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Home Front
Two Sentenced for Trying to Join Taliban
2003-11-24
Tip to Drdge/Foxnews
Two American Muslims who tried to join the Taliban were sentenced to 18 years in prison Monday during a hearing in which they denounced the Bush administration and pleaded in song for freedom.
(Soon they will have him singing in prison)
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 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."
Happily, the judge refused to let you stay out of jug...
Ford, once an intern at Portland’s City Hall, said he felt obliged to defend his fellow Muslims against "President Bush’s cruise-missile diplomacy."
(That would be Bill Clinton’s ‘cruise-missile diplomacy’)
Ford also assailed the crackdown on Muslim radicals after Sept. 11, which he said was calculated more to score political points than pursue justice.
(Calculated? Maybe. But you are still going to prison)
"I don’t think that anybody with a conscience could participate in the prosecutions of this country," he said.
I don't think that anybody with a shred of humanity could run off to fight against their own country...
U.S. District Judge Robert E. 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 also 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.
More likely he'd have met a daisy cutter and become a fine red mist. Or he'd have kicked it in a shipping container...
Battle, a former Army reservist, also spoke of his obligations as a Muslim and concluded by singing a 10-minute song he said 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."
(this guy thinks he is the next Mumia?)
Battle and Ford were among six people accused of conspiring to travel to Afghanistan in 2001 and fight U.S. troops after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A seventh was charged with providing financial support. Four of the others pleaded guilty, and a fifth was killed in a shootout in Pakistan.
(Wow six people plead guilty in Bush’s pursuit to garner political points. Guys if you plead GUILTY, you CAN NOT be a victim. This aint the middle east you can’t have it both ways. I bet that song was something to listen too. Maybe a Prison version of American Idol?)
Posted by:Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter)

#2  Patrice Lumumba Ford, 32, and Jeffrey Leon Battle, 33, had pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to levy war against the United States.

OK, now I'm really freaked out. The Russian university where all the students died in the dorm fire yesterday was the Patrice Lumumba Friendship of Peoples University

Here's today's Rantburg article about the fire.

Freaky.
Posted by: Seafarious   2003-11-24 7:35:08 PM  

#1  Stop that! Stop that! Singing is forbidden! Don't make me beat you with a steel cable!
Posted by: BH   2003-11-24 6:41:02 PM  

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