Via Discourse.net and the SDFL blog:

In the Jose Padilla trial, jurors showed up today all dressed up. Row one in red. Row two in white. And row three in blue. I’m not kidding.

This reminds me of when when the Scooter Libby dressed in red shirts for Valentine's Day.

The Padilla jury has dressed in coordinating colors before:

One time it was all black. Last Friday all the women wore pink and the men blue.

Analysis, anyone?

Omar Khadr, the young Canadian Gitmo detainee whose charges were dismissed in early June because the judge ruled he had not been properly designated an enemy combatant, will not have his charges reinstated.

A military panel had declared Khadr an "enemy combatant" but Brownback said that did not meet the strict definition of the law that authorized the tribunals.

He said the distinction was critical because international law requires other types of trial for captives who are considered "lawful enemy combatants."

"The term 'unlawful' is not excess baggage, and it is not mere semantics, it is a critical predicate to jurisdiction," Brownback wrote in the ruling.

Canadian news has this in depth profile of the Khadr family. In 2005, the Toronto Star reported Omar's alleged torture while at Guantanamo.

The trial of Jose Padilla and two codefendants continues in Miami.

Today, Kifah Jayyousi's attorney, Bill Swor, brought out how his client avoided violence.

William Swor sought to prove his client Kifah Wael Jayyousi was driven by his compassion for his fellow Muslims, a defense that began last week when an attorney for co-defendant Adham Amin Hassoun began cross-examining the case's lead FBI agent, John T. Kavanaugh.

And when Jayyousi was dissatisfied with political situations, his attorney argued, he dealt with it in the most civic-minded of ways.

Jayyousi phoned and wrote newspapers, his congressman and the State Department, Swor said. When he was offended by newspapers' publishing of cartoons he believed were insulting to Muslims, the attorney said, Jayyousi participated in letter-writing and phone campaigns. And when a Lebanese radio station employee encouraged him to threaten the Lebanese government, the defendant did not, his attorney said.

Jayyousi also published newsletters that eschewed violence. He attempted to get a hospital built for refugees in Chechnya.

There were three days of testimony this week in the terrorism trial of Jose Padilla. The prosecution's evidence may or may not be what it claims.

My interest was piqued by the testimony of one the Lackawanna (formerly known as Buffalo) Six defendants. He's testifying for the Government in hopes of reducing his own ten year prison sentence. You may recall in that case there were threats to have the defendants declared enemy combatants and moved to Guantanamo if they didn't plead guilty.

The issue now: Is miltary training at a camp in Afghanistan necessarily terrorist training?

More...

The trial of so-called enemy combatant Jose Padilla and his two co-defendants, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, starts Monday with opening arguments. (Jury selection was completed last week.)

Here's a profile of the Judge, Marcia Cooke. CBS legal analyst Andrew Cohen writes that the Judge has a daunting task before her as sparks will be flying in the courtroom.

The LA Times reports on how the case has changed in the last five years since Padilla's capture as someone involved in a dirty bomb plot. Those allegations will not come up in the trial, because if they did, the defense could then raise issues related to his confinement in the South Carolina military brig where he was held for three and one half years in solitary confinement without access to counsel.

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Once again, that old adage, the man who defends himself has a fool for a client, comes to mind.

Last year I wrote about Boca Raton physician Rafiq Abdus Sabir who was arrested and charged with providing material support to terrorists.

The trial is taking place now in New York. The other co-defendants pleaded guilty but Dr. Sabir wanted to go to trial. He is representing himself.

He testified today, and things did not go well for him. Look what the prosecutor got into evidence:

Seven men and five women have been selected as jurors in the trial of accused enemy combatent and "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla. Opening arguments begin Monday. The trial could last all summer.

There is no "dirty bomber" charge against Padilla.

Instead, Mr. Padilla and his co-defendants, Adham Hassoun and Kifah Jayyousi, stand accused of participating in a “North American support cell” that, the government says, sent money, goods and recruits abroad to assist “global jihad.”

The prosecution and defense attacked each other's juror exclusions:

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John Walker Lindh, known as the "American Taliban" has been moved to Supermax at Florence, Colorado from a medium security prison.

Last week he sought a sentence reduction. Are the two related?

The Bureau of Prisons says the move is for security reasons. Whose security? John Walker Lindh's? I have a hard time believing they can't find a place other than Supermax to keep him safe. Where are the cops who have been convicted of federal crimes doing their sentences? I haven't heard of any at Supermax.

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In wake of the 6 year sentence imposed on Australian David Hicks by a military tribunal jury last week, lawyers for "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh are seeking a reduction of his 20 year sentence.

"It is a question of proportionality. It is a question of fairness, and it is a question of the religious experience John Walker Lindh had," attorney James Brosnahan said. "And it was not in any way directed at the United States."

Lindh is seeking a commutation from President Bush. Fat chance it will be granted. In 2004, he sought a commutation arguing he shouldn't be treated more harshly than Yaser Hamdi, who served three years. As I said at the time he was sentenced, he didn't deserve 20 years. It was a trophy sentence for the Ashcroft Justice Department. I still don't see what crime he committed against the United States.

The first Guantanamo military commission proceeding is set to begin Monday with the arraignment of Australian David Hicks. He will be called upon to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty to providing material support to terrorists. He was originally charged with three charges of attempted murder, conspiracy and aiding the enemy, but those charges were dropped.

Today, David McLeod, his Australian lawyer said a plea deal is a possiblility.

Asked how Hicks would plead at tomorrow's arraignment McLeod said: ``That remains to be seen''.

More....

The Government has asked the Judge presiding over the Jose Padilla trial to allow a CIA agent to testify in disguise, complete with wig, glasses and facial hair.

The agent's testimony will be about Padilla's application to participate in mujahadeen training, described as al-Qaeda's holy warrior program.

Authentication of the document will come from a cooperating witness.

After the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan to oust its Taliban rulers in late 2001, authorities found a locker full of applications to join al Qaeda's holy war overseas.

At Padilla's bond hearing in January 2006, [Prosecutor] Pell said [Padilla's application] was found among 80 to 100 other mujahadeen (holy warrior) applications found in the country, which harbored al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before he masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. terrorist attacks.

Pell said Padilla's application was authenticated by a ''cooperating government witness'' convicted in an unrelated case who had once filled out the same Arabic ''mujahadeen data form.'' She said Padilla's date of birth, Oct. 18, 1970, was on his application along with his adopted Muslim name, Abu Abdullah Al Mujahir.

It's not an unprecedented motion.

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I've written a lot about the "Doogie Howser of terrorism cases", the Albany, New York sting prosecution of pizza owner Yassin Aref on charges of providing material support to terrorists, because Terry Kindlon, an excellent criminal defense attorney and frequent commenter at TalkLeft, represented him. Terry also filed the first motion in the country in Aref's case challenging the NSA warrantless wiretapping program. (U.S. News Article here in which Terry credits TalkLeft for giving him the idea for the challenge.)

The case is known as the Doogie Howser of Terrorism cases because the Government's terrorism expert has been compared to Doogie.

Aref was convicted at trial and the sentencing range was 30 years to life in prison. The Government asked for 30 years. At sentencing Thursday, the Court sentenced Aref to 15 years.

"Obviously 11-years is a significant sentence, but 11-years is a whole lot better than 30-years, or even life," says Terry Kindlon, Yassin Aref's attorney.

11 years is no walk in the park, yet but for Terry's exceptional advocacy skills, I'm sure it would have been a lot worse. Terry was able to establish to the Judge's satisfaction, that his client wasn't motivated by wanting to help terrorists.

Judge Thomas McAvoy told Hossain, "you submitted to crimes out of greed, not a desire to support terrorism."