| NY police creates terrorism to solve { January 9 2007 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://www.timesnow.tv/Sections/Business/NY_court_sentences_Pakistani_man_to_30_yrs/articleshow/1113255.cmshttp://www.timesnow.tv/Sections/Business/NY_court_sentences_Pakistani_man_to_30_yrs/articleshow/1113255.cms
NY court sentences Pakistani man to 30 yrs Tuesday, January 09, 2007 07:13:32 pm
(Reuters)
Is it a case of an impressionable young man being talked into planning a New York subway attack by an undercover agent or an example of a deliberate home-grown terrorist plot? While this question is still under debate, the accused in the case, 24-year-old Pakistani immigrant Shahwar Siraj has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for plotting to bomb Herald Square — one of New York's busiest subway stops.
Siraj was arrested in 2004 in New York while carrying crude drawings of Herald Square. The defence team for Siraj, who was never affiliated with any extremist groups, argued that he was entrapped by an undercover agent who misused his surveillance powers by inciting Siraj with photos of Iraqis abused at Abu Ghraib and by encouraging him to devise terror plots as revenge.
Says Martin R Stolar, Siraj's Defence Lawyer, "It makes him a symbol of the war on terror rather than the sentencing of an individual human being. It's unfortunate that the New York City police department created a crime, in order to solve it and claim a victory for the war on terror. The sentence of 30 years is draconian, totally draconian."
The prosecution's case was strengthened by the testimony of a co-conspirator who pleaded guilty and the undercover agent who said Siraj openly supported al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
Siraj's case is an example of the increased monitoring of mosques by the New York City police, and a 2003 decision by a federal judge granting the city's police expanded surveillance powers.
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