Post by RS Davis on Apr 30, 2004 12:12:21 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Jacob Sullum Wrote:[/glow]
During their opening statement in Sami Al-Hussayen's trial at the federal courthouse in Boise, Idaho, prosecutors put a new spin on the slippery concept of "links to terrorism." The Idaho Statesman reports that they "displayed a chart" showing how a Web site that Al-Hussayen had helped maintain "could eventually access 20 other sites with ties to radical organizations."
Talk about guilt by association. Given the interconnected nature of the World Wide Web (they don't call it a "web" for nothing), just about any site with hyperlinks "could eventually access" something sinister.
That does not mean Al-Hussayen, a 34-year-old Saudi whom the government accuses of supporting terrorism by creating and maintaining Web sites for various Islamic organizations, is the man he claims to be: a peaceful computer science student who rejects terrorism and was simply trying to promote Islamic outreach and education through volunteer work. But judging from the evidence the government has presented so far, he could be.
Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason and the author of several books. Click here to peruse them![/url]
During their opening statement in Sami Al-Hussayen's trial at the federal courthouse in Boise, Idaho, prosecutors put a new spin on the slippery concept of "links to terrorism." The Idaho Statesman reports that they "displayed a chart" showing how a Web site that Al-Hussayen had helped maintain "could eventually access 20 other sites with ties to radical organizations."
Talk about guilt by association. Given the interconnected nature of the World Wide Web (they don't call it a "web" for nothing), just about any site with hyperlinks "could eventually access" something sinister.
That does not mean Al-Hussayen, a 34-year-old Saudi whom the government accuses of supporting terrorism by creating and maintaining Web sites for various Islamic organizations, is the man he claims to be: a peaceful computer science student who rejects terrorism and was simply trying to promote Islamic outreach and education through volunteer work. But judging from the evidence the government has presented so far, he could be.
Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason and the author of several books. Click here to peruse them![/url]
