Bob's Links and Rants

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Friday, June 27, 2003

Arrested for being Muslim, apparently; Read some of the charges (from the Washington Post):
The series of indictments, unsealed today in U.S. District Court, charges that the men worked with Lashkar-i-Taiba, a group involved in the fighting in Kashmir that has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
...
The indictment also says that an unidentified member of the conspiracy told other members that fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan "was a valid jihad for Muslims" and that those killed fighting Americans there would die as martyrs. In early February, the indictment says, the unindicted conspirator celebrated the crash of the space shuttle Columbia in a message that "advised his followers that the United States was the greatest enemy of Muslims."
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Specifically, the men are accused of practicing small-unit military tactics on private property in Spotsylvania County and using paintball games, weapons and equipment to simulate actual combat "in preparation for violent jihad," the indictment says.
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Royer said [he] worked in Pakistan for Lashkar-i-Taiba writing news releases in 1999 or 2000, and that Yong Kwon, another of the men in custody, was with the group after Sept. 11, 2001. But, Royer said, both he and Kwon were not in Pakistan or with the group after December 2001, when the State Department declared Lashkar-i-Taiba a foreign terrorist organization.
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The indictment says that some of the training allegedly occurred at the Quantico Marine Corps base in Prince William County. The men also are accused of gathering at a mosque in Falls Church "to hear lectures on the righteousness of violent jihad in Kashmir, Chechnya and other places around the world and to watch videotapes of mujahideen engaged in jihad in such locations."
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The men are charged with violating the Neutrality Act, a federal law that bans people from leaving the United States to go attack other countries the United States is at peace with.
[I wonder if the troops in Iraq know about the Neutrality Act.] They also face a variety of weapons charges.

Today's arrests culminate a federal probe in which agents armed with search warrants have previously raided the homes of about a dozen people in the D.C. suburbs and have seized rifles, other weapons, scopes, ammunition, terrorist literature and other documents.


So, a couple of these guys were involved with a group determined LATER to be a terrorist group. If I remember my high school civics, that's known as a "bill of attainder," or maybe an "Ex Post Facto Law." Either way, it's unconstitutional: No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed. (Article 1, Section 9, US Constitution). And Allah forbid that they hear lectures or watch videos on the righteousness of violent jihad! FoxNews watchers get that every day!