The Sun-Sentinel's Vanessa Blum has an excellent article today about Adham Hassoun, the Sunrise man accused of aiding terrorists overseas. The article basically supports what seemed to be obvious from the get-go: The government doesn't have the goods on Hassoun and the trial itself is more anti-American than anything the defendant has ever done.
Don't get me wrong. You credibly tie Hassoun to one act of terrorism anywhere in the world and I'll happily put him away for the rest of his life. But this case is a holdover from the miserable John Ashcroft years and any conviction would be based on general ignorance or anti-Islamic hysteria. The main evidence comes from recordings on his FBI-tapped phone, including Hassoun commenting on a picture of a Muslim shaking hands with Hillary Clinton and saying that such people, presumably meaning Clinton, have to be dealt with by the sword.
Yeah, let's tap Sean Hannity's phone and see what that jackass propagandist has said about Madam Clinton during the past ten years. Ring him up, Mr. U.S. Attorney. Hell, if the government heard every word I said about the current idiot in the White House since he began pushing for his criminal oil-and-revenge-for-daddy-inspired war in Iraq, they might be slapping the cuffs on me right now.
Hassoun was apparently recruiting Padilla and others to fight in Muslim wars around the world. Well, these are real conflicts in real places and hard-core Christians or Jews would have been doing the same (and do, in some cases). In America, you're free to go to other countries and fight wars. You're also free to raise money for causes that support suffering people, no matter what religion they may be. You're damn well free to spout off on the phone about politics, too, even if what you say runs counter to the U.S. government.
You're not free to plan a terrorist attack and kill innocent people. Then you go to jail.
Hassoun didn't do that and unless there's a major screw loose in the jury, he's going to walk. Think about it, the government had a lot more in its case against former USF professor Sami Al-Arian -- and a jury acquitted him of most counts and deadlocked on others. This case has all the earmarks of a tremendous waste of time and money -- which sadly could have been spent finding real threats to America.
