- During their opening statement in Sami Al-Hussayen's
trial at the federal courthouse in Boise, Idaho, prosecutors put a new
spin on the slippery concept of "links to terrorism." The Idaho
Statesman reports that they "displayed a chart" showing how a
Web site that Al-Hussayen had helped maintain "could eventually access
20 other sites with ties to radical organizations."
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- Talk about guilt by association. Given the interconnected
nature of the World Wide Web (they don't call it a "web" for
nothing), just about any site with hyperlinks "could eventually access"
something sinister.
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- That does not mean Al-Hussayen, a 34-year-old Saudi whom
the government accuses of supporting terrorism by creating and maintaining
Web sites for various Islamic organizations, is the man he claims to be:
a peaceful computer science student who rejects terrorism and was simply
trying to promote Islamic outreach and education through volunteer work.
But judging from the evidence the government has presented so far, he could
be.
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- Al-Hussayen's trial, which is expected to conclude by
June, illustrates the difficulty of deciding when "links to terrorism"
should be treated as a crime. It also shows the importance of maintaining
an open, adversarial process for judging whether someone is guilty of siding
with terroristsóa timely reminder as the U.S. Supreme Court considers
whether the Bush administration has the authority to make such determinations
secretly and unilaterally.
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- Al-Hussayen, who was arrested in February 2003 while
working toward a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Idaho,
is charged with providing "material support" to terrorists, a
crime that was broadened by the PATRIOT Act to include "expert guidance
or assistance." As Attorney General John Ashcroft summed it up, "Al-Hussayen
knew and intended that his computer services and expertise would be used
to recruit and raise funds for violent jihad around the world."
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- Since what Al-Hussayen did is not really in dispute,
his guilt hinges on what he "knew and intended." But the government's
evidence that he deliberately aided terrorism consists almost entirely
of online statements by others that he says he neither created nor endorsed.
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- "The core of the case," the prosecutors say,
is four fatwas (religious decrees) that were posted at www.alasr.net, a
site that Al-Hussayen helped maintain. The fatwas, which appeared in 2001,
defend suicide attacks on "the enemy" as consistent with Islam.
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- But Al-Hussayenówho as a local Muslim leader released
a statement after the September 11 attacks condemning "vicious acts
of terrorism against innocent civilians"óinsists he does not
agree with those fatwas. They were among thousands of postings that he
handled for various sites, which also included articles arguing that terrorism
is contrary to Islam. Prosecutors concede that "much of the content
of the Web sites was seemingly benign."
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- Likewise, the government holds Al-Hussayen responsible
for incendiary comments by participants in a Yahoo! e-mail group devoted
to Chechnya. Although Al-Hussayen was listed as one of several moderators
for the list, he served that function only 17 times over three years and
deleted just one message during that time, a pattern that seems to indicate
inattention rather than agreement.
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- In any event, as with the fatwas, the government is prosecuting
Al-Hussayen based on his presumed approval of statements that, however
reprehensible, would be protected by the First Amendment if he had written
them himself. Similarly, his alleged support for terrorism includes his
donations to the Michigan-based Islamic Assembly of North America, which
has not been classified as a terrorist group and continues to operate as
a legally recognized charity.
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- Prosecutors say Al-Hussayen's personal views are irrelevant.
All that matters is that he knowingly provided "expert guidance or
assistance" that aided terrorist recruitment and fund raising.
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- But given the broad meaning of "expert guidance
or assistance" and the difficulty of getting inside people's heads,
the same charge could be leveled against anyone who performed professional
services for a group that the government believes has terrorist ties. Under
the Justice Department's reading of the law, Georgetown University law
professor David Cole told The New York Times, "Somebody who fixes
a fax machine that is owned by a group that may advocate terrorism could
be liable."
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- Al-Hussayen may face a formidable task in convincing
a jury that he did not know and intend what the government says he did.
But given the way the Bush administration treats terrorism suspects it
designates as "enemy combatants," he is lucky to have the opportunity.
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- - Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason
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- © Copyright 2004 by Creators Syndicate Inc. http://www.reason.com/sullum/043004.shtml
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