Five news organizations have asked a federal judge to release government evidence against a suspected terrorist. They claim the evidence is crucial to public understanding of the government’s case. -DB
Townhall.com
May 28, 2009
By Greg Bluestein
(AP) News organizations asked a federal judge last week to grant the media access to copies of audio and video court records key to the upcoming trial against a terrorism suspect.
The motion seeks access to about 12 hours of an audiotaped FBI interview with Syed Haris Ahmed, who is set to go on trial Monday on charges that he aided a terrorist group.
It also seeks videos that prosecutors say he and another suspect filmed of potential terrorist targets in Washington.
“The public is entitled to understand the basis for the government’s prosecution of Defendant Ahmed, and these audio and video exhibits are essential to properly appreciate the evidence in this case,” wrote Thomas Clyde, an attorney who represents The Associated Press, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CNN and WSB-TV.
The audio and video tapes were submitted as evidence by federal prosecutors in January 2008, and Ahmed’s attorney asked that the exhibits be sealed. A federal magistrate denied the request, but said the order was pending a review by a federal judge.
The motion contends the judge has yet to address the order.
Clyde said providing the press with a transcript of the tapes won’t suffice.
The audio tapes, he argued, help portray the “demeanor, tone and conduct” of Ahmed shortly before his arrest and indictment. He contended the videos will show the “sophistication _ or lack thereof _ of the defendants’ planning efforts, which cannot be conveyed properly to the public through a transcript.”
Ahmed, a 24-year-old former Georgia Tech student, and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee were indicted in July 2006 on charges of providing material support to terrorists and related conspiracy counts. Both have pleaded not guilty to all charges. Sadquee’s trial is set to begin in August.
Since the charges were filed, the government has sought heightened secrecy surrounding elements of its case against the men.
They are accused of discussing terror targets with Islamic extremists and undergoing training to carry out a “violent jihad” against civilian and government targets, including an air base in suburban Atlanta.
Prosecutors say the two traveled to Washington to film possible targets, including the U.S. Capitol and the headquarters of the World Bank, and shared the recordings with another suspected terrorist based in Britain.
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