terrorist`s attorneys gets 28 months for providing material support to terrorists

[gardenweasel]

NEW YORK — Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced this afternoon to 28 months in prison on a terrorism charge for helping an Egyptian sheik communicate with his followers on the outside.

The 67-year-old Stewart, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, smiled as the judge announced his decision to send her to prison for less than two-and-a-half years. She had faced up to 30 years in prison.

Stewart’s defense lawyer, Elizabeth Fink told the judge just before the sentence was pronounced: “If you send her to prison, she’s going to die. It’s as simple as that.”

Stewart was convicted in 2005 of providing material support to terrorists. She had released a statement by Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind sheik sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted in plots to blow up five New York landmarks and assassinate Egypt’s president.



(New York - WABC, October 16, 2006) - A judge said Monday he would sentence civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart to 28 months in prison on a terrorism charge for helping an Egyptian sheik communicate with his followers on the outside.

The New York City Civil Right lawyer who faced 30 years to life in prison, smiled as the judge read her sentence. “If you send her to prison, she’s going to die. It’s as simple as that,” defense lawyer Elizabeth Fink had told the judge before the sentence was pronounced.

Earlier today, Stewart marched to the steps of court, flanked by hundreds of supporters, chanting, “Lynn Stewart must go free. No police state.” She asked them to send positive thoughts to U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl.

“Send those messages by brain wave right up to Judge Koeltl. Get him to understand what’s at stake here. Give him the strength to do the right thing,” Stewart said.

One of Stewart’s co-conspirators got sentenced to 24 years: Attorney gets 28 months for aiding terrorists.

Stewart was arrested six months after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, along with Mohamed Yousry, an Arabic interpreter, and Ahmed Abdel Sattar, a U.S. postal worker. The indictment against them was brought by former Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2002.

Koeltl sentenced Sattar to 24 years in prison. Convicted of conspiracy to kill and kidnap people in a foreign country, he could have been sentenced to life.

“I am not a violent person,” Sattar said. “I am a human being. I am an America. I am a Muslim who practices and believes strongly in his religion.”




and "I" feel nauseous...i believe this trial was held in the same courtroom where julius and ethel rosenberg were convicted, and where stewart defended the black panthers, the weather underground, AND the sheik....


whew...

prosecuting attorney andrew mccarthy`s money shot....

""To hear the media's "civil rights lawyer" tag monotonously attached to her name is Orwellian to the point of inducing dysentery ... it's been impossible to read the fawning pro-Stewart coverage in the ""New York Times"" for the past two years and not wonder whether either the newspaper or Lynne understands that if the causes they promote ever actually achieved their ends, the very first thing the new regimes would do is shut down useful idiots like the New York Times and Lynne Stewart."""

ahhhh....thank you,andrew...


"MARTHA" stewart's sentence was a more effective deterrent than this big wet kiss of a punishment.....

this was the the initial shot......lynne stewart's sentence should serve as a warning regarding those who wish to have the war on terror fought in the court room.......

 

[StevieD]

Check the date. This case has been active for awhile.

Wednesday, July 23, 2003 Posted: 10:26 AM EDT (1426 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A federal judge Tuesday dismissed terrorism charges against a defense attorney who stood accused of passing messages from behind bars for a leader of a terrorist organization linked to al Qaeda.

U.S. District Judge John Koeltl said in a 77-page decision that the he dismissed two terrorism charges against attorney Lynne Stewart because prosecutors had applied a 1996 anti-terrorism statute in a way that was unconstitutionally vague, according to The Associated Press.

Stewart was charged with aiding terrorism by conspiring to help imprisoned client Sheik Omar Adbel Rahman, a leader of a terrorist organization called the Islamic Group.

Koeltl left three counts of the indictment against Stewart and two other defendants intact, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and making false statements.

The judge did not attempt to strike down the 1996 anti-terrorism law, but said the defendants were correct to argue against a prosecution based on the mere use of telephones and other means of communication, according to The Associated Press.

U.S. Attorney James B. Comey was unwilling to concede defeat, saying through a spokesman that he still believes the law prohibiting material support for terrorism is constitutional and that an appeal is possible.

"We continue to believe that the statute prohibiting material support of terrorism is constitutional, and we are reviewing our appellate options," said Comey spokesman Marvin Smilon.

Ron Kuby, a lawyer who represented the Rahman before Stewart, called Judge Koeltl's decision "a landmark ruling," according to a report from The Associated Press. He said he was shocked when Stewart was charged; realizing that zealous defense of a client could land a lawyer in handcuffs.

"There was this ever-shifting and expanding definition of aid to a terrorist organization that had no stopping point until today," Kuby said in the AP report. "Lynne believes that our own government can destroy our civil rights and freedom much faster than al Qaeda ever could, and I believe that she's correct."

Ashcroft announced original indictment
Stewart, 63, and three men were indicted 15 months ago for unlawful communication with Rahman and the Egypt-based Islamic Group. Rahman is serving a life sentence for conspiring to blow up New York City landmarks, including inspiring the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The five-count indictment accused Stewart and the men of providing material support and resources to the Islamic Group by passing messages to and from Rahman during prison visits and telephone calls. Messages included Rahman's views regarding the group's military operations in Egypt and a "fatwah," or religious decree, to "fight the Jews and kill them wherever they are."

The government also alleged that Stewart and her co-defendants provided money, transportation, telephones, computers and fax machines to the Islamic Group.

Attorney General John Ashcroft personally traveled to New York to announce the charges in April 2002 with U.S. Attorney James Comey.

Though the government monitored Rahman's communications for years, an attorney for Stewart, Michael Tigar, argued before Koeltl last month that Stewart's communications with Rahman were protected under attorney-client privilege and the First Amendment.

Since 1997, Rahman, who is blind and diabetic, has been incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota, under "special administrative measures" that restrict his communication with other inmates, visitors, attorneys, and journalists.

Attorney hopes use of terror law can 'curtailed'
Stewart and her co-defendants remain accused of violating those restrictions, which prohibit Rahman's attorneys from using any meetings or correspondence with him to pass messages from third parties.

The material support of terrorism charges against Mohammed Yousry, an Arabic translator, were also dismissed.

Rahman, 64, was convicted in 1995 for conspiring to blow up New York landmarks -- the U.N. General Assembly building, the New York FBI headquarters, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and the George Washington Bridge.

A third man charged in the case, New York postal worker Ahmed Abdel Sattar, has been described by prosecutors as the "point man for the Islamic Group in the U.S." with "long-standing" ties to Rahman.

The government is seeking extradition of a fourth defendant, Yassir al-Sirri, who is incarcerated in England.

Stewart meanwhile expressed both relief and anticipation of further government prosecution following Tuesday's ruling.

"It certainly is a great relief," Stewart said of Tuesday's ruling, according to an AP report. "It's also wonderful to know that the case maybe has opened a way for the use of this (1996) law to be circumscribed, curtailed a little bit."

Stewart, who has represented everyone from Weather Underground radicals to police killers to mob turncoat Sammy "Bull" Gravano, said in an AP report that she expects prosecutors to appeal. "I can't imagine they're just going to let it slide away."

 

[gardenweasel]

we`re discussing the verdict and sentencing,stephan.....:SIB


lynne stewart collaborated with her client against the system she was sworn to serve...a crime worse for the fact that as an attorney she betrayed her role as "officer of the court." ....

and pathetically, it appears that the court chose to look lightly on this blatant act of betrayal....

and,btw,wtf does her having breast cancer have to do with anything?.....everybody has to die.....

what happens now?.....,jihadi`s start looking to recruit breast cancer patients?

 

[gardenweasel]

is this a coincidence?......because,the way i figure it,with time off for good behavior, she'll be out in time to be the star at the democratic national convention in '08.....

move over, michael moore!

 

[gardenweasel]

no dems seem to want to opine on this issue......this doesn`t faze them...

but,bush saying nucular?...katie bar the door...

i hear those crickets again.....

btw..judge koetl...1994 clinton appointee...

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

To really put this in perspective one needs to know just who this guy was she was conspiring with--

---AND guess who was paying for her defense all these years-- "SOROS"

---and to think there are STILL some who doubt it when I say--we are fighting war on 2 fronts terrorist abroad and their liberal supporters here.


The Sheik--

--Activities in the US
Abdel-Rahman was issued a tourist visa to visit the US despite his name being listed on a US State Department terrorist watch list. Rahman entered the United States, in July 1990, via Saudi Arabia, Peshawar, and Sudan.

Preaching at three mosques in the New York area, Abdel-Rahman was immediately surrounded by a core group of devoted followers that included persons responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. One of Rahman's followers was linked to the shooting death of Meir Kahane. An Egyptian, El Sayyid Nosair, assassinated Kahane in 1990 after Kahane delivered a speech at a New York City hotel. Nosair also was associated with the cell that carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. From their Journal Square, Jersey City mosque the most prominent part of the New York sky line were the Twin towers of the World Trade Center. The cell is also suspected in the murder of MAK?s New York manager Mustafa Shalabi.

After the first World Trading Center bombing in 1993, the FBI began to investigate Rahman and his followers more closely. With the assistance of an Egyptian informant wearing a listening device, the FBI managed to record Rahman issuing a fatwa encouraging acts of violence against US civilian targets, particularly in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area. The most startling plan, the government charged, was to set off five bombs in 10 minutes, blowing up the United Nations, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the George Washington Bridge and a federal building housing the FBI. Basically the routes into New York City from New Jersey, home to the terrorists. Government prosecutors showed videotapes of defendants mixing bomb ingredients in a garage before their arrest in 1993. Rahman was arrested in 1993 along with nine of his followers. In October 1995 he was convicted of seditious conspiracy and was sentenced to life in prison.

 

[gardenweasel]

soros......hmmmm...shocking ain`t it,dtb...

i`m saddened that our forum dems got bludgeoned with the mute stick on this one...

think about it.....the dems(and the libs on the supreme court)want to give these terrorists geneva convention protections..habeas corpus...every right afforded an american citizen....

they don`t want military tribunals...they want these monsters to tie up our court system......and their lawyers to have access to all evidence...and covert programs used to procure evidence....

which would compromise even more classified programs and material...

and put any witnesses...those that testify against these animals...and their families in mortal danger....much like the mob trials back in the day of capone...

the japanese and germans didn`t get this...the koreans didn`t...the vietnamese didn`t.....

we now have the perfect test case....here it is.....the perfect example of why we need military courts and tribunals....a typical fat,sloppy,ugly civil liberties attorney passing information from a terrorist client to his henchmen....

a) she's an attorney....she knows she`s not supposed to be transmitting any messages, whether she knows what they say or not....but,she did it anyway....

b) if a terrorist asks you to give a message to a member of his organization and it's in code don't you think the safe assumption is that it's not a birthday greeting?.....of course...it was flagrant....blatant...

and she`s a f-cking traitor...

she obviously knows that jihadis want to blow stuff up in and around the nyc metro area......since 1993, there have been at least five plots I can recall off the top of my head, that if successful would have killed thousands...

1993 - wtc bombing...
1993 landmarks plot...
operation bojinka...
brooklyn subway bombing plot....
9/11....
tunnel bombing/flooding the bathtub at ground zero......

trying again and again, the jihadis seek to inflict the maximum number of casualties in their attacks.... and they keep revisiting the same basic places....

this idiot`s own family could be at greater risk from the jihadis because of what she did....but,she doesn`t care....

because she`s a mentally ill moonbat...

you watch...when she gets early parole, she'll be the toast of manhattan..... harold pinter will write a play about her noble sacrifice, which will sweep the tonys and get turned into an hbo mini-series, and sweep the emmys.....

it sounds absurd..but it ain`t...

btw...here are the morons that voted against the" military commissions act of 2006".....more delusionals...

Akaka (D-HI), Baucus (D-MT), Bayh (D-IN), Biden (D-DE), Bingaman (D-NM), Boxer (D-CA), Byrd (D-WV), Cantwell (D-WA), Chafee (R-RI), Clinton (D-NY), Conrad (D-ND), Dayton (D-MN), Dodd (D-CT), Dorgan (D-ND), Durbin (D-IL), Feingold (D-WI), Feinstein (D-CA), Harkin (D-IA), Inouye (D-HI), Jeffords (I-VT), Kennedy (D-MA), Kerry (D-MA), Kohl (D-WI), Leahy (D-VT), Levin (D-MI), Lincoln (D-AR), Mikulski (D-MD), Murray (D-WA), Obama (D-IL), Reed (D-RI), Reid (D-NV), Sarbanes (D-MD), Schumer (D-NY), and Wyden (D-OR)...

the usual suspects..."tough" on terror and terrorists(spit)...........lol

as i`ve said many times in this forum,liberalism is literally a "derangement syndrome"....be it bush or the pathological need to be saviors......in particular of criminals, murderers, terrorists, and any groups that hate our country...

dtb....ar182...diapers.....libs?.....counselor? ..are there any books that analyze this?....are liberals rebelling against their parents for their lack of attention and love?.....does it give them a psychic boost to their own low self-esteem by reinforcing how caring, selfless, and above-the-madding-crowd they elevate themselves to?.....

or maybe it`s just because they're sick little shits who enjoy pissing off large numbers of people?

any recommended reading here would be appreciated........

 

[ImFeklhr]

If the guy was caught, prosecuted, and jailed for life under current laws pre-9/11, how does that support stronger laws? Seems like the existing laws already worked.

I don't know enough about this specific case to comment one way or the other, but if what you guys are saying is true, I have no problem with the attorney going to jail. But again, I would need to know more about what exactly the laws say lawyers can and can't do.


I do think our country can prosper with strong laws against criminals (which already existed pre 9/11) and a liberal wing fighting for some nutjobs some of the time. The judicial system is a adversarial process, and works best in the long run when both sides are strongly represented.

 

[smurphy]

Lock her up! Not sure what you are so outraged about, Weasel. She was caught and convicted. I guess the sentence could be longer, but it's not like she got away with it.

And while we are convicting subtle supporters of terrorism, I'd like to see something done about all the wealth they get through our oil imports. Everything else pales in comparison.

As for the crickets and people not chiming in. I give them a benefit of the doubt because 75% of the time nobody really knows what you are saying. We often don't know exactly what we are replying to.

 

[dr. freeze]

why is she not being hung for treason?

 

[gardenweasel]

Lock her up! Not sure what you are so outraged about, Weasel. She was caught and convicted. I guess the sentence could be longer, but it's not like she got away with it.

And while we are convicting subtle supporters of terrorism, I'd like to see something done about all the wealth they get through our oil imports. Everything else pales in comparison.

As for the crickets and people not chiming in. I give them a benefit of the doubt because 75% of the time nobody really knows what you are saying. We often don't know exactly what we are replying to.

what am i looking for?...some common ground with you leftwingers....i can`t believe you`re this far gone....

i figured that outright treason would be common ground....but,i was wrong....treason doesn`t seem to be high on your pissoff-o-meter.......none of you....

this is why democrats will eventually destroy this country from within.....

i just heard rangel on t.v. call the blind sheik a "so-called-terrorist"....:scared

and you say,"subtle supporters" of terrorism?....like this fat old scumbag attorney was fudging on parking tickets...

she was passing off info to this murderer`s cabal.....she did it with malice....with obvious knowledge that it could kill americans...

the messages were in code,for crying out loud....

what if this s.o.b. was passing something crucial he learned during the trial off to his associates.....info might help blow uo a bridge,a football stadium or a city?....a name of a witness...wh`s family could be slaughtered....


i say "what if" she was passing something crucial....??????......lol...you`re right...it was probably something "subtle".....

."subtle terrorism"?..."so-called terrorists"?....

you guys are clueless...

if bush`s bill doesn`t get through,all terrorist trials were going to resemble this 4 year long blind sheik dog and pony show...

and the bill that was passed...the one the dems are howling over?...has way to many appeals built into it....

more appeals than our own accused soldiers are entitled to....

what do you think of that?...i said before...this isn`t old school democratic behavior..this isn`t kennedy/roosevelt or truman-esque..... this crap has never happened before....theres no precedent for this....the japanese...the germans....they never got this treatment....

this is new...far-far left wing moonbatology...and it`s dangerous...

smurf:"i don`t understand you"...."i don`t understand you"......of course you do...it`s just that you have no counter point....you know i`m right...

you`re a smart guy....stop acting like you don`t have 2 i.q. points to rub together....

put 2 and 2 together,bud...open your eyes....

stop siding with the 5th columnists like spttheweb and edward...

look at what these dems are trying to do...

 

[smurphy]

So why wasn't this lawyer charged with treason? Can't someone charge them with that? Look - I'M NOT SAYING SOMEONE LIKE THAT SHOULD GET OFF. She/he was charged and found guilty - so the problem I guess you are having is with the sentence - and then taking from that a massive statement about the famous "enemy within". You are acting like this lawyer is free and roaming the streets blowing up buildings or something.