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Newsday - March 2, 2006
Secrecy remains major issue in mosque case
By MICHAEL VIRTANEN
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Almost 18 months after two members of an Albany mosque were arrested in an FBI anti-terrorism sting, the issue of federal secrecy remains unresolved, further complicated by recent allegations that warrantless wiretaps were used to gather evidence.
U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy scheduled a hearing March 24 in Binghamton on pre-trial motions, including bail reconsideration for Muslim cleric Yassin Aref and the Justice Department's reply on the use of wiretaps.
"The interesting first question is: Did you conduct warrant-less wiretaps? If the answer to that is no, it's over," said Kevin Luibrand, attorney for co-defendant Mohammed Hossain. "It's a very easy question to answer to get us off this hump. That's why I think the answer is yes."
Aref and Hossain are accused of laundering money in 2003-2004 for an FBI informant, a Pakistani businessman posing as an arms dealer. Neither is accused of actual violence.
Defense attorneys want the charges thrown out, or at least any evidence obtained from phone taps without court warrants, arguing that would have violated their clients' constitutional rights against unreasonable searches.
The National Security Agency's warrant-less wiretap program was disclosed publicly Dec. 16 by The New York Times. President Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have defended it as necessary eavesdropping on incoming calls from suspected terrorists abroad beginning sometime after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. They have declined to disclose any details.
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Pericek said he has forwarded the Albany wiretap query to the Justice Department Counterterrorism Section and the deputy attorney general. In a letter to the judge last month, Pericek cited "the novelty of the issue," which has been raised in other cases, and the need to coordinate with other agencies. He requested a two-week delay, promising a reply by March 10.
The New York Civil Liberties Union asked to participate, saying it has been involved "in a number of cases ... presenting questions about the lawfulness of extraordinary measures taken by the federal government in the aftermath of 9/11." Acknowledging it opposes the warrant-less wiretap program, the NYCLU said its expertise can help sort out the complex legal issues.
In a brief Wednesday, Pericek argued the NYCLU filed too late and has nothing different to offer from the defense lawyers.
Meanwhile, prosecutors have repeatedly invoked the Classified Information Procedures Act in asking McAvoy to shield certain documents, saying disclosure would compromise national security. Defense attorneys Luibrand and Terence Kindlon say they, too, have been kept in the dark, even though both are U.S. military veterans and have security clearances.
Prosecutors say all pertinent evidence will be in the record, that the case was a sting where suspects agreed to participate in a crime, and authorities are merely shielding sensitive background that led to the evidence….
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--mosqueraid-secrec0302mar02,0,1713276.story
Daily Southtown – March 1, 2006
'We don't know, and we don't have to tell you,'
prosecutors tell Salah
By Chris Hack
Federal prosecutors said they still don't know if Mohammed Salah was a target of the Bush administration's secret spying program - but insist they don't have to tell him if the Bridgeview mosque was infiltrated by the FBI.
Salah, already the only U.S. citizen to be declared an international terrorist, has pleaded innocent to federal charges alleging he served as an operative for the militant Palestinian group Hamas.
Opening statements are scheduled to begin Friday in a crucial hearing to determine if a series of alleged confessions the Bridgeview man gave to Israeli authorities after his 1993 arrest there can be used against him here. Salah claims the statements were tortured out of him.
For the past month, defense attorneys have been pressing prosecutors for details about the recently exposed domestic spying program, which involves government agents eavesdropping on communications without warrants for the past four years. Critics from both political parties have blasted the program as illegal, but Bush has insisted it's a necessary tool to fight terrorism.
In court papers filed earlier this week, prosecutors said they need another 45 days to determine if Salah was subjected to the surveillance.
"It seems like obfuscation and delay to me," defense attorney Michael E. Deutsch said Tuesday. "I'm not very impressed with it. What seems to be happening is that they're still trying to come up with some national response to this."
According to the government filing, a special squad of U.S. Department of Justice lawyers has been fielding requests for information on the program. The Chicago-based prosecutors noted that any results of the search for surveillance of Salah would be "highly classified" and subject to review by U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve before disclosure to the defense.
But prosecutors flatly rejected the defense team's call for information on any government infiltration of the Bridgeview mosque where Salah worships…..
http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/dsnews/011abn3.htm
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