Richard Convertino, the prosecutor blamed for the failed Detroit terror prosecution, has resigned. He says he is going to become a defense lawyer.

In court filings and interviews, department officials have blamed Mr. Convertino in large part for the dismissal of criminal charges against three Moroccan men suspected of operating a Qaeda terrorist cell in Detroit. The case was dismissed after an internal review found that prosecutors had failed to divulge material casting doubt on the suspects' links to terrorism.

As TChris reported here, Convertino has been under investigation for alleged misconduct in earlier drug cases. He sued Ashcroft and the Justice Department claiming to be a whistleblower, notwithstanding that his lawyer acknowledged that he intentionally withheld evidence from the defense. More dirty details here.

My view: The defense bar is no place for Mr. Convertino.

The terrorism trial of University of South Florida Professor Sami al-Arian begins tomorrow. He is being defended by Bill Moffitt of Washington, D.C., a highly esteemed trial lawyer and former President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. (NACDL) The Government alleges al-Arian was behind the financing of Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel.

Al-Arian had established an Islamic academic think tank, a school, a mosque and a charity for Palestinian children - but authorities were questioning whether the true mission of Al-Arian's work was to finance terrorist attacks in Israel.

Al-Arian and four others are accused of 53 counts of racketeering, conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists.

"Much of what people are saying about Sami Al-Arian could have been said likewise about Nelson Mandela," attorney William Moffitt said. "Now Nelson Mandela is a hero for having supported his people. Sami Al-Arian is a villain for being the voice of the Palestinian people. There aren't really a lot of voices in this country who have spoken favorably for the Palestinian people."

Zacarias Moussaoui is back to filing handwritten motions. Last week he wrote to the judge seeking to fire his lawyers, saying they were incompetent. Today the Judge denied his request.

In a four-page handwritten filing, Moussaoui said his attorneys are trying to guarantee his death by saying he had only a minor role in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In claiming ineffective assistance by his defense counsel, Moussaoui asserts he had no part in the Sept. 11 plot but that he was to have participated in a separate plan approved by Osama bin Laden to fly a 747 airliner into the White House if the U.S. government refused to negotiate the release of an imprisoned terrorist.

Update : The sentencing of Ahmed Rassam has been postponed for three months to give him a chance to resume cooperating with authorities. More here. There appears to be confusion over whether Rassam agreed not to ask for less than a 27 year sentence. Yesterday's AP article quoted in the original post, reported:

Ressam, an Algerian convicted of plotting a millennium-eve bombing at the Los Angeles airport, stopped cooperating with prosecutors in 2003 when he realized the Justice Department would not recommend a sentence shorter than 27 years, they say.

Today's media reports (link above) say Ahmed Rassam agreed when he began cooperating not to seek a sentence of less than 27 years.

He agreed to debrief investigators on Muslim extremism and to testify against his former comrades, both here and abroad. As his debriefings began, both sides agreed to ask for a sentence of not less than 27 years.

The answer appears to be more complicated. He did not agree to a minimum 27 year sentence when he began cooperating - but he did later, although the agreement contained a provision that both sides acknowledged the Court was not bound by it. The defense says (pdf) that when Rassam began cooperating, no agreement had been reached as to the sentence the Government would recommend and that discussions were ongoing with Seattle proscutors. The defense was asking for a sentence between 10 and 15 years. Seattle prosecutors were closer to 20. Rassam began cooperating without a firm offer.

Bump and Update: The Associated Press reports that Moussaoui denied being part of the 9/11 attacks in court Friday:

But in his court appearance, Moussaoui hinted at a possible death penalty defense. He tried to distance himself from the specific events on Sept. 11, saying that nothing in the statement he signed declared he was "specifically guilty of 9-11."

Nonetheless, after today's hearing, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, sounding more and more like John Ashcroft, reaffirmed the Government's intent to seek the death penalty against Moussaoui and trumpeted to the world:

"The fact that Moussaoui participated in this terrorist conspiracy is no longer in doubt," he said, hailing Moussaoui's "chilling admission of guilt."

The chilling admission was that he intended to commit a horrific crime but was prevented from doing so by his arrest on immigration violations. Gonzales' statement notwithstanding, the tally is:

--Bush Administration's total Number of Defendants Charged with Participating in 9/11: 1
--Bush Administration's total Number of Defendants Convicted of Participating in 9/11: 0

The Judge presiding over the case of accused 9/11 co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui has scheduled a change of plea hearing for Friday, following yesterday's closed door hearing. The last time Moussaoui tried to plead guilty it was a disaster. Will Moussaoui do better this time? Last time, Moussaoui did not confess to any of the charges against him that pertain to the September 11 attacks. He said he was a member of Al Qaeda and he knew who planned the attacks. What will he admit to Friday?

If the plea is accepted, Moussaoui will face a death penalty proceeding.

Update: Dahlia Lathwick at Slate has a good column on Moussaoui today.

Breaking....[link via Raw Story ]...Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the 9/11 attacks in the U.S., has informed the Government that he will plead guilty, over the objections of his lawyers, if the Court finds him competent. He is willing to let a jury determine if he should get life or death.

In recent letters to the government and to Brinkema, Moussaoui said he is willing to accept the possibility of a death sentence, which sources said could resolve a key point of contention: Prosecutors are unlikely to drop their insistence on capital punishment. If Brinkema accepts a plea, she would then probably set a death penalty trial, at which jurors would decide if Moussaoui should be executed.

Previously, the Judge had banned the death penalty as a sanction for the Government not producing some of our hidden detainees for interviews by the defense - like Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - because they might provide favorable testimony for him. She also ruled the Government could not present any 9/11 evidence at all at trial for its refusal. Moussaoui had argued:

Three men have been indicted on terrorism charges related to alleged planned attacks on financial institutions. The indictment is new, but we've all heard the details before:

A four-count indictment unsealed Tuesday accuses Dhiran Barot, Nadeem Tarmohammed and Qaisar Shaffi of scouting the New York Stock Exchange and Citicorp Building in New York, the Prudential Building in Newark, N.J., and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in the District of Columbia.

The men are now in custody in England. The U.S. says one, Barot, is a leading al Qaeda figure. Now, the familiar details:

Prosecutors say the men conducted surveillance on the buildings between August 2000 and April 2001, including video surveillance in Manhattan around April 2001. U.S. officials have previously described detailed surveillance photos and documents, which they believe came from Barot, that were found on a computer that was seized in Pakistan last summer.

The terror information is years old. Agonist has the details and discrepancies in reports on the seized computer. Last August, Debka was skeptical of the information.

CNN has more on today's indictment and the arrests in Britain last August and of the Pakistani with the computer last July.

by TChris

Having seen little success in its efforts to persuade courts that it is above the law, the Defense Department is now "considering" a plan to obey the Constitution. A draft plan is circulating that would reform the military tribunals the administration uses to prosecute suspected terrorists at Guantánamo Bay.

Those changes include strengthening the rights of defendants, establishing more independent judges to lead the panels and barring confessions obtained by torture, the officials said.

The proposed changes would make the military tribunals more closely resemble traditional court martial proceedings. Advocates of the plan want to avoid further losses in the courts as the administration defends its stubborn refusal to give detainees fair hearings. Will an administration that has so steadfastly opposed due process reconsider its position? Don't count on it: Dick Cheney is standing in the way.

Accused 9/11 defendant Zacarias Moussaoui has lost his bid to the Supreme Court to require that 3 alleged 9/11 participants be made available to him for interviews.

The defense has wanted to question Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks; Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, viewed as one of the financiers of the hijackings; and Ramzi bin al-Shaibah, who is suspected of coordinating them.

Defense attorneys said testimony from the al Qaeda captives could help prove Moussaoui was not involved in the attacks. The captives have been held as "enemy combatants" and have been interrogated overseas by the United States.

Bump and Update: Some jurors are interviewed about why they convicted the Sheik, and the Sheik and associate cry out in Arabic after the verdict, saying the jury didn't get to see all the evidence.

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Yemeni Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad and his assistant have been convicted by a jury in federal court in New York of charges that he helped finance Hamas and conspired to provide support to al Qaeda. The jury has been deliberating since March 4.

Here's a breakdown of the verdicts.

Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, 56, was convicted of conspiring to support and attempting to support Palestinian suicide bombers and the international terrorism network of Osama bin Laden....Al-Moayad was acquitted of actually supporting al-Qaida but convicted of supporting Hamas.

Al-Moayad's assistant, 31-year-old Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, was convicted of the Hamas conspiracy and attempt charges, and conspiring to support al-Qaida. He was acquitted of attempting to support al-Qaida.

American- born Abu Ali sits in a U.S. jail cell, indicted on terrorism charges. The Government claims he confessed to treatening to kill President Bush. (Background here, here and here.)

Law enforcement agents have told Newsweek they think he'll walk. The confession was obtained while he was imprisoned in a Saudi jail, and no American agents were present.

NEWSWEEK has learned that his confession, which occurred shortly after his arrest in June 2003, was videotaped by the Saudis and immediately turned over to the FBI. The tape became the chief piece of evidence against him. But back in Washington, the case presented an agonizing dilemma for top Justice Department officials, sources said.