Feds to appeal release of Illinois teen charged with terror

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  May 2, 2013: Family and supporters of 18-year-old Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, including his father, Ahmad Tounisi, left, leave federal court in Chicago.AP

CHICAGO –  Federal prosecutors in Chicago plan to appeal a judge's surprise decision to release an Illinois teenager charged with seeking to travel abroad and join an Al Qaeda-linked militant group in Syria.

The U.S. Attorney's Office announced their plan to appeal Thursday afternoon in the case of 18-year-old Abdella Ahmad Tounisi. Hours earlier, the judge said Tounisi could be released under home confinement. 

Judge Daniel Martin stayed his own order for 24 hours to give prosecutors a chance to appeal. That means Tounisi wasn't immediately released.

Tounisi, an Aurora resident, was arrested at O'Hare International Airport last month as he allegedly prepared for the first leg of a trip to join Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusrah, which is fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

In arguing for continued detention, prosecutors also noted Thursday that Tounisi had allegedly spoken with a friend of his last year about bombing targets in Chicago. Tounisi is not charged in that case, though the friend, Adel Daoud, was and is in jail awaiting trial.

After announcing his ruling, the otherwise soft-spoken U.S. magistrate judge leaned forward on his bench Thursday and raised his voice, telling the teenager he should take the allegations seriously.

"This is no game, Mr. Tounisi. OK?" Judge Martin told him.

The slight, short Tounisi stood before the judge in orange jail garb and slippers, flanked by U.S. marshals. Some 30 friends and relatives sat on spectator benches; several cried after the judge ruled..

Approving the release of anyone accused on terrorism charges is uncommon, said Phil Turner, a former federal prosecutor and now private attorney in Chicago.

"It's incredibly extraordinary," he said. "It's usually a different realm with terrorist suspects. They're not viewed as standard criminals but as enemies of the U.S."

Pressure on a judge to hold a terrorist suspect would be all the greater now, said Turner, in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Prosecutor William Ridgway had argued that Tounisi posed a threat to the community, saying he sought to hook up with the al-Qaida-linked group in Syria even after his friend Daoud's arrest.

"One would think that would be a wake-up call," Ridgway said about the arrest. "But it didn't deter him."

Tounisi persisted even as family and friends warned him not to get involved with extremists, Ridgway said. He quoted a friend as saying about Tounisi in a wiretap, "He will not die a martyr. He will die like road kill."

The prosecutor said Tounisi also is a flight risk, noting how he had managed to secure a U.S. passport on short notice and to scrape together money for a plane ticket.

"He's very resourceful," Ridgway told the judge.

But Tounisi's attorney, Molly Armour, said Tounisi came from a caring home and had no prior criminal record. She also said a terrorist-related charge shouldn't automatically deny release.

"The word 'terrorism' is a word that tends to taint everything," she told the court.

She also gestured to the back of the courtroom, where dozens of members of his community sat, and she assured the judge they would also watch over Tounisi and see that he stays out of trouble.

"They are committed to being part of his life," she said. "That offers a backstop to the family."

Judge Martin said repeatedly that his decision to grant Tounisi release was a close call. He told Tounisi's father, Ahmad Tounisi, that a landline must be installed in the Aurora family home before his son could be released — to comply with home confinement and electronic monitoring.

The judge told Tounisi's father that he will be obliged to contact authorities immediately if his son takes "one step out of the house." The elder Tounisi said he understood and would comply.

Tounisi would be released on a $50,000 unsecured bond, meaning neither he nor his family would be required to put the money down to secure his release. But if he fled, the court would order payment of the full $50,000.

Tounisi, a U.S. citizen, was snared in an Internet sting after contacting a sham website set up by the FBI that purported to connect would-be fighters with terrorists, federal prosecutors said.

He is charged with one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. If convicted, he faces a maximum 15-year prison term.

Daoud, Tounisi's friend, was arrested last year on charges he sought to detonate a device he thought was a bomb outside a downtown bar. Daoud has pleaded not guilty and is in jail awaiting trial.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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With release of '42,' don't forget baseball's other black pioneers

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  FILE: From left, Brooklyn Dodgers baseball players John Jorgensen, Pee Wee Reese, Ed Stanky and Jackie Robinson pose at Ebbets Field in New York on April 15, 1947.AP

In a few days, the new baseball season and a new baseball-centered film arrive. The film, “42,” takes its title from the uniform number of Jackie Robinson and documents his travails and celebrates his achievements as he left the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues in 1947 to become a Brooklyn Dodger and the first black major leaguer.

I have long held the old Negro League ballplayers in special regard for keeping our game alive during the long years when players of color were denied the opportunity to play in the major leagues. Some superb players played only in the Negro Leagues, including Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston and others.

But some were young enough when the gates fell to have been able to play in the majors. To my good fortune, three former major league stars who had begun as Negro League players -- Larry Doby, Joe Black and Ernie Banks -- became good friends of mine, as did “Slick” Surratt, who played only in the Negro Leagues, and they had much to tell of their experiences in segregated America.

I wanted to share their stories, so some 20 years ago these four – only the ebullient Banks survives -- accompanied me as we visited several colleges to talk to kids about their baseball lives and especially about the significance of the Negro Leagues.

The number of surviving alumni of the Negro Leagues is now tiny. But many of their stories have been preserved. I did extended interviews of many former Negro League players, and the tapes of those interviews are available at the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y.

In those interviews and in the talks that my traveling companions gave at the colleges we visited, it became clear to me these men took their baseball seriously and played with pride at the highest level permitted to them.

Surratt told me the players were paid at essentially the level of high school teachers in the black community, yet a symbol of pride they wore coats and ties when the travelled. Their busses may have been fully depreciated but their dress signaled their self- respect.

The baseball played in those leagues was of a high caliber, and the players were skilled professionals. Yet there were other dimensions to their lives.

I once asked Slick why the players played so hard and to win. He smiled wryly at me and then asked if I wanted the baseball answer or the real reason. I asked for both.

“Well,” he said, “we played hard because we never knew whether there was some young kid named Willie Mays who might be there to try out for the team after the game, and we were afraid of losing our jobs. And then there is the real reason.”

He paused for effect.

“You see the winning team got the best girls.”

Remember, his name was “Slick.”

At one college we visited, after Larry Doby had explained the problems of not being able to eat at the best -- but white only -- restaurants in Southern towns, a young black student challenged him: “Why did you accept that? Why didn’t you just insist on being served? Why were you so laid back?”

Larry was patient and gentle: “Young man, let me explain something to you. If we had been difficult or ornery, one of two things would have happened and maybe both. We surely would have been arrested, and we might have been killed. You understand?”

The student had little familiarity with the Jim Crow era, and as a result, the impact on students of the dignified and elegant black ball players was dramatic.

Wherever we went the kids thronged around the players to hear directly of experiences none of them would ever share and few of them could imagine. The simple eloquence, however, of the players made our visits to the colleges some of the most memorable times of my life. The players explained and the kids recognized how much Rosa Parks had endured and helped to change on that bus in Birmingham.

I will look for the new film on Jackie with interest. I hope the filmmakers have avoided the temptation to add gloss to his story. The simple but piercing facts ought to be sufficient.

As I listened to Larry Doby during those college visits, I recall being so moved as he spoke of the loneliness, fear and doubt he experienced in his first days in the major leagues. Softly, he emphasized the loving support of his wife and of the vital strength he drew from Bill Veeck, the owner of the Cleveland Indians who had brought him to the team as the first black in the American League.

That was the experience Jackie shared. One hopes this film captures what these young players had to accept as this nation suffered through our own form of Apartheid. Think of what black baseball players have meant to our game since 1947, when Jackie first played as a Brooklyn Dodger. Think then of what we would have missed had the color line survived another 10 or 20 years.

I trust this new film will serve as the reminder of the magnificent gift Jackie and Larry and all the other black pioneers gave us.

Fay Vincent is a former CEO of Columbia Pictures Industries and from 1989-92 served as the Commissioner of Baseball.

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Kerry calls for 'immediate' release of American in Iran after letter detailing abuse

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Secretary of State John Kerry, in a first-ever statement from his office on the case of imprisoned Iranian-American Saeed Abedini, called Friday for Abedini to be “immediately released” and said he is “disturbed” by reports that he’s suffered physical and psychological abuse at the Iranian prison where he’s being held.

The statement was released by Kerry late Friday afternoon, and it came after the attorneys representing Abedini’s family released a letter the Christian pastor sent to his wife describing how he was beaten and denied medical treatment because he was seen as "unclean" because of his faith.

Kerry's call for the pastor’s release marks the first such formal statement on the case. The full statement from Kerry read as follows:

“I am deeply concerned about the fate of U.S. citizen Saeed Abedini, who has been detained for nearly six months and was sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran on charges related to his religious beliefs. I am disturbed by reports that Mr. Abedini has suffered physical and psychological abuse in prison, and that his condition has become increasingly dire. Such mistreatment violates international norms as well as Iran's own laws.  

“I am also troubled by the lack of due process in Mr. Abedini's case and Iran's continued refusal to allow consular access by Swiss authorities, the U.S. protecting power in Iran.  I welcome reports that Mr. Abedini was examined by a physician and expect Iranian authorities to honor their commitment to allow Mr. Abedini to receive treatment for these injuries from a specialist outside the prison. The best outcome for Mr. Abedini is that he be immediately released.”

Attorneys for Abedini's wife, Naghmeh Abedini, as well as lawmakers who have rallied on the prisoner’s behalf, have been urging Kerry to get directly involved. Republican lawmakers expressed dismay last Friday when the State Department did not provide a witness for a hearing at which Naghmeh Abedini testified.

Since that hearing, and the attention it received, the Obama administration has taken additional actions. State Department representatives met with Naghmeh Abedini last week, and the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday directly called for Abedini's release during a meeting in Geneva. An attorney for the family called that the "first pro-active statement by ... our administration" in the case.

State Department and White House officials have previously addressed Abedini’s case in public before, but only when questioned about it by reporters and others.

The Kerry statement late Friday marks a new level of escalation in the administration’s statements.

Hours earlier, a letter was released which was received by Saeed Abedini's family this week, though it may have been written weeks ago.

The letter from Saeed Abedini to his wife described in detail how he's been mistreated at Iran's notorious Evin Prison. He described how he saw his face for the first time in the mirror of an elevator.

"I said hi to the person staring back at me because I did not recognize myself," Abedini wrote. "My hair was shaven, under my eyes were swollen three times what they should have been, my face was swollen, and my beard had grown."

The pastor explained how, despite his situation, he is trying to focus on "forgiveness." He said he forgave the "interrogator who beat me" as well as the doctor who "did not give me the medication that I needed."

Abedini wrote that a nurse would not provide him with treatment because she said "in our religion we are not suppose to touch you, you are unclean." He wrote that he could not fall to sleep one night because of the pain, as he listened to the sound of "dirty sewer rats with their loud noises and screeches."

Attorney Jordan Sekulow, though, told Fox News on Friday that he has since received a medical review. Sekulow said Abedini was promised he'd be moved to a hospital outside the prison, though cautioned that the family would have to see that happen to believe it.

Sekulow, meanwhile, drew attention to a statement delivered Thursday in Geneva by Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the U.S. representative on the U.N. Human Rights Council.

She said: "Iranian officials continue to restrict these communities' freedom to practice their religious beliefs free from harassment, threat or intimidation. Christian pastor Saeed Abedini's continuing harsh treatment at the hands of Iranian authorities exemplifies this trend.

"We repeat our call for the government of Iran to release Mr. Abedini, and others who are unjustly imprisoned, and to cease immediately its persecution of all religious minority communities. The United States also repeats its call for the government of Iran to provide without delay the urgent medical attention Mr. Abedini needs."

Donahoe came under criticism for neglecting to specifically address the case at a recent meeting in Geneva on Iran's human rights record. Donahoe instead broadly criticized "the Iranian government's ceaseless campaign of abuse" against those who dissent.

Abedini has been held in Iran's Evin Prison since September of last year and was sentenced to eight years in prison in January -- accused of evangelizing and threatening national security.

Naghmeh Abedini met Saeed in 2002 and they married two years later. Both had converted from Islam to Christianity -- Saeed became a U.S. citizen in 2010.

The Iranian government does not recognize his American citizenship, though it had enabled him to travel freely between both countries until this past summer, when he was pulled off a bus and placed under house arrest, according to his supporters.

View the original article here

Kerry calls for 'immediate' release of American in Iran after letter detailing abuse

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Secretary of State John Kerry, in a first-ever statement from his office on the case of imprisoned Iranian-American Saeed Abedini, called Friday for Abedini to be “immediately released” and said he is “disturbed” by reports that he’s suffered physical and psychological abuse at the Iranian prison where he’s being held.

The statement was released by Kerry late Friday afternoon, and it came after the attorneys representing Abedini’s family released a letter the Christian pastor sent to his wife describing how he was beaten and denied medical treatment because he was seen as "unclean" because of his faith.

Kerry's call for the pastor’s release marks the first such formal statement on the case. The full statement from Kerry read as follows:

“I am deeply concerned about the fate of U.S. citizen Saeed Abedini, who has been detained for nearly six months and was sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran on charges related to his religious beliefs. I am disturbed by reports that Mr. Abedini has suffered physical and psychological abuse in prison, and that his condition has become increasingly dire. Such mistreatment violates international norms as well as Iran's own laws.  

“I am also troubled by the lack of due process in Mr. Abedini's case and Iran's continued refusal to allow consular access by Swiss authorities, the U.S. protecting power in Iran.  I welcome reports that Mr. Abedini was examined by a physician and expect Iranian authorities to honor their commitment to allow Mr. Abedini to receive treatment for these injuries from a specialist outside the prison. The best outcome for Mr. Abedini is that he be immediately released.”

Attorneys for Abedini's wife, Naghmeh Abedini, as well as lawmakers who have rallied on the prisoner’s behalf, have been urging Kerry to get directly involved. Republican lawmakers expressed dismay last Friday when the State Department did not provide a witness for a hearing at which Naghmeh Abedini testified.

Since that hearing, and the attention it received, the Obama administration has taken additional actions. State Department representatives met with Naghmeh Abedini last week, and the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday directly called for Abedini's release during a meeting in Geneva. An attorney for the family called that the "first pro-active statement by ... our administration" in the case.

State Department and White House officials have previously addressed Abedini’s case in public before, but only when questioned about it by reporters and others.

The Kerry statement late Friday marks a new level of escalation in the administration’s statements.

Hours earlier, a letter was released which was received by Saeed Abedini's family this week, though it may have been written weeks ago.

The letter from Saeed Abedini to his wife described in detail how he's been mistreated at Iran's notorious Evin Prison. He described how he saw his face for the first time in the mirror of an elevator.

"I said hi to the person staring back at me because I did not recognize myself," Abedini wrote. "My hair was shaven, under my eyes were swollen three times what they should have been, my face was swollen, and my beard had grown."

The pastor explained how, despite his situation, he is trying to focus on "forgiveness." He said he forgave the "interrogator who beat me" as well as the doctor who "did not give me the medication that I needed."

Abedini wrote that a nurse would not provide him with treatment because she said "in our religion we are not suppose to touch you, you are unclean." He wrote that he could not fall to sleep one night because of the pain, as he listened to the sound of "dirty sewer rats with their loud noises and screeches."

Attorney Jordan Sekulow, though, told Fox News on Friday that he has since received a medical review. Sekulow said Abedini was promised he'd be moved to a hospital outside the prison, though cautioned that the family would have to see that happen to believe it.

Sekulow, meanwhile, drew attention to a statement delivered Thursday in Geneva by Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the U.S. representative on the U.N. Human Rights Council.

She said: "Iranian officials continue to restrict these communities' freedom to practice their religious beliefs free from harassment, threat or intimidation. Christian pastor Saeed Abedini's continuing harsh treatment at the hands of Iranian authorities exemplifies this trend.

"We repeat our call for the government of Iran to release Mr. Abedini, and others who are unjustly imprisoned, and to cease immediately its persecution of all religious minority communities. The United States also repeats its call for the government of Iran to provide without delay the urgent medical attention Mr. Abedini needs."

Donahoe came under criticism for neglecting to specifically address the case at a recent meeting in Geneva on Iran's human rights record. Donahoe instead broadly criticized "the Iranian government's ceaseless campaign of abuse" against those who dissent.

Abedini has been held in Iran's Evin Prison since September of last year and was sentenced to eight years in prison in January -- accused of evangelizing and threatening national security.

Naghmeh Abedini met Saeed in 2002 and they married two years later. Both had converted from Islam to Christianity -- Saeed became a U.S. citizen in 2010.

The Iranian government does not recognize his American citizenship, though it had enabled him to travel freely between both countries until this past summer, when he was pulled off a bus and placed under house arrest, according to his supporters.

View the original article here

Sandy Hook families rip Michael Moore's call to release crime scene photos

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    Michael Moore wants Sandy Hook pictures published

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    Psychological impact of seeing Sandy Hook crime scene photos

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    Fireworks on Capitol Hill over gun control

Filmmaker Michael Moore’s suggestion that showing crime scene photos of the children slain at Sandy Hook will hasten the demise of the National Rifle Association is not getting rave reviews in the shattered Connecticut community.

The left-wing social critic wrote in his blog Wednesday an item titled "America, You Must Not Look Away (How to Finish Off the NRA)," in which he recommended releasing the undoubtedly gruesome photos of the 20 children killed on Dec. 14, 2012, some of whom were shot up to 11 times. Moore said the fact that Americans have “done nothing to revise or repeal” the Second Amendment “makes us responsible.”

 “ … and that is why we must look at the pictures of the 20 dead children laying (sic) with what's left of their bodies on the classroom floor in Newtown, Connecticut.”

Moore predicted a parent of a child killed in the horrific elementary school massacre or another high-profile mass shooting would make pictures available, adding “and then nothing about guns in this country will ever be the same again.”

“For the families and the community, we just want to get back to a normal life and that would be a horrendous offense to the families."

- Dorrie Carolan, Newtown Parent Connection

Jeremy Richman, whose 6-year-old daughter Avielle was killed in the attack by gunman Adam Lanza — a 20-year-old, mentally-troubled local man who later killed himself as police responded — said Moore’s idea is off-base.

“I would be very strongly against that,” an incredulous Richman said when being informed of Moore’s idea.

Another parent of a 6-year-old boy killed in the attack, in Newtown, Conn., was upset that such an idea would be proposed.

“You can imagine what my reaction to that is,” the outraged mom said, declining any further comment.

Several other parents of young victims declined to comment when reached by FoxNews.com. Attempts to reach Veronique Pozner, who took Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy by the hand to show him her son's body at his open-casket funeral in December, were unsuccessful.

Pozner later told a reporter that she "owed it" to her son, the youngest of the Newtown victims, when asked why she wanted Malloy to see the damage to Noah Pozner's body.

"I owed it to him as his mother — the good, the bad, the ugly," Pozner told the Stamford Advocate. "It is not up to me to say I am only going to look at you and deal with you when you are alive, that I am going to block out the reality of what you look like when you are dead. And as a little boy, you have to go in the ground. If I am going to shut my eyes to that I am not his mother. I had to bear it. I had to do it."

Moore’s proposal would be a “horrendous offense” to relatives of the Sandy Hook tragedy, Dorrie Carolan, co-president of the Newtown Parent Connection, told FoxNews.com.

“For the families and the community, we just want to get back to a normal life and that would be a horrendous offense to the families,” Carolan said. “There’s no need for any of that.”

Carolan, who knows several of the victim’s families, said she could not imagine anyone connected to the mass shooting who would consider Moore’s idea to be a “positive” development.

“It’s going to be a long healing process and to dredge up pictures of the crime scene would not be a good thing,” she told FoxNews.com. “We want to remember the little angels as they were, with their happy expressions and faces and you want to think of the teachers trying to hold them safe and not to see the pictures of their bodies. I think it would be terrible.”

Most of the families in the “very, very close” community have begun participating again in activities in and around Newtown, Carolan said, but the cyclical grief process is far from over.

“When you see the families, you want to acknowledge them, you want to hug them, but you don’t want to pry,” she said. “You don’t want to bring it up to them. So nobody really knows what to do. Nobody really knows what we should be doing … But to dredge up pictures would just take us backwards.”

In the weeks following the attack, several parents spoke out on the gun debate, with many saying the shootings cried out for new gun control laws and others saying such measures were not the answer.

When Neil Heslin, whose son Jesse was among the victims, spoke at a Connecticut legislative hearing on gun control, he challenged those in attendance to explain why citizens should be allowed to own assault weapons.

“Not one person can answer that question,” he said, after beseeching the crowd to reply.

When a member of the audience answered: ”Second Amendment shall not be infringed,” several media outlets reported that the distraught father had been “heckled” by gun rights advocates, though the videotape showed that was not the case.

FoxNews.com's Perry Chiaramonte contributed to this report.

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Senate Democrats release first budget in four years, includes $1 trillion in tax increases

The Senate on Wednesday presented its first budget in four years, a proposal by leaders of the Democrat-controlled chamber that calls for nearly $1 trillion in tax increases but includes no strategy to make federal revenue match spending in the coming years.

The plan calls for $975 billion in new tax revenue through closing loopholes and ending deductions and credits benefiting corporations and the country’s highest wage earners.

It also calls for $100 billion in new stimulus spending and cutting $1.85 trillion from the deficit over 10 years.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray said the budget takes a balanced, “pro-middle-class” approach and argued the country’s economic problems started long before fellow Democrats entered the White House in 2009.

 “Despite some of the rhetoric you may hear from my Republican colleagues, the Great Recession didn’t start the day President Obama was elected,” said Murray, D-Wash.

The plan also calls for replacing the recent, $85 billion in spending cuts with more measured cuts.

Committee members will begin voting and submitting amendments Thursday, with a full Senate vote expected by next week.

Alabama Sen. Jeff Session, the committee’s ranking Republican, immediately criticized the proposal.

“It’s anything but balanced,” he said. “Raising taxes and spending is anything but balanced.”

The budget was presented one day after the Republican-controlled House rolled out its fiscal 2014 budget -- a plan to balance the budget in 10 years largely by slowing the rate of spending and adding in the roughly $600 billion in tax increase Democrats got in January.

The upper chamber announced the details as President Obama met with House Republicans.

Obama said after the meeting that it was "good” and “useful."

However, the recent optimism about Democrats and Republicans perhaps agreeing on a mix of tax increases and spending cuts to craft a single budget – or a so-called “grand bargain” – appears to be fading.

"Ultimately, it may be that the differences are just too wide," the president told ABC before going to Capitol Hill.

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