Terrorism Case Roundup

Bail was denied a Brooklyn man who is being charged with aiding terrorists abroad:

A federal judge denied bail yesterday to a Muslim bookseller from Brooklyn accused of plotting to buy arms for Islamic fighters in Afghanistan, saying the government appeared to have "very strong evidence" for the terror charges against him.

The judge, Loretta A. Preska, referred to transcripts of secretly recorded conversations between a government informer and the bookseller, Abdulrahman Farhane. Judge Preska said Mr. Farhane understood that he was talking about transferring funds to the Middle East "to purchase arms and equipment," which he knew would be used "for jihad against the United States and other Western powers."

Three Lackawanna men are awaiting word on how the NSA wiretapping story may affect their case disposition. The three are accused of illegally wiring money to Yemen.

The suspect, Mohammed T. Albanna, 54, of Lackawanna, N.Y., just south of Buffalo, and two other men face charges that they ran a business that transferred $3.5 million from Yemeni-Americans to relatives in that country without the required permits.

Last month, Mr. Albanna's lawyer, Philip M. Marshal, asked Judge William M. Skretny of Federal District Court here to force prosecutors to reveal if secret surveillance by the National Security Agency was used. The no-warrant wiretaps were approved by President Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to hunt for evidence of terrorist activity and are now the focus of a debate over the extent of executive power.

Last week, the judge ordered an assistant United States attorney, Timothy C. Lynch, to produce a response from the Justice Department in Washington by Feb. 27.

Mr. Marshall said Wednesday that he possessed no evidence that no-warrant eavesdropping was involved in the case, but made the request after news of the National Security Agency program was made public in December.

"I don't know if they're going to say yes, no or 'We're not going to say,' " Mr. Marshall said. "If they don't give an answer by Feb. 27, the judge has ordered that someone from the Justice Department appear in his court. The judge is going to want to know why."

This comes on the heels of the Albany terror case suspects wondering just how their names came into the hands of the FBI in order to launch the sting investigation that netted the two Albany defendants.

Yassin M. Aref and Mohammed Mosharref Hossain were indicted after being caught in an FBI sting where the duo was to take part in a plot to sell missile launchers to terrorists. How did these two get pegged by the FBI for the sting in the first place? The duo's attorneys think that the NSA wiretapping story might have something to do with it. The attorneys could be right - but there's also additional information that hasn't been released to the public due to potential national security grounds.

UPDATE:
Areft and Hossain were denied bail for the fourth time.

Pericak asserted to Homer there is nothing new to consider. He said both the journal entries and family situation are not new. And Kindlon's request to toss the case based on the NSA allegations is the subject of a March 13 hearing, he said.

Homer agreed that Kindlon's arguments produced new issues but said they didn't persuade him Aref deserves to be free.

Five months in jail doesn't begin to approach an excess, Homer said. He agreed that the March hearing will address wiretap issues.

"There is a tragic element to the effect of detention," the judge said. "But it is the judicial function not to be affected by the tragedy. The effect on Mrs. Aref and the children is not a material fact."

There may well be innocent explanations for Aref's journal entries, but the current conclusion is they show he has substantial ties to terrorism and, thus, is a danger to society, Homer said.

And that's the crux of the matter - the defendants have to try and explain away how and why their names appeared in documentation picked up in a search of an alleged Iraqi terror training camp. The NSA wiretapping angle only clouds the issue of whether these individuals posed a threat to the country and had terror connections.