THE CIVIL CASE AGAINST THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IS FINALLY PROCEEDING.
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-Sidney Greenberg |
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| New Developments | |
Unprecedented Charges | |
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? | |
Summary of Terrorism Case | |
The Terrorism Case |
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THE MEN IN THIS CASE WERE NOT WRONGFULLY CONVICTED. THIS JURY DIDN'T BUY IT EITHER. Why, then, has RICK CONVERTINO been the focus of a FOUR YEAR year government witch hunt, wasting taxpayer dollars and governmental resources, not to mention illegal and invidious press leaks and smear, all under the guise of “investigating” a dedicated and decorated career prosecutor? The answer is not so simple and leads to a tangled web of incredible governmental abuse, vindictiveness and retaliation. On September 17, 2001, just few days after the terrorist attacks against our country on 9/11, documents were found during a search on a terrorist suspect’s home in Detroit. FBI agents believed they stumbled upon a terrorist sleeper cell. The FBI agents called Convertino at home that night while they were at the apartment, and requested he handle the case. Convertino immediately left his home and met the agents at the U.S. Attorneys Office in downtown Detroit. They worked through the night. ***The evidence gathered by the FBI during the search of the Detroit apartment was immediately forwarded for expert analysis. The members of the task force at the scene recovered over 100 radical Islamic tapes (expousing violence); blank birth and marriage certificates; the answer keys to the Michigan Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) test (pictures and testimony supported that the defendants were possibly planning a car bomb attack at one of the stadiums); airport identification badges(testimony supported that the defendants would have had access to food trays); a video tape that a terrorist expert testified evidenced casing surveillance (it was similar to other casing videos recovered elsewhere); scores of passport sized photographs; false passport and travel documents and ominous sketches inside a day planner that was inside a suitcase in a closet (many of the pages had fingerprints of some of the defendants). Testimony by the expert in terrorist tradecraft said the drawings were casing materials, the purpose of which was to identify key sites with important information compressed in a small transferable form. The day planner had Arabic handwriting throughout, which helped to identify the sites. One page said in Arabic, "American base in Turkey under command of the Secretary of Defense for all weapons." That page had depictions of airplanes along with various circles and lines. When the analysis of the pages was complete, the United State Air force, Office of Special Investigations, concluded that some of the handwritten drawings were terrorist casing sketches of specific aircraft (AWACS, fighter jets, and tanker refuelers) as well as the flight take-off patterns at the Incirlik Air Force base in Turkey. According the Air Force investigators, the sketch also showed a particular "hardened bunker" where the fighter jets were housed. The circles and lines were said the represent "manpads" from which shoulder launched devices could be used. (See "The Evidence" page). Based on the layout of the sketch, Air Force investigators in Turkey believed that they could determine that the person who created the sketch did so from the vantage point of a factory just beyond the airbases perimeter. As result of this discovery, the base was temporarily closed, aircraft flight patterns were altered and security at the base was increased. Later, a captured Al-Qaeda operative confirmed to officials that Bin Laden planned attacks on the Incirlik Air Force base in Turkey. Read more about the evidence in this case on The Evidence Page. |
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"American base in Turkey under command of defense minister. For all weapons." -translated from Arabic writing on page- |
On the left are the English translations to the Arabic writing on this page. |
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(article on thwarted attack)During the course of the investigation, Convertino and the FBI agent on the case, Mike Thomas, flew to the site in Turkey. They climbed on the roof of an adjacent factory building to confirm in their own minds that the drawings depicted what the analysts said they did. |
There was another sketch in the day planner that had the words "Queen Alia" next to it. There were three major sites in Amman, Jordan with that name. One was the Queen Alia Airport, another was the Queen Alia Hotel and the last was the Queen Alia Military Hospital. Convertino and Thomas went to Jordan to view those sites as well. The sketch matched the layout of the Queen Aliya Military Hospital. Click Herefor more pictures and more on the case. |