Sentencing Day

Greets and saluts from the bright and crisp NYC metro area. We're supposed to hear today about the sentencing of Leftist moonbat Lynne Stewart, who was convicted of passing secrets from her convicted terrorist clients to their minions here in the US and overseas.

She's been trying to play the leniency card, noting that she's being treated for breast cancer, as though that somehow mitigates the fact that she damaged US national security by violating agreements made with the federal government not to do what she did.

I'm hoping the book is thrown her way.

It's one thing to claim that you're zealously representing your clients. It's quite another to actively break the law and threaten national security by passing communications from your terrorist clients to foreign nationals who are using those communications to rally others to jihad.

UPDATE:
Ed Morrissey notes that Stewart is also trying to play up that she acted irrationally and wasn't in control of her emotions, which is hogwash considering that she was caught on tape laughing it up with her co-conspirators and the convicted terrorists. She knew exactly what she was doing, and this is nothing but a last gasp chance at not spending the rest of her life behind bars. She'd like people to think she was a patsy, but the facts of the case belie that point.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin and Hot Air are both covering the proceedings. Also, Sister Toldjah has updates.

UPDATE:
Still no word on the sentencing, but others are weighing in on Stewart's latest attempts at swaying the judge. Confederate Yankee is not moved.

The Sentencing Law and Policy Blog weighs in as well and thinks the judge will rely on the sentencing guidelines, a portion of which I have cited below:

§2M5.3. Providing Material Support or Resources to Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations or For a Terrorist Purpose
(a) Base Offense Level: 26
(b) Specific Offense Characteristic
(1) If the offense involved the provision of (A) dangerous weapons; (B)
firearms; (C) explosives; (D) funds with the intent, knowledge, or reason
to believe such funds would be used to purchase any of the items
described in subdivisions (A) through (C); or (E) funds or other material
support or resources with the intent, knowledge, or reason to believe they
are to be used to commit or assist in the commission of a violent act,
increase by 2 levels.
(c) Cross References
(1) If the offense resulted in death, apply §2A1.1 (First Degree Murder) if the
death was caused intentionally or knowingly, or §2A1.2 (Second
Degree Murder) otherwise, if the resulting offense level is greater than
that determined above.
(2) If the offense was tantamount to attempted murder, apply §2A2.1 (Assault
with Intent to Commit Murder; Attempted Murder), if the resulting
offense level is greater than that determined above.

Since Stewart was convicted of providing material support to foreign terrorist groups (a level 26 offense), the sentence appears to range anywhere from 63-78 months all the way up to 120-150 months per count (that's from Chapter 5, Part A of the Sentencing Guideline (Nov. 2005)). That's a range of 5+ years all the way up to 10 years per count.


Others blogging: Blue Crab Boulevard and Outside the Beltway (who calls Stewart's actions treasonous).

UPDATE:
Six Meat Buffet isn't pulling punches on Stewart's trechary. Stop the ACLU provides a roundup. Brainster picks up on some of Stewart's supporters, and their anti-Bush, pro-terror stance. Argghhh! notes that if Stewart was to be the media martyr, then she better do the time.

Tammy Bruce and Macranger want the key thrown away. 30 years, demanded by the prosecutors, isn't quite life, but it's pretty close.

Meanwhile, the Leftists think that you should stand up for Stewart and her treasonous activities. It's a principled stand against the Bush Administration. Or so that line of thinking (if you can call it that) goes. Because her conviction isn't about her own actions, and undermining US national security, but the US government going too far.

Her supporters would like you to think that Stewart has already been hit with the harshest punishment, the inability to defend clients. Well, that is and was just the starting point. Stewart undermined national security, and the conviction is clear proof of that. Her shifting excuses after the conviction show that she is doing everything imaginable to avoid the harsh sentence that she richly deserves.

UPDATE:
TWENTY EIGHT MONTHS. Yes, you read that right. That's all she got for undermining US national security. Via CNN.

UPDATE:
Here's more details on the convictions and sentencing.

The indictment against Stewart, Yousry and Sattar was brought by former Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2002.

Koeltl sentenced Sattar to 24 years in prison on Monday. Convicted of conspiracy to kill and kidnap people in a foreign country, he could have been sentenced to a life term.

Koeltl said he departed from the federal sentencing guidelines for Sattar because no one was killed or injured as a result of the crimes and because of Sattar's lack of previous crimes and restrictive prison conditions.

This is nothing but a slap on the wrist for these criminal activities. And yet, this is the kind of thing that the Left believes should dominate our handling of terrorism related issues - put it in the hands of the courts, not Congress or the Executive. The court got this one wrong. Yousry's sentence was not announced at the time of these releases.

Bet on Stewart being quite the draw on her release from prison in little over two years.

UPDATE:
So what sentencing guideline did the judge rely upon in sentencing Stewart? Also, why the discrepancy between Sattar's sentence and Stewarts. Both were convicted of the same crime, and Stewart's presence was what enabled Sattar to transmit the information from Rahman to his overseas minions.

UPDATE:
This slap on the wrists is not sitting well with quite a few folks.

Don Surber:

Stewart was not a lefty lawyer beguiled by danger. Her legal career was built on defending people who sought the violent overthrow of America. Past clients include members of the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground. To Hays, Stewart is merely a person who will “question authority and defend unpopular figures.”

Yes, people who want to overthrow the nation through violence aren’t very popular. And the grandmas who help them deserve lengthy terms in prison.

Amen to that.

In the Bullpen wonders what would have happened if the defendant was an Arab American. I'd suggest look across the docket and see Sattar. He got 24 years for substantially the same criminal charges.

Stop the ACLU, Hot Air are not happy campers either.

Others blogging, and registering similar responses: Texas Rainmaker, Blue Star Chronicles, Ace of Spades, and FFDB.

UPDATE:
Ed Morrissey notes that this is yet another reason to not rely upon the law enforcement model of fighting terrorism.

Others blogging: Clarity and Resolve, Sam Houston, Discarded Lies, Left Wing=Hate, AJ Strata, Tinkerty Tonk, Bullwinkle Blog, Blogs for Bush, Environmental Republican, Cake or Death, California Yankee, and Freedom Folks.

UPDATE:
Stewart is appealing the case, and will remain out of prison on bail, pending the hearing. Prosecutors were extremely disappointed in the judge's reduction in the sentence, and are considering an appeal of their own.

Technorati: lynne stewart, terrorism.

Sami al Arian To Be Deported

Former Florida university professor Sami al-Arian has pleaded guilty to aiding the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad and agreed to be deported, U.S. officials said on Monday

Al-Arian and three co-defendants were charged in 2003 with helping the group carry out attacks in Israel. In December, a federal jury in Tampa found al-Arian not guilty on eight charges and failed to reach a verdict on nine others after a six-month trial.

Prosecutors, whose failure to convict al-Arian after the jury trial was seen as a stiff blow to the U.S. government's attempts to prosecute terrorism suspects, hailed the plea bargain agreement as a victory.

"Al-Arian has now admitted providing assistance to help the Palestinian Islamic Jihad ... as the government has alleged from the start," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Alice Fisher said in a written statement.

The United States has designated Islamic Jihad a terrorist organization. When the charges against al-Arian and the others were made public three years ago, then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the group was responsible for over 100 deaths in Israel, including two Americans.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed nine people and wounded 60 outside a restaurant in Tel Aviv on Monday.

Arian gets deported, which means he's no longer able to do his business in the US, but count on him shilling for Islamic Jihad overseas. So far, there's no indication of where he's going to end up.

Others blogging: Texas Rainmaker and Stop the ACLU. Wizbang has photos of Islamic Jihad's latest handiwork (that would be today's suicide bombing in Israel that killed nine and wounded over 65). It shows just who and what al Arian was involved in, and none of it any good. He supported mass murderers who sought to commit heinous acts of violence.

Selecting Gorelick to 9/11 Commission

Back in April 2004, before the world knew of Able Danger and spoke of walls of separation, Byron York wrote about Gorelick, the wall of separation, and includes some information on how Gorelick was chosen for the Commission.

When Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D., S.D.) and then-House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D., Mo.) selected Gorelick for the committee in December 2002, Gephardt said, of her and the other Democrats chosen for the job, "I can think of no individuals better suited to work on this project than the people we have announced today."

The Daschle-Gephardt announcement also noted that Gorelick had, since 1997, been a member of the National Security Advisory Panel at the CIA.

Gorelick was also, of course, the No. 2 official in the Janet Reno Justice Department in the mid-1990s. And, though few remember it now, she was at one time on Bill Clinton's short list to nominate as CIA director.

National Security Adviser Anthony Lake eventually got the nod, then dropped out after a contentious nomination fight. Tenet ultimately got the job.

At the Justice Department, Gorelick did a lot of work on the terrorism issue.

When she left, the department put out a press release saying, "One of Ms. Gorelick's principal priorities was to help prepare the Justice Department to be able to respond effectively to the new challenges of transnational crime and terrorism. To do this, she forged new relationships and administrative protocols with the Departments of State, Treasury and Defense, and with the intelligence community."

Republicans criticizing Gorelick's selection for the commission have focused on what is now called the Wall — that is, the traditional barrier separating law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

It was the Wall that made it so difficult — nearly impossible, actually — for the agencies to share information about the Sept. 11 hijackers, which might have allowed the government to break up the plot.

In his testimony before the commission, Attorney General John Ashcroft charged that Gorelick, during her time at Justice, had made the Wall higher.

Maybe she did — and maybe she didn't.

York goes on to comment that Gorelick and her supporters claim that she tried lowering the wall of separation though the reality is that she did nothing to lower the wall and may have significantly raised it. Further, he notes that the Commission could have included Max Cleland but for his accepting a job elsewhere.

How does all this weave together with Able Danger? Well, Gorelick should not have been on the Commission in the first place given her role in developing those policies under scrutiny. Now, one could argue that no one was more qualified to be on the Commission because of her intimiate knowledge of the subject matter, that is a double edged sword because she could frame questions to shield uncomfortable facts from seeing daylight, and could influence other panel members. Many criticized her selection when it was first announced, and the Able Danger revelations reinforce and amplify that criticism.