The fate of Ali al-Timimi, a Muslim lecturer from Fairfax (VA) who is accused of recruiting terrorists to fight American troops, will be decided July 13 when a judge in U.S. District Court in Alexandria hands down a sentence. Although al-Timimi was convicted by a jury in April, his lawyers filed post-trial motions asking the conviction to be overturned, arguing that government prosecutors engaged in misconduct throughout the trial by using arguments that appealed to religious bias.
| I don't think pointing out that he's an Islamist nutbag appeals to religious bias. |
In a recent response to the defense motions, prosecutors said their arguments - which included claims that al-Timimi was a religious extremist who hated the United States - were supported by facts and "directly relevant to the charges against [him]."
| That's why I don't think it's religious bias... |
Through the trial, prosecutors portrayed al-Timimi as a violent interpreter of Islam, who expressed anti-American sentiments. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon D. Kromberg rebutted the "false premise" that it was "unfairly prejudicial for the government to argue that al-Timimi hated the United States ... While such arguments may be unfairly prejudicial in a case involving a typical bank robbery, drug trafficking or mail fraud," Kromberg wrote, "al-Timimi was charged with much different offenses."
| Which, in an earlier, more innocent — but more manly — age, would have been characterized as treason. In those bygone days of yesteryear the sonofabitch's neck would have already been stretched, he'd be dead, buried, and the occasional dog would be peeing on his grave. |
Al-Timimi, 41, who was born and raised in the Washington area, allegedly urged a group of followers in Northern Virginia to attend terrorist camps abroad and train for battle against American troops.
| The fact that he was born and raised here would have been grounds for the neck-stretching. You can understand, kinda sorta, the immigrants who want to make this just like the Olde Countrie, but the domestic traitors shouldn't be tolerated. |
The government alleged
just a minute - he's been convicted!
that al-Timimi's urging occurred during a meeting in Fairfax on Sept. 16, 2001 - just five days after the terrorist attacks. Some of the men - three of whom eventually ended up at a terrorist camp in Pakistan - cooperated with federal prosecutors and testified against al-Timimi, who was a frequent lecturer at a Falls Church mosque they attended. They told the court they practiced guerilla tactics by playing paintball - a revelation that led courtroom observers to dub al-Timimi the "Paintball Sheikh." After al-Timimi's conviction on 10 counts, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema left open the possibility that some of the charges could be thrown out and chose to release al-Timimi on bond
since he was born in D.C., surely he's not a flight risk!
because "there might be a reasonable basis for revocation -or some reversal of the jury's verdict." But prosecutors said a "virtually identical claim" challenging the fairness of the government's arguments had failed to convince the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the conviction of Omar Abdel-Rahman, a Muslim lecturer convicted of plotting terrorist attacks on New York landmarks. Al-Timimi faces a mandatory maximum sentence of life in prison if the jury's verdict is not vacated.
Why can't he be deported to Pakistan?
| Why can't he be strung up? |
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