Jose Padilla, the al-Qaeda suspect held in military detention for more than three years before being transferred to federal court where he was tried, convicted and sentenced to 17 years, got off too easy according to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The three-judge appeals panel voted 2-1 to reject the lower-court judge’s opinion that Padilla will be too old to pose a threat upon his release from prison. “Padilla poses a heightened risk of future dangerousness due to his al-Qaeda training,” the appeals panel wrote. “He is far more sophisticated than an individual convicted of an ordinary street crime.”

I find the opinion (available here) demeaning in tone to the trial judge. It reads like a parent scolding a child when the parent thinks it knows best and the child should know better. [More...]

The trial of accused "underwear bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab will begin in October. Next week, potential jurors will begin filling out questionnaires. Abdulmutallab is representing himself, with the assistance of standby counsel Anthony Chambers.

Here's what's happened in the case recently: Abdulmutallab filed motions to suppress his statements made during interrogations at the University of Michigan Hospital and Milan Correctional Center. The Government responded it won't seek to introduce his statements made while detained at Milan. As to the hospital statements, Abdulmutallab argues the statements were not voluntary because he had been administered Fetanyl for pain and that the public safety exception did not apply because the agents asked so many questions that had nothing to do with any emergency: [More...]

Mohammed Wali Zazi, father of admitted terrorist Najibullah Zazi, was convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn today of two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of conspiring to obstruct justice by lying to investigators and the grand jury and destroying or hiding evidence to cover up his son's aborted plan to place bombs in the New York subway system.

The case featured the testimony of two other family members who pleaded guilty and agreed to testify for the government to stave off stiff prison terms. They detailed the family's failure to acknowledge Zazi as a budding terrorist and its clumsy attempts to protect him once his plot fell apart.

The defense argued the two relatives of Zazi, who testified against him in exchange for leniency for their own participation, were lying. In the jury instructions they submitted to the Court, the defense argued the government did not accuse Mr. Zazi of destroying any physical evidence himself and conceded he was not even present during the alleged destruction. (They said the government’s theory was that Mr. Zazi aided and abetted others' destruction of physical evidence and that he wasn't guilty of aiding and abetting because Mr. Zazi did not share the specific intent of those who physically committed the crime.) [More..]

The trial of Mohammed Wali Zazi, father of admitted terrorist Najibullah Zazi (the airport van driver from Denver), charged with obstucting justice by lying to investigators about his son's activities and tampering with and destroying evidence to cover up his son's actions, begins tomorrow in federal court in Brooklyn.

The elder Zazi's brother-in-law, Naqib Jaji, will testify for the Government. The defense has said it will call Najibullah Zazi, who cooperated with the Government, pleaded guilty and has not yet been sentenced. Mohammed and Najibullah have not spoken in two years. [More...]

The review court for military commission trials issued an en banc opinion yesterday upholding the conviction of Osama bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan.

In justifying trial by military commission, it reached back to 1818.

In that case, U.S. forces under Gen. Andrew Jackson invaded Spanish Florida in 1818 to stop black slaves from fleeing through a porous border. Troops captured two British traders, whom the general ordered face a military commission on charges they aided the enemy by helping the Seminoles and escaped black slaves.

The tribunal convicted the men and sentenced them to a whipping. Jackson, a slave owner, declared the punishment too soft and had them executed.

The opinion is here.

Clearly, the jury did not take David Headley's cooperating testimony at face value. The Government has helpfully put its trial exhibits online, so you can see the evidence the jury saw, including Rana's e-mails and some video clips of his uncounseled post-arrest statement. (Rana waived his right to an attorney.)

****

The jury has reached a verdict in the Chicago Terror trial of Tahawwur Hussein Rana, accused of conspiring with former DEA informant David Coleman Headley, aka Daood Gilani and others in the Mumbai bombings, providing material support to a planned terror attack in Denmark and providing material support to terror group LeT. [More...]

Closing arguments are over, the jury has been instructed and will begin deliberating the fate of Tahawwur Rana, the Canadian businessman accused of conspiring with former DEA informant David Coleman Headley to provide material support to terrorists in connection with the Mumbai bombings and a planned attack in Denmark.

Rana is charged in three counts: Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Terrorism in India; Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Terrorism in Denmark; and Providing Material Support to Lashkar e Tayyiba.

In closings, the defense attacked David Headley, while the Government said Rana and Headley were on the same team. [More...]

Samraz Rana, the wife of Tahawwur Rana, on trial in Chicago for conspiring with David Headley and others in the Mumbai bombings and a planned attack on a Danish news agency, has given an exlcusive interview to Times of India.

In addition to discussing how David Coleman Headley duped her husband, she explains that Rana actually knew Major Iqbal from their early army officer days.

In a stunning revelation, Samraz Rana, speaking in a mix of English and Urdu, explained that Balajee was known to her husband in his early days in uniform as a medical corps doctor as a colleague in the Pakistani army, perhaps even before he became a Lashkar or an ISI operative.

[More..]

Did the Government participate in David Headley's lie to the court about his past mental health issues when he pleaded guilty? A bevvy on news articles on the Tahawwur Rana terror trial in Chicago today say Headley lied to the Government and the Judge about his past mental health troubles. But did the Government really not know about them? The Wall St. Journal recaps Headley's cross-examination today by Tahawwur Rana's attorney:

When Mr. Headley told the court earlier that he had never been treated for a mental disorder, he failed to disclose that in 1992 he was diagnosed with a multiple-personality disorder and that he underwent 18 months of psychological treatment around 1997. Confronted with his medical record, Mr. Headley said softly, "I don't recall it." When Mr. Blegen asked him if he would like to see the paperwork, he said, "I will accept it."

[More...]

The Chicago terror trial of Canadian businessman Tahawwur Hussein Rana, charged with conspiracy in the Mumbai bombings and a planned attack on a Danish news agency, continues today in Chicago. Former DEA informant Daood Gilani, aka David Coleman Headley, is still on the witness stand, undergoing cross-examination by Rana's attorneys.

Many are hoping today's testimony will reveal more on the nexus between al-Qaeda, ISI and LeT. There are still no answers on the identity of alleged Pakistani ISI officer Major Iqbal or Major Sameer Ali, both of whom are indicted in the case.

Some new articles on David Headley's credibility issues: Economic Times, and from Pro Publica, How Do We Know [Headley] Is Telling the Truth?

Unfortunately, Globe and Mail reporter Colin Freeze is back in Toronto and not live-tweeting today. Updates may be available by others at #Rana Trial. All of our coverage of the case is available here.

The Chicago terror trial of Tahawwur Hussein Rana continued today with more testimony from former DEA informant and admitted Mumbai attack planner David Coleman Headley, aka Daood Gilani.

The Court ordered the Government's Santiago proffer unsealed today, on motion of the Chicago Tribune. Here it is skip to page 18 where the facts begin.

Via Colin Freeze, Globe and Mail reporter who's live-tweeting the trial, Headley testified he worked for the DEA for two years after becoming involved with LeT. The DEA first sent him to Pakistan in 1999. (They sent him again in December, 2001.) He said he stopped working for the DEA in 2002. He also attended his first LeT training camp in Feb. 2002. Here's a timeline, and here are the docket entries from his last heroin case. (It wasn't his first bust or the first time he worked his way down to a low sentence by cooperating with the DEA.) [More...]

Pakistan has issued a statement following David Coleman Headley's testimony Monday in the Chicago trial of Tahawwur Hussein Rana, saying his statements that Pakistan's ISI supported the Mumbai bombings is not credible:

"This is a completely incorrect statement from him (David Coleman Headley). ISI & serving officers did not provide support to David Headley, and ISI had nothing to do with the Mumbai attacks. David Headley was a double agent. He is not a credible witness."

Will the real Major Iqbal please stand up? No one seems to have identified him yet. He used the e-mail address chaudherykhan-at-yahoo.com. Who gave Headley the opportunity to be a double agent? The DEA. Who else is playing both sides? Pakistan. There's plenty of dirt to go around.

Globe and Mail reporter Colin Freeze is doing a great job of live-tweeting the trial. All of our coverage since the 2009 arrest of Headley is accessible here.