Terror Investigation Updates

The Fort Dix Six trial may include some interesting elements, including an anonymous jury and the use of technology to provide information to journalists following the case. Prosecutors want to keep the names of the jurors confidential because of possible threats to their safety. The defendants are waiving their right to a speedy trial because of the complexity of the case.

The British car bomb investigation continues, but the Australians may be forced to release one of the suspects for lack of sufficient evidence:

At a hearing on Friday in Brisbane, Australia, the police dropped their request to extend the detention of the suspect, Dr. Mohammed Haneef. Now, authorities have 12 hours of interrogation time left before they would be forced to let him go unless they file charges a new request to extend the detention.

The affidavits, copies of which were provided to The New York Times, offer the first official details about the contacts between Dr. Haneef and some of the suspects currently detained in Britain. The investigators are now trying to differentiate those contacts that are “honest relationships from more sinister,” a senior Australian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the news media.

“I suspect it will turn out that he is in the innocent category,” the official said of Dr. Haneef.

One of the eight suspects detained after the attacks was released on Thursday in Britain, Reuters reported. The suspect, Marwa Asha, was arrested with her husband, Dr. Mohammed Asha, as they drove on a highway in northern England hours after the botched Glasgow bombing. Dr. Asha remains in custody.

Russell Defreitas, the alleged ringleader of the JFK terror plot, has entered a plea of not guilty.

Defreitas appeared in Brooklyn federal court, clad in a blue and orange prison uniform, and addressed U.S. Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom in a raspy, barely audible voice.

He agreed to waive his right to an immediate trial after prosecutors said the complexity of the case and the need to transcribe hundreds of hours of taped conversations would delay their preparation.

His three co-defendants - Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad, and Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur, both citizens of Guyana - face an extradition hearing in Trinidad, set for Aug. 2.

This article suggests that the investigation continues in that terror plot and at least six others are being investigated for their involvement.

Meanwhile, the US Senate has voted to double the bounty on Osama bin Laden to $50 million. I don't think any amount of money will lead to his capture; I suspect he's already dead as Zawahiri has become the public face of al Qaeda over the past year and change.

UPDATE:
Muhammad Hanef has been charged by the Australian authorities in connection with the British gas car bomb plot.

Australian police charged an Indian doctor Saturday with providing support to a terrorist organization by recklessly giving a member of the group his mobile phone SIM card before he moved to Australia.

Muhammad Haneef, 27, is the second person to be charged over the botched attacks on London and Glasgow on June 29 and 30. The other is Bilal Abdullah, who is being held in London on charges of conspiring to set off explosions.

Haneef "has been charged with providing support to a terrorist organization," police said in a statement. The maximum penalty is 15 years in prison.

Australian police arrested Haneef, who moved to Australia from Britain last year, as he tried to leave the eastern city of Brisbane on a one-way ticket to India on July 2.

British police tracked a SIM card in the possession of one of the men accused in the failed Britain bomb attacks to Haneef, and alerted their Australian counterparts.