A COMPUTER student from Idaho has been put on trial following his maintaining of web sites which promote, praise or plot acts of war on the West, in the name of Jihad � "holy war".
The student, Sami Omar al-Hussayen, is a webmaster for several fundamentalist Islamic websites, which linked to pro-suicide bombing sites which praise the bombings in Israel and Chechnya. His defence is that he doesn't hold the same views as the sites he links to and just links them for educational or informative purposes. He says he can't personally be held responsible for material that others wrote.

This is one of the few times anyone has been prosecuted in this way under the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act makes providing "expert guidance or assistance" to groups which may fund terrorism against the law. However, David Cole � a University law professor � told the New York Times someone who fixes a fax machine run by a terrorist organisation could be liable under the Patriot Act, as that falls under "expert guidance".

Hussayen has been charged with three counts of conspiracy to support terrorism, and 11 counts of visa and immigration fraud. The 34 year old was studying computer sciences at the University of Idaho.

Mr. Hussayen's supporters are accusing the government of abusing their power.

You can view the original article here...
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15554

Although I don't agree with the topic of this guy's website... the underlying concept and reasoning of how he is being prosecuted scares the [censored] out of me. I'd like to know more about why he is being charged with 11 counts of visa and immigration fraud. If anyone knows... let me know... I will continue to research this story, if the gov't doesn't decide to make it disappear.

yay! Patriot Act more great governement in action.
~*Evans

Webmaster terrorism support case heads to jury

The jury got the case Tuesday in the trial of a Saudi Arabian graduate student accused of using his Web sites to support terrorism.

Jurors will begin deliberations Wednesday. They heard five hours of closing arguments and seven weeks of testimony.

Prosecutors have argued that Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, 34, turned Web sites of the Islamic Assembly of North America into an Internet network providing information to foster terrorism, particularly in the Middle East and Chechnya.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Lindquist cited religious edicts justifying suicide bombings and an invitation to financially support the militant Palestinian organization Hamas in arguing Tuesday that Al-Hussayen should be convicted.

"The Web site network contained material beyond religious material that when to extreme jihad, to terrorism," Lindquist said during his two-hour closing argument. "Was its purpose scholarly analysis, just news? ... No. It's material meant to fund and recruit. That's the purpose of this stuff."

But Al-Hussayen's defense has maintained that his association with the Web sites was as a Muslim volunteer. His interest in the content, lead defense attorney David Nevin said, was only in passing on information about Muslim oppression in Chechnya and the Mideast.

Al-Hussayen, just months from his doctorate in computer science at the University of Idaho, also is accused of visa fraud and making false statements for allegedly trying to hide his association with the Michigan-based assembly.

You can view the original article here...
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/8804

Horray for the Bill of Rights! :rolleyes:

I may not like what this guy says, but I damn well support his right to say it!