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...

FBI Says Case Against Three Men Evolving Three men arrested in the terrorist investigation raid of a southwest Detroit home could have been part of a plot to attack a U.S. military base, federal agents said Wednesday. Agents went to the home on Norman Street in southwest Detroit searching for Nabil Al-Marabh, a suspect who allegedly has ties to Osama bin Laden and two hijackers who crashed passenger jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Al-Marabh was not at the house, but agents found Karim Koubriti, Ahmed Hannan and Farouk Ali-Haimoud. FBI Uncovers New Information On Suspects Investigators...

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...

DETROIT (AP) - The Justice Department is investigating possible misconduct by the lead prosecutor in the nation's first major post-Sept. 11 terrorism trial, according to a published report. U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins requested the investigation in November after discovering possible ethical violations involving Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino, the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday, citing sources it did not name. The allegations include withholding evidence from defense attorneys and trying to convince a court employee to get confidential information about a prisoner, the newspaper said. Convertino said Collins is trying to destroy his reputation and career. "This is so untrue,...

<p>June 4, 2003 -- DETROIT - A jury convicted three of four Muslim men yesterday in the first terrorism-related trial stemming from the wave of arrests after the Sept. 11 terror 2001.</p> <p>Two of the four, Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi, the alleged ringleader, and Karim Koubriti, both Moroccans, were found guilty of the most serious charges - conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism, a crime that can bring a 15-year jail sentence.</p>

August 29, 2002 4 Men Charged With Being in Terrorist Cell in Detroit AreaBy DANNY HAKIM ETROIT, Aug. 28 — The government indicted four Arab men in federal court here today, saying they were part of a terrorist cell operating in the Detroit area and were planning attacks in the United States, Jordan and Turkey. The men functioned as a support group for terrorist activity and a "sleeper operational combat cell," the indictment said. The cell's mission was to obtain weaponry and intelligence and establish a support network for terrorist activity, including mail drops and safe houses as well as...

Six men in America have been indicted on charges of supporting Islamic terrorist activities, including an alleged five-man "sleeper cell" in Detroit and a former worshipper at a radical mosque in London.   The MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas: police in Detroit found surveillance videos of the complex The grand jury indictments are the first time since September 11 that an alleged terrorist unit has been exposed. They also mark an escalation in the US authorities' investigation of links between militants in America and Britain.The suspected cell - some of whom worked at Detroit airport - are accused of...

ETROIT, Aug. 29 — For nearly a year, the three foreigners picked up at an apartment here a week after the Sept. 11 attacks seemed like just another group of Arab men caught up in the government dragnet. They languished in prison while facing charges that seemed minor; federal agents had actually been looking for the previous occupant when they raided the apartment.But at least one thing appears to have separated the Detroit trio from hundreds of other Arabs swept up by the government in the last year: a cooperative witness. A fourth Arab man who once lived with...

<p>An Algerian man and two roommates who were arrested in Detroit a week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were planning to conduct holy war against the United States, a federal prosecutor said in court Friday.</p> <p>Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino said Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 21, of Detroit was trying to smuggle automatic weapons and people into the United States with phony documents to carry out terrorist activities.</p>