Re: 2 Sentenced for Trying to Join Taliban

Only 18 months?  Oh well, who am I to question the legal system...

I think once they get out of prison they should be handcuffed and placed on
a one way flight to Afghanistan.  Let them fufill their dream and get blown
up by American bombs.

"none" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 2 Sentenced for Trying to Join Taliban
>
> AP | 11/24/03 | ANDREW KRAMER
>
> PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Two American Muslims who tried to join the
> Taliban were sentenced to 18 years in prison Monday during a hearing
> in which they denounced the Bush administration and pleaded in song
> for freedom.
> Patrice Lumumba Ford, 32, and Jeffrey Leon Battle, 33, had pleaded
> guilty in October to conspiracy to levy war against the United States.
>
> Both said that in trying to reach Afghanistan, they were fulfilling
> their Islamic duty to defend fellow Muslims.
>
> "The attack on Afghanistan killed and maimed thousands of people
> without achieving its objective," said Ford, who had traveled to China
> in an unsuccessful attempt to reach Afghanistan. "I refuse to stand
> passive in the face of such policies."
>
> Ford, once an intern at Portland's City Hall, said he felt obliged as
> a Muslim to defend his fellow Muslims against "President Bush's
> cruise-missile diplomacy."
>
> U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones admonished Ford by saying: "You do
> not represent the Muslim faith. Muslims do not engage in the
> activities you engaged in. You are an insult to that faith."
>
> Battle, a former Army reservist, also spoke of his obligations as a
> Muslim and concluded by singing a 10-minute song he said he had
> written in prison. The courtroom was silent during the song, which
> ended with the stanza, "Free, free, free, for all humanity, release
> me."
>
> Battle and Ford were among six people accused of conspiring to travel
> to Afghanistan in 2001 and fight U.S. troops after the Sept. 11
> terrorist attacks. A seventh was charged with providing financial
> support.
>
> Four of the others pleaded guilty, and a fifth was killed in a
> shootout in Pakistan.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *****  Oderint dum metuant! *****