Dr. Sami al-Arian is still being used and abused by our legal system both judges and prosecutors (persecuters) upset that they could not get a jury to convict him on any of the charges they leveled against him. He has been sentenced to an additonal 18 months for contempt for refusing to testify in the government’s case against some organizations in Virginia.
The lead prosecutor in the Virginia case as in the Paintball trials is Gordon Kromberg who has since been asked to recuse himself by al-Arian’s lawyers due to his bias and propensity to spew anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic rhetoric which has called into question his impartiality in these cases.
All of this comes as no surprise to any close observer of these trials over the past few years. Kromberg was easily the most belligerent hate and scaremonger among the lawyers for the government during the paintball cases. His boss Paul McNulty was promoted to Deputy Attorney General after the dubious “success” of securing the most terrorism convictions post 9/11.
Some people with same sex attractions (SSA) are having difficulties or being tortured and murdered while in police custody in the Middle East.
The International Herald Tribune has a nice report in its ongoing Cityscapes series and an excellent photo slideshow on a Muezzin at Malaysia’s national Negara Masjid.
Yusuf Islam has a new album out although I won’t be buying it. A sympathetic portrait here and a less sympathetic report here that also focuses on the Global Peace and Unity Event concert.
Ify Okoye 