Lawyer Has Terror-Case Track Record

The lawyer appointed to represent the man accused of attempting to bomb Northwest Flight 253 had prior success helping to defend an alleged terrorist.

Miriam Siefer, the chief public defender in Detroit, also has handled cases involving disturbances on other Northwest flights, including one in which a man pleaded guilty after illegally transporting ammunition and saying he was traveling overseas to kill Osama bin Laden.

Defense lawyers with experience in terrorism-related cases say Ms. Siefer's latest job -- representing 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was charged with trying to blow up a Christmas Day flight to Detroit -- will be difficult, in part because of his alleged statements after the incident. Among other things, passengers have said Mr. Abdulmutallab told them he had an "explosive device" after passengers and crew put out a fire that had started in his lap. He also allegedly told investigators he had affiliations with al Qaeda operatives in Yemen, who gave him the device and detonation instructions to blow up the plane.

Despite the media coverage, Margaret Sind Raben, a defense lawyer in Detroit who has known Ms. Siefer for decades, said she thinks "Miriam will go into this with the assumption and presumption that her client is innocent."

One potential challenge is if the defendant isn't cooperative. Defendants like Mr. Abdulmutallab "generally start with their backs to us," Ms. Raben said. "You have to work to gain their trust."

Some never cooperate. Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted of helping to plot the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, fired his court-appointed lawyers. He is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty.

From Debbie Schlussel:

If the name sounds familiar, that’s because you’ve read about Siefer on this site, before. During the Detroit terror cell case, she represented Karim Koubriti, an Islamic terrorist in a cell, which plotted to blow up the U.S. Air Force Base in Turkey...During the course of her “representation” of terrorist Koubriti, Siefer and her fellow public defender, Richard Helfrick a/k/a Rick Helfrick (who will probably also assist her in representing Abdulmutallab), stole the stationery of the then-Chief Judge of the Federal Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Lawrence Zatkoff, forged Zatkoff’s name, and sent it to another attorney in the case, accusing him of faking invoices (which wasn’t true).

Judge Gerald Rosen, who presided over the Detroit terror cell case, admitted to me that Siefer and Helfrick forged the documents. Then, he berated me for daring to ask about it, saying his court “deals in serious issues.” I guess attorneys in a federal case committing several crimes and impersonating a federal judge, just aren’t serious. In any event, Siefer and Helfrick got away with it...

And don’t put Siefer’s dirty tricks, and illegal and unethical behavior past her in the Abdulmutallab case either. As I reported, while he was under federal indictment and incarcerated, Siefer got permission from unethical Judge Rosen to get terrorist Koubriti released, so that he could attend a National Lawyers Guild dinner honoring Siefer. Yup, this is the joke of a federal court that will be deciding Mutallab’s fate. And things like this, even a federal jury can’t prevent. Two juries said Koubriti was a terrorist. But now he roams free and is on the fast track to U.S. citizenship, thanks to this forger, Miriam Siefer.

Rather than serving time and getting deported Koubriti will not only soon get U.S. citizenship, but he lives in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, where he has a commercial driver’s license and drives a truck. Yup, exactly the course of citizenship and career path you want for a terrorist.

Yes, it doesn’t matter that two juries said he was a terrorist. Because of forgery by Siefer and outrageous behavior by corrupt Judge Rosen, who is now the Chief Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan where Abdulmutallab’s fate will be decided, they and the Bush Justice Department worked to overturn the verdicts. And Koubriti is free in our midst, about to have all the rights you and I have.

Like I said, don’t put forgery and other similar fraud in this case past her. And don’t put it past the corrupt, incompetent U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan–which helped Koubriti in his quest to stay here and roam free–either. As I noted on Saturday Night, the two Assistant U.S. Attorneys representing the U.S. in this are Jonathon Tukel–who outed a Muslim confidential informant’s identity in order to take revenge on a fellow U.S. Attorney of whom he was jealous, and likely caused the informant’s murder–and Eric M. Straus, who had a dartboard in his office, bearing the face of the Detroit FBI’s top counterterrorism intelligence official, Paul George.

The pan Islamists in the Justice Department will see to it Abdulmuttalab walks off with a slap on the wrist. They got to see Richard Convertino off the reservation after he prosecuted and successfully won the conviction of several Al Qaeda terrorists, Koubriti among them. That was too much for his boss Jeffrey Collins and Jonathan Tukel to bear, so they worked with sympathetic superiors in Washington to overturn the verdicts and have Convertino framed and convicted for daring to make America safe. And they have allies on the defense side, like Miriam Siefer who will help them make sure those who want to kill us all are allowed to roam free in our midst.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus

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