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Acquittal welcomed by university community { June 11 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=ID%20Computer%20Terrorism%20Moscowhttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=ID%20Computer%20Terrorism%20Moscow
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Friday, June 11, 2004 · Last updated 9:50 a.m. PT
Acquittal welcomed by university community
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW, Idaho -- The acquittal on terrorism charges of University of Idaho graduate student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen was a welcomed relief to the university community that counted him as one of its leaders.
"We've been waiting for a year and a half for this moment," said Abdullah Al-Khateeb, a friend and fellow campus leader.
But Al-Khateeb also called his friend "a victim of the terrorist problem," expressing the intense concern many in Moscow expressed about a federal government they believe has spun out of control in its drive to find suspected terrorists.
"All this happened under the guise of the Patriot Act," said fellow Muslim S.M. Ghazanfar, an economist and professor emeritus at the university. "Even as a professor you feel that developments such as these muzzle people."
Al-Hussayen's acquittal on Thursday of supporting terrorism with his computer skills, Ghazanfar said, "helps me regain my confidence and faith in the institutions of this country."
Al-Hussayen, a 34-year-old Saudi national who has been jailed since his arrest at his Moscow apartment on Feb. 26, 2003, was cleared of creating an Internet network intended to help finance and recruit terrorists. He was also cleared of three immigration violations while a mistrial was declared on eight other counts.
U.S. Attorney Tom Moss said it will be next week before a decision is made on whether to retry Al-Hussayen on those immigration counts. But Moscow attorney Tim Gresback doubts the government will risk a second stinging defeat.
"Our government was out of control. We cannot contain terrorism by allowing government zealots to act like terrorists," said Gresback, who helped round up attorneys for other foreign students when federal agents descended on campus to arrest Al-Hussayen 16 months ago.
"Their case won't get any better," he said. "They spent a couple million dollars already. They want to humiliate themselves again with a case that was bad to begin with? I don't think so."
Law professor Raul Sanchez, the former director of the school's diversity office, said taxpayers should be furious.
"I sincerely hope that people will see this as a message that maybe there's a lot of overreaching that's been taking place," Sanchez said. "That includes prosecuting Muslims without real, hard evidence."
It was the second time one of the government's top prosecutors and one of the state's leading defense attorneys faced off before U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge in a high profile case.
In 1993, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Lindquist and David Nevin were on opposite sides in the murder case against Kevin Harris, a friend of white separatist Randy Weaver who was involved with Weaver in the deadly 11-day Ruby Ridge siege in the Panhandle.
Nevin also won acquittal in that case, one of several in the government's campaign at that time against anti-government elements, and his victory was on much the same grounds as this week's.
The jury foreman in the case, John Harris Weaver, no relation to either defendant, said after eight weeks of testimony jurors had been left in confusion with a lack of evidence.
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