Free Republic

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...

... [M]eet Umar Abdulmutallab’s lawyer, Miriam Siefer, whose salary you are paying. [...] 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, where U.S. AWACS and Israeli F-16s are based and from where they took off. They also plotted to blow up hotels and casinos in Las Vegas and planned to detonate in Disneyland. 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...

US: Ex-Prosecutor Should Be Convicted By DAVID RUNK DETROIT (AP) — A former federal prosecutor and an ex-State Department investigator wanted so badly to win convictions in the nation's first major terrorism trial after the Sept. 11 attacks that they broke the law themselves, a government attorney said Tuesday. "They crossed over the line from upholding the law to violating it," Eileen Gleason told jurors in closing arguments in the case against Richard Convertino and Harry Smith III. The two have pleaded not guilty to charges of obstruction of justice, making false declarations before a court and conspiracy. The defense...

DETROIT, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- A Moroccan immigrant held in a Detroit jail as a terrorist suspect for three years has sued, claiming that he was deliberately fed pork and humiliated. Karim Koubriti's suit names Wayne County, five unnamed sheriff's deputies and one identified only as "Rojo," the Detroit News reported. "The actions of the Wayne County Sheriff's Department were completely outrageous," said Koubriti's lawyer, Ben Gonek. "They only added more insult to the injuries he was already sustaining by the federal government." Koubriti, in legal papers, claims he and four other alleged terrorists were strip-searched without need when other...

Jihad Journalism: Detroit News’ Fabricated Terrorism “Reporting” May 11, 2005 By Debbie Schlussel “Former Terrorism Suspect is Deported: Moroccan . . . Was Forced to Leave,” screamed a sympathetic headline in Gannett’s Detroit News, last week. Problem is, the deportation of alleged Detroit terror cell member Ahmed Hannan never happened. Hannan is still here. And other details in the apocryphal article by Detroit News reporter David Shepardson were also wrong or made-up. The May 3, 2005 article claimed that Hannan—who planned to blow up U.S. tourist sites and a U.S. Air Force Base in Turkey—was deported two weeks before the...

Terror Suspect Arrested in North Carolina