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    The NSA Read Your Emails and All You Got Was This Lousy Fake Terrorism Prosecution

    By Michael Maiello on Fri, 08/09/2013 - 10:47am | Politics

    Yesterday, The Washington Post gave us the tale of Basaaly Moalin, a 36-year-old San Diego cab driver from Somalia, who still has close family in his home country, who was recently convicted of sending $8,500 to a military group there that the United States designates as a terrorist organization.  He was caught, in part, through the National Security Agency's database of phone call details.

    Maolin was unable to mount much of a defense and he now faces possible life in prison. This is in spite of the fact that the FBI didn't even believe that he was out to support terrorism.  They believe that he donated money to the group based on their shared tribal affiliation, a claim that makes sense given that Maolin's wife and children still lived in the area.  At no point is it even implied that Maolin gave anyone any money with the intent to finance attacks on the U.S. or U.S. citizens.

    "Prosecutors alleged that Moalin and some acquaintances were sending money to al-Shabab to finance attacks against the transitional government of Somalia and allied fighters from Ethi­o­pia, as well as civilians."
    It seems more like Maolin is taking sides in Somalia's long civil war.  Now, that might not be acceptable to the U.S. but, even so, life in prison seems pretty harsh.  Beyond that, is this case, which the NSA has trotted out as an example of the successful use of its programs to counter terrorism, anywhere near important enough to justify those programs?
     
    Put another way, there are people in the U.S., including some very wealthy and prominent types and at least one long serving member of Congress, who once actively raised and contributed money for the Irish Republican Army an nobody ever seemed to imply that the government needed some sort of total information awareness to combat that.
     
    The prosecution of Maolin is a weak justification for these programs.  But it is among the NSA's few chosen examples of a success story.  Time to put a stop to this nonsense.
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    Comments

    The worst aspect is the sheer arbitrariness. A terrorist or terrorist group is whoever the U.S. government designates a terrorist or terrorist group.

    The Iranian Revolutionary Guard were once just a branch of Iran's military. The U.S. got increasingly pissed off at Iran, so now they are officially terrorists. The world rightly deemed the anti-Iranian government group MEK terrorists. They hired some congressional lobbyists, and now they're simply dissidents -- at least in American eyes. A government shameless enough to formally pretend the military takeover in Egypt was not a coup is capable of any semantic bullshit.

    President Obama is a constitutional scholar. I'm not, but even I know that the U.S. Constitution specifically bans bills of attainder. I'm sure Anwar al-Awlaki was a really nasty guy, but I'm also sure the bill of rights trumps the traditional Texas defense that "he needed killin'."

    So far, U.S. legislators, White House, judiciary, media and most of the public seem to think otherwise, that this is all being done to "keep us safe." I think far too high a price is being paid, but I'm just some furriner. Carry on.


    by acanuck on Fri, 08/09/2013 - 7:51pm

    They can run algorithms on a quadrillion emails and phone numbers, and arrest a guy sending money to Somalia.  They call that keeping us safe.

    The government can't write a simple rule for parking and securing a train loaded with explosive petrochemicals on a hill. A hill that may have 50 happy Canucks at the bottom of it, folks who don't know their quaint little village is about to be blown off the map.

    That's national security 9/11 style.


    by NCD on Sat, 08/10/2013 - 12:59am

    There's a fine line between "probably up to no good" and "he needed killin'." Obviously, it's a line the people commanding the drones don't really worry about. When I used Anwar al-Awlaki's extrajudicial execution as an example, I wasn't aware of the more glaring case of his teenage grandson. So the Trayvon Martin comparison didn't come to mind:

    http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/18064-up-to-no-good-the-racial-profili...

    But it is totally valid. The reason the U.S. Constitution banned bills of attainder was that they had been used, during succession struggles back in England, by Catholics to demonize and marginalize Protestants, and by Protestants to do the same to Catholics. Membership in an identifiable group was arbitrarily deemed criminal. The Founding Fathers recognized profiling and denial of due process went hand in hand, and were determined to stamp both out. Nice try, guys.


    by acanuck on Sun, 08/11/2013 - 6:52pm

    Basaaly Moalin is nothing more than a scapegoat being used to "show" the american public that NSA spying is worth the loss of individual freedoms becuase it makes us all "safe".

     

    He's not an American and his actions were directed to some far and distant land and issues, so it's easy to fabricate a "what if" scenario that gullible people will swallow hook, line and sinker and feel at home with sacrificing our individual freedoms so we all  can "feel' safe.


    by Beetlejuice on Sat, 08/10/2013 - 12:06pm

    because it makes us all "safe".

    Far from it; next thing you know;, anyone that shows sympathy or support for a B. Moalin will be charged with aiding and abetting the enemy? . I suppose you and I will now be monitored?  


    by Resistance on Mon, 08/12/2013 - 12:59am

    We've been watching for a long time now, you know?

    God bless America!

    --W


    by The Decider on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 1:17pm