Excerpt from long article on MSNBC/Time. Go read it.
A surprise Perry Mason-type maneuver in an Idaho courtroom has put the spotlight on an increasingly sensitive problem facing federal prosecutors in the war on terror: a battalion of defense lawyers working hand in glove with the Saudi Arabian government. Ever since the 9-11 attacks, NEWSWEEK has learned, the Saudi Embassy in Washington has been providing top-flight defense lawyers free of charge for any Saudi citizen detained as part of the Justice Departmentâs crackdown on suspected terrorists. âThat has been the policy since day one,â said Muddassir H. Siddiqui, the former chief counsel for the Saudi Embassy. He said he personally arranged for defense lawyers for âhundredsâ of Saudi suspects detained by federal agents after the 9-11 attacks. Siddiqui, who left the embassy last year, said the unusual Saudi legal-defense program was ordered by Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the veteran Saudi ambassador to the United States, based on instructions sent from Riyadh immediately after the attacks. Siddiqui insists that Bandar also directed Saudi officials and the defense lawyers they hired to âcooperateâ with the Justice Department on terror-related investigations. But that contention is now being questioned at high levels of the Justice Department. In a growing number of recent cases, FBI agents are intensely investigating suspected links between Saudi nationals in the U.S. and Al Qaeda as well as other international terrorist groups. The growing awareness that the Saudi Embassy is providing targets of the Justice Department probes with free lawyers has infuriated some officials. âI find it amazing,â said one senior federal law-enforcement official. âItâs outrageous, really. If they were a corporation and doing the same thing, I think we would have to think about whether to charge them. It certainly doesnât sound like cooperation.â
If you are paying for the lawyers, you can keep the defendents from making a deal and telling federal prosecutors what they know. Also, I believe that before you go to trial, the prosecutors have to tell the defense what the evidence against them is. Bet that gets passed back to Saudi as well. |