Latitude News: The Case of Tarek Mehanna The Justice Department has prosecuted many homegrown terror cases in the decade since 9/11. Authorities can convincingly argue they’ve stopped some would-be terrorists before they got a chance to hurt anyone. And that could be the situation with accused terrorist Tarek Mehanna. But Mehanna is a puzzling figure. […]

DAY 24: KAREEM ABU-ZAHRA, DIRECT EXAMINATION COMPLETED; CROSS-EXAM BEGINS, CONT. TO DAY25
Day 24: (11/30/2011): 1. Completion of direct-exam of Kareem Abu-Zahra [“KAZ”] via Chakravarty [“AC”]; 2. Initiation of cross-exam; to be continued through Day 25 via Carney [“JC”]; Today’s testimony picked up with the 2nd meeting that KAZ recorded for the government. This meeting was with AAS outside a local mosque. KAZ told AAS that he’d mentioned […]

Lawyer: Gov’t witness, not Mass. man accused of trying to aid al-Qaida, sought terrorist camp – The Washington Post
Lawyer: Gov’t witness, not Mass. man accused of trying to aid al-Qaida, sought terrorist camp By Associated Press, Published: November 30 BOSTON — A lawyer for a man accused of conspiring to help al-Qaida suggested Wednesday that it was a key prosecution witness, not his client, who wanted to find a terrorist camp in Yemen. via […]

“Holmes: The crimes of Tarek Mehanna” Metrowest Daily News
By Rick Holmes/Opinion editor The MetroWest Daily News Posted Nov 27, 2011 @ 12:29 AM Ahmed Mehanna was worried, aggravated and fearful for his son. He worried about the websites young Tarek had been visiting, the books he’d been reading. Tarek had taken a trip to Yemen his father thought might look suspicious to the […]

Mehanna counseled nonviolence in ’06 – Metro – The Boston Globe
Mehanna counseled nonviolence in ’06 Testifies for 3d day in terrorism trial By Milton J. Valencia | GLOBE STAFF NOVEMBER 22, 2011 Tarek Mehanna told his close friend Daniel Maldonado during a get-together in Egypt in 2006 to think of his family, to resist the urge to join the violence growing in Somalia, Maldonado […]
Day 20: Daniel Spaulding, Direct then Cross Examination
**Note: No court this Thursday or Friday** Continuation of Direct Examination and lack of memory of Daniel Spaulding Jeffrey Auerhahn (JA) asked what kind of texts Tarek and Ahmed Abousamra (AAS) translated, and Daniel Spaulding (DS) replied, miscellaneous texts, especially on Tarek’s part, but that AAS’s translations were of more jihadi texts. JA asked what […]

Day 19: Maldonado Cross-Examination (Part 2 of 2), Beginning of Daniel Spaulding Direct-Examination
**Note: Thursday and Friday of this week there will be no court!** Janice Bassil Continuation of Cross-Examination of Daniel Maldonado Today Janice Bassil (JB) continued her cross examination of Daniel Maldonado (DM). She asked him about the first time he met Tarek, and how they watched a video at Tarek’s house that might not have […]

FBI’s Fairytale Fabrications Flavor Fort Dix Five Case — The Guardian
FBI’s Fairytale Fabrications Flavor Fort Dix Five Case by Paul Harris of the Guardian Nov. 18, 2011 It all began with dropping off a video at a branch of Circuit City. A group of Muslim friends living in and around the suburban New Jersey town of Cherry Hill had just come back […]
Lawyers joust over showing of violent videos to jury in Tarek Mehanna terror case – Metro Desk – Local news updates from The Boston Globe
11/07/2011 4:07 PM By Milton J. Valencia and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff Tarek Mehanna’s lawyers today unsuccessfully sought to exclude graphic videos of the World Trade Center twin towers burning and of beheadings by terrorists from Mehanna’s federal trial on charges of supporting Al Qaeda in Iraq. “It adds nothing. It’s just designed to shock […]
Julia Spitz: Scary lack of interest in terror – Milford, MA – The Milford Daily News
By Julia Spitz/Daily News staff The MetroWest Daily News Posted Nov 05, 2011 @ 11:51 PM There are striking similarities between the cases of a Sudbury man charged with aiding al Qaeda and an Ashland man charged with plotting an attack on the Pentagon – including a surprising lack of interest. The opening of Tarek […]