And now, taking the stage, put your hands together

[Jobber of the Week 0]

A-one, and a-two...

 

Two American Muslims who tried to join the Taliban were sentenced yesterday to 18 years in prison 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 in the fall of 2001, 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 against "President Bush's cruise-missile diplomacy," and said his trip was an expression of political opposition to United States foreign policy after the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks.

 

He said he was inspired to join the group of mostly native-born American Muslims from the Portland area while holding his 9-month-old son, Ibrahim, and feeling that Muslim fathers in Afghanistan were unable to protect their children from "bombs dropped from 30,000 feet."

 

Ford's father, Kent Ford, was a prominent Black Panther in Portland in the early 1970s, and the younger Ford had studied international relations and attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he learned to speak Mandarin Chinese.

 

Reading from a handwritten statement in the courtroom packed with reporters and family members, Ford also assailed the post-9/11 crackdown on Muslim radicals in the United States, which he said was calculated more to score political points than pursue justice.

 

"I don't think that anybody with a (conscience) could participate in the prosecutions of this country," Ford said.

 

U.S. District Judge Robert 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."

 

Jones brushed aside Ford's claim that he was motivated by a humanitarian desire to help Afghan civilians, saying Ford had clearly intended to join the Taliban as a foot soldier and would have killed U.S. soldiers if he had a chance.

 

"If you had been on the firing line, you would have killed an American," Jones said.

 

Battle, a former Army reservist, also spoke of his obligations as a Muslim and concluded by singing a 10-minute song 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 to fight U.S. troops after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A seventh, Battle's former wife, October Martinique Lewis, was charged with providing financial support.

 

Four of the others pleaded guilty, and a fifth, accused ringleader Habis Abdulla al Saoub, 37, was killed in a shootout in Pakistan.

 

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/149793...rortrial25.html

 

I think we should start playing this on our 500 million Clear Channel stations for big laughs. And these are the guys who COULDN'T get into the Taliban. They appearantly failed Terrorist School or something.

[spiny norman 0]

I don't see what they did wrong. Honestly, they had their belief, and I disagree with it. However, it was a war, and under war conditions they didn't do anything wrong. Hell, they didn't even fight, they didn't do anything that could even be construed as being wrong, and they get eighteen years.

 

His song was right. America isn't as free as you like to preach yourself to be.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

His song was right. America isn't as free as you like to preach yourself to be.

Yeah I know. We suck.

 

I cry every night that I live in the "land of the free and home of the brave..."

[spiny norman 0]

Okay, don't get me wrong, you are better off than most countries. But you're not as free etc. as you think.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Tell me about it.

 

I went to the store for a gallon of milk today and John Ashcroft tackled me because I dug in the back of the dairy section for some Moo-Juice that had a later expiration date than the front jugs...

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Dude, on my last trip, I came to Las Vegas and guess who was at the door to the casino? That's right. John Aschroft.

 

My trip went from great to abysmal when Ashcroft broke my knees, took me to jail, and read me scripture all night.

[Dr. Tom 0]

I don't see what they did wrong.

Conspiracy to levy war against the United States. If you're a citizen, it's not necessarily expected that you fight for us in a time like this (some are unable to, after all), but it's bloody well expected that you're not going to try to fight against us.

 

Honestly, they had their belief, and I disagree with it.

Beliefs are not holy. Their "beliefs" were in line with people who had caused the deaths of 3000 on our shores. Americans shouldn't be aligning themselves with the enemy, and if they choose to, there are consequences.

 

However, it was a war, and under war conditions they didn't do anything wrong.

Um, yes they did. They broke a law, and now they're being punished for it. Maybe you don't agree with the law, but that doesn't change the fact that they broke it and got caught, and now they're paying the price.

 

His song was right. America isn't as free as you like to preach yourself to be.

And I suppose there's a country out there that's more free than we are?

[Vern Gagne 0]

Shhh...John Ashcroft's monitoring TSM.

[spiny norman 0]

But according to the article didn't they actually go to Afghanistan to help the Taliban before America declared war on them?

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Shhh...John Ashcroft's monitoring TSM.

I sent Fascist John some posts DrTom made here saying some not-so-nice things about the Attorney General. Hopefully the snipers will be stationed outside Tom's house by morning.

 

Clinch the AFC North will ya?...

[Vern Gagne 0]

Sees Ashcroft is from Missouri. Fucking officials cost the Chiefs that game against the evil Bengals. Just to be on the safe side. I still can't believe they called that kick by Viniteri good, it was clearly wide right.

[Hogan Made Wrestling 0]

But according to the article didn't they actually go to Afghanistan to help the Taliban before America declared war on them?

That's not what the article sounded like to me. I actually had some sympathy for John Walker because he went to Afghanistan during peacetime and got caught up in a situation beyond his control. These guys on the other hand sound like pure traitors: a conflict broke out and they were actively trying to take up arms against their country of citizenship.