From the New York Times:
A federal appeals court in Manhattan upheld the convictions on Monday of three Al Qaeda operatives in a ruling that bolsters the government’s power to investigate terrorism by holding that a key Constitutional protection afforded to Americans does not apply overseas. Related: [(Opinions (In Re: Terrorist Bombings) (Findlaw.com)]
The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit holds for the first time that government agents may obtain admissible evidence against United States citizens through warrantless searches abroad.
From the Dallas News:
A jury on Monday determined that the Holy Land Foundation and five men who worked with the Muslim charity were guilty of three dozen counts related to the illegal funneling of at least $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
The unanimous verdicts are a complete victory for the government, which streamlined its case after a mistrial last year, and worked hard to carefully educate jurors on the complex evidence presented in the massive case. Guilty verdicts were read on 108 separate charges.
In retrospect this is good news and, at the same time, troubling news. In the first case, it is disturbing that it took a court to interpret the obvious: the US Constitution does not apply overseas. Captain Obvious would be proud.
In the second instance, it is disturbing that it took two attempts to win this case, fifteen years and millions of dollars.
Steve Emerson said on Bill Bennett’s
Morning In America (Tuesday), that it was the most significant terrorism trial in the history of the United States. This has exposed many other groups as well; CAIR was also revealed to be a front for Hamas,
Mr. Emerson said. It is a great “tell” that NO Islamic group has supported the case or now, the verdict. The
Muslim America Society has called the ruling “not legitimate,”
CAIR is blistering, every other “mainstream” Islamic group is upset because, after all, these other groups are “fronts” themselves as well. All these groups are simply going to bleat that the ruling is another “attack” on Islam — to which I would reply in one succinct word:
bullshit.
Should SOFA result in American troops leaving Iraq next year en masse, the fight is clearly not over and, in my opinion, efforts will be redoubled by Militant Islam on our domestic soil. Militant Islam still continues to recruit in prisons and in mosques. This would be precisely the perfect time to conduct a strike on our homeland for these reasons: 1) Obama is perceived as inexperienced and flaccid; 2) America is extended and 3) Another strike would certainly hurl our economy completely over the precipice.
BZ
In the Dallas case, I was surprised that there was no direct action taken…
Oh well, the court got em…
I did it. I uploaded every freaking article to The Moral Compass. I had to write on Obama…..freaking ^^^ is an illegitimate foreigner. He is muslim taboot!
http://thenewmoralcompass.wordpress.com/2008/11/25/will-the-supreme-court-rule-out-obama-as-an-illigitimate-president-elect/
TF: you can bet there’ll be “direct action” in the future.
Liz: excellent job.
BZ
We were ripe for an attack anyway. Any transition of power is perceived as a time to attack. The problem is that McCain was the candidate that would have continued the constant vigilance to keep the terrorists out.
With a Democrat in power who ran on the Peace At Any Price platform and a Democratic congress, the chances of an attack have increased.
But perhaps the enemy will get what it wants without actually attacking us physically.
Actually a reading of the ruling indicates that the Constitution does apply overseas.
“The Fourth Amendment’s requirement of reasonableness – but not the Warrant Clause – applies to extraterritorial searches and seizures of U.S. citizens,” the judge wrote.
And this is an important point:
David D. Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University, said the ruling underscored “that we don’t need a specialized national security court; that we don’t need to depart from the traditional criminal justice system approach for prosecuting terrorists.”
So your cup is only half full.
As far as CAIR goes. If you can’t get a conviction in front of twelve Texans merely by saying “Boo” and “Terrorist” then you are seriously inept.
Ducky: US citizens, yes, others, no. And half full? I must be missing something because the obvious was upheld.
BZ
For those of you NOT in the immediate Dallas area, here is todays article from The Dallas Morning News.
Read the accusations that are being thrown around by the convicted and their supporters, and then, if you have a few minutes, read the comments from DMN readers…
Holy Land supporters accuse government of preying on fear
As far as I can tell, these two stories got very little attention in the msm. Some attention, but not the usual.
For the first time since 9/11, cases of this type were shoved off the front page. Why?
I believe that the media are trying to get people not to think about the Islamic threat. The leftist agenda and the unholy alliance.
Wouldn’t you think these cases would get media exposure?
Sickening. Thanks for some good news for a change, BZ.
And Happy Thanksgiving…xxx
And CAIR forgot to file their corporation papers a couple of years ago, so they don’t even really exist as an entity. What a great thing to overlook!
I am expecting several major attempts by Islam as Obama is clearly too weak to either defend us or take it to the enemy.