WEDNESDAY,MAY1.2002
NATION NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 9A
9-11 case ruled unconstitutional
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - The government's jailing of material witnesses for a grand jury investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled yesterday in throwing out a perjury case against a Jordanian college student.
The ruling, if upheld, could have far-reaching implications for the government's crackdown on terrorism.
Dozens of people have been jailed as material witnesses since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
In a rebuke of Attorney General John Ashcroft, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin said, "Relying on the material-witness statute to detain people who are presumed innocent under our Constitution in order to prevent potential crimes is an illegitimate use of the statute."
Scheindlin threw out perury charges against Osama Awadallah, 21, a Grossmont College student in El Cajon, Calif., who was accused of lying about his associations with two of the Sept. 11 hijackers.
At a Washington news conference, Ashcroft defended the roundup of material witnesses after Sept. 11, saying the opinion of "one trial judge in New York represents an anomaly."
"The department's use of material witness warrants is fully consistent with the law and longstanding practice." Ashcroft said, adding that other judges have authorized use of material witness warrants in similar settings and that such use had been validated at the appellate level.
In New York, U.S. Attorney James B. Comey said, "We believe the court's opinions are wrong on the fact and the law, and we are reviewing our appellate options."
Scheindlin said the Founding Fathers who wrote the Bill of Rights believed people "should forever be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects" from intrusion and seizure by officers
acting under the unbridled authority of a general warrant."
Congress in 1984 carefully carved out an exception with a statute that lets a material witness be detained until his testimony can be secured by deposition in the pretrial phase of a court case, she said. The exception is limited only to material witnesses in the pretrial phase of a criminal proceeding, rather than during a grand jury probe, she said.
"Detaining Awadallah solely for the purposes of a grand jury investigation was therefore unlawful." Scheindlin wrote. "Such an interpretation poses the threat of making detention the norm and liberty the exception."
Scheindlin cited the case of Abdallah Higazy, an Egyptian-born student arrested Dec. 17 as a material witness after a pilot radio was found in his Sept. 11 hotel room overlooking the World Trade Center. Charges were dropped when it was later found that the radio belonged to someone else and a hotel security guard had lied.
Scheindlin said that in Awadallah's case, a magistrate in San Diego not only ignored pertinent portions of the statute but added language to keep Awadallah imprisoned.
FBI agents confronted Awadallah outside his San Diego home on Sept. 20 and detained him a day later as a high-security prisoner. Awadallah was charged with perjury, accused of lying about his knowledge of one of the hijackers in the suicide attack on the Pentagon.
In grand jury appearances, Awadallah admitted meeting hijacker Nawaf al-Hazmi 30 to 40 times but denied knowing associate Khalid al-Mihdhar. Confronted with an exam booklet in which he had written the name Khalid, he later admitted he knew both of them.
If convicted, Awadallah could have gotten up to 10 years in prison.
NEW YORK - Saudi Arabia is spending millions on a television ad campaign aimed at bolstering its image with Americans, but some cable channels are declining to run the spots.
The Associated Press
Saudi ads run in America
The ads began running last week, coinciding with the U.S. visit of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, who met with President Bush at his ranch in Texas. They feature images of U.S. leaders meeting with Saudi officials and quotes from Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell showing support for the country.
The ads, depicting Saudi Arabia as a close friend of the United States, carry the tag lines "The People of Saudi Arabia: Allies Against Terrorism" and "The People of Saudi Arabia: Allies For Peace."
The multimillion dollar ad campaign is running in 20 major cities across the country, according to Michael
Petruzzello said the firm has had no problem getting the ads on the air in the markets where they wanted them to be shown.
Petruzzello, a managing partner at the Washington public relations firm Qorvis Communications, which is handling the campaign.
But Matthew Frankel, a spokesman for the cable network company Rainbow Media Group, said yesterday the company's Bravo channel had been approached about the ads and declined to run them. Frankel declined to say why Bravo turned down the ads or to provide other details.
USA Network and Sci-Fi Channel, which are under the same owner and share an advertising department, also declined to run the ads, said John Kelley, a spokesman for USA Network. He also declined to say why the ads were turned down.
Electronic Media, a trade journal covering the television
industry, reported in its Monday editions that several other cable networks also turned down the ads, including A&E. The History Channel, Lifetime, and The Weather Channel.
A spokesman for A&E and The History Channel declined to comment, and spokeswomen for Lifetime and The Weather Channel did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Petruzzello said the ads were intended to run on regional TV and cable broadcasts, but he said he did not know whether Bravo or other national cable channels mentioned in the Electronic Media article were approached about running the ads.
One of the Qorvis partners working on the project is Judy Smith, a former deputy press secretary to the first President Bush. Qorvis is being paid $200,000 a month by the Saudi government, Petruzzello said.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — In yet another tangle with the Legislature, Gov. Jesse Ventura threatened to close the governor's mansion at the end of the work day yesterday because of budget cuts imposed by lawmakers.
Ventura wants to close state mansion
The Associated Press
The former professional wrestler said that lawmakers left him no choice but to close the 20-room, English Tudor residence when they cut his spending and reduced his security budget.
"I don't know how they can possibly force me to keep it open without the funding," said Ventura, adding that he takes "no great joy" in shutting down "one the perks that make you want to do these
iobs."
Attorney General Mike Hatch issued an opinion yesterday saying state law requires Ventura to keep the 92-year-old mansion open and available for ceremonial purposes. But Ventura called that an opinion and said he planned to go ahead with the closing.
Ventura and his wife, Terry, used the mansion frequently in his first couple years in office, but they now spend most nights at their horse ranch in suburban Maple Grove. Ventura sometimes eats at the mansion and exercises there, and many official functions are held at the home.
Trying to close a deficit estimated at more than $2 billion, lawmakers recently enacted a budget, despite Ventura's veto.
that cuts $1.3 million from his $9.3 million office and security budgets. Ventura's aides said it would take $375,000 to run the mansion through the end of June 2003.
Some lawmakers said Ventura, a political independent, was retaliating by targeting a state symbol like the mansion.
Jessie Ventura
Rep. Matt Entenza said he and other lawmakers may go to court and seek an injunction if Ventura closed the mansion.
Charity accused of perjury, terrorism links to al-Qaida
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — An Islamic charity and its director were charged with perjury yesterday and accused by the FBI of supporting terrorists who tried to obtain nuclear weapons for Osama bin Laden and plotted to assassinate the pope.
Federal agents said the Benevolence International Foundation had links to bin Laden going back decades and gave sizable amounts of cash to his al-Qaida terrorist network.
The FBI also said that members of al-Qaida have held positions within the charity, and that a man who tried to obtain uranium for bin Laden even listed the charity's Illinois address as his home.
Enaaam M. Arnaout, the head of the charity based in suburban Palos Hills, was arrested at his home yesterday. The 39-year-old Syrian-born naturalized American was ordered held for a hearing May 7.
This complaint alleges Benev
olence International Foundation was supporting violence secretly," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said.
An attorney for the charity, Matthew Piers, did not immediately return a call.
The foundation is one of two Chicago-area Islamic charities whose assets were frozen Dec. 14 on suspicion of supporting terrorism. Federal agents also raided their offices that day. The cofounder of Global Relief Foundation, the other organization, is being held on an immigration charge.
Both groups have sued the government, denying they have anything to do with terrorism and asking that their assets be released.
According to an FBI affidavit, the Benevolence International Foundation had links to people involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a plot to bomb U.S. airlines and the plan to assassinate Pope John Paul II.
The affidavit does not accuse
Anaout or the charity of involvement in the plots. But it says they lied about their ties to terrorists who were involved.
Brochures for Benevolence International describe it as a humanitarian organization "dedicated to helping those afflicted by wars and natural disasters" in Afghanistan and other countries. IRS reports show that it received $3.3 million in contributions for the year ending April 2000.
The FBI affidavit said that Benevolence International was founded in the 1980s by Saudi sheik Adil Abdul Galil Batargy, a bin Laden associate, and that control of the group was later given to Arnaout.
Several unidentified witnesses told authorities that al-Qaida members have held positions within the charity and that the group was used by bin Laden in the early 1990s to transfer money, the affidavit said.
tion sponsored Salim's visa for a 1998 visit to Bosnia and sponsored him for housing there. He now awaits trial in New York on charges of conspiring to kill Americans.
The affidavit said bin Laden associate Mamdouh Salin "participated in efforts to obtain nuclear and chemical weapons for al-Qaida." It said the founda-
The FBI also said another person, Mohamed Bayazid, was given approval by Salim to try to "get uranium for al-Qaida to develop a nuclear weapon." The affidavit said Bayazid obtained an Illinois driver's license that listed the charity's Palos Hills office as his home address.
During a March 19 raid on the foundation's offices in Bosnia, authorities found guns, military manuals and a fake passport as well as photos of bin Laden and of Arnaout "handling rifles, a shoulder-fired rocket and an anti-aircraft gun," the affidavit said.
The FBI said bin Laden trusted Arnaout, citing a time in 1989 when Arnaout lived in Pakistan and allowed one of bin Laden's wives to live in his apartment for a week.
In other terrorism-related developments yesterday:
A Somali man arrested last fall in a government crackdown on money transfer businesses was convicted in Boston of operating without a state license. No terrorism charges were filed against Mohamed Hussein, though investigators say al-Qaida skimmed from the millions of dollars that annually flow overseas through money outlets like the one Hussein operated.
A federal judge in New York threw out a perjury indictment against a 21-year-old Jordanian college student who knew two of the Sept. 11 hijackers. The judge declared that the government's practice of jailing material witnesses in the Sept. 11 grand jury investigation is unconstitutional.
The government said courts approved 954 warrants last year for secret wireset and searches of suspected terrorists and spies, a decline from 1,003 in 2000. Under the new Patriot Act, the government does not have to seek as many warrants since they do not expire as quickly and can be used in some cases across jurisdictions.
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