral equivalence to civilians who die as the direct result of malicious terrorist acts," he added, while defending as "self-defense" Israel's military action, which has had "the tragic and unfortunate consequence of civilian deaths".

Wow, like, “fucked up” doesn’t even come close to describing Bolton’s attitude.

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Moussaoui: I was supposed to fly 5th jet

From Reuters:

Zacarias Moussaoui said on Monday he was supposed to fly a fifth airplane into the White House as part of the September 11 plot and knew two other planes were to fly into New York's World Trade Center.

Taking the stand at his sentencing trial, Moussaoui -- the only person charged in the United States in connection with the September 11 attacks -- said "shoebomber" Richard Reid was to join him as part of the crew in the suicide mission.

Huh?

Why would he admit to this? Why did he even take the stand? I think he wants to get executed.

Very fishy...

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Foiled L.A. Terror Plot

Bush is now saying that mere months after 9/11 a terror plot that would've targeted the Liberty Tower in L.A. was thwarted. Naturally this is supposed to justify the illegal wiretapping and make us forget about those terrorists that escaped from prison in Yemen.

Sorry, I'm just not buying it.

How come he didn't drop this bombshell during the 2004 election? How could he have resisted that temptation if this was true?

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NSA spying on U.S. citizens

It was revealed this week that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to spy on U.S. citizens, and he’s been doing so since 9/11.

Now, I’m not one of these naïve people who think “If you’ve got nothing to hide, you shouldn’t be worried about your government spying on you,” but I do wonder why everyone thinks this is significant. The FBI and the local police spy on Americans every day, right? That’s okay but when the NSA does it it’s wrong?

Or are people mad because the NY Times sat on this story for a year and it could've changed the 2004 election?

Hasta La Vista, “Tookie” Williams

Aren’t you glad you’re not the “govinator” today?

Convicted murderer Stanley “Tookie” Williams is scheduled to die in about 12 hours in California. Pressure is on for governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant him clemency and commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.

No matter how this goes down, everybody is screwed.

Tookie has been nominated six times for a Nobel Peace Prize. But does that make it okay for him to have killed four people?

Not if they were members of my family, it doesn’t!!

But if this man is put to death, we look like beasts. I think it’s safe to say that the person who did those crimes in 1979 isn’t the same person being put to death.

And if Charles Manson’s death sentence could be commuted, you can certainly do that for someone who has renounced violence. I mean, really. Why is Manson not dead?

Then there’s the fact that Arnold wants to be re-elected. He stands to lose votes either way. If he doesn't commute the sentence, he’ll be destroyed in the next election by his opponent. Think of the ads they can come up with. But if he does grant clemency, he's “soft on crime” and he “caved in to the radical left.”

Oh, and there’ll probably be a riot if Tookie dies, God knows.

**SIGH**

--

UPDATE: Arnold did not commute the sentence. Tookie will die tonight.

Sleeper Cell

I like this new series Sleeper Cell on Showtime. The pacing and strong writing reminds me of the first season of 24.

The (admittedly improbable) plot centers around Darwyn Al-Sayeed, an African-American deep-cover FBI agent who does a stint in prison in order to gain entry into an Islamic terrorist group’s sleeper cell.

Darwyn is an interesting character for TV. He seems to be primarily motivated to oppose the Muslim extremists because he’s offended by their perversion of his religion. He has chivalrous tendencies towards females and children in distress, but though he says his religion forbids sex outside of marriage, he’s quick to fall into a sexual relationship with a white single mom who works at a nail salon.

As is the case in most of the best TV shows, the surrounding cast is what takes the show to another level. I appreciate the way that the show features a variety of Muslims. Darwyn, as an African-American Muslim, is not considered a “real” Muslim by an Egyptian in episode one. Christian, a Frenchman, converted to Islam because of his Moroccan wife, but he is estranged from her and he’s evidently more of a believer than she is. Tommy, a blond haired, blue-eyed boy from a rich liberal family, seems to have turned to Islam as a rejection of his privileged childhood. Ilija is a Bosnian Muslim who blames the West for allowing Orthodox Serbs to kill his people in the early 90’s. Lastly, the mysterious Farik, leader of the sleeper cell, has the ultimate cover -- he works in a security company and he’s passing as an Israeli.

The only problem with the show? They’re showing the episodes on consecutive nights in December! I think this show is flying under the radar, and that’s a shame.

How Convenient!

From Reuters:

"A man who committed suicide after a traffic stop left a note and other evidence indicating he killed the husband and mother of a federal judge in Chicago."

Oh, come on. Does this sound fishy or what?

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