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| Defense at Padilla Trial Raises a Dispute Over Translations |
| 2007-07-24 |
| Defense lawyers at the terrorism trial of Jose Padilla on Monday challenged the accuracy of some translations and interpretations used by prosecutors. In the first day of defense testimony, lawyers argued that some expressions used by terror suspects in conversations wiretapped by the F.B.I. were not code words for waging jihad, or holy war, but rather were common Arabic euphemisms for activities like collecting donations for Muslim orphans overseas A professional Arabic translator, Kamal Yunis, told a defense lawyer, Jeanne Baker, that the surreptitiously recorded remarks made by her client, Adham Hassoun, also a terror suspect, were not about buying arms or supporting jihad, as translators and F.B.I. agents had testified for the prosecution, but were references to fund-raising for children whose parents were killed in conflicts like those in Kosovo, Lebanon and Somalia. Mr. Yunis said that a phone call in 1997 with a Lebanese religious leader in which Mr. Hassoun expressed a desire “to send you two eggplants” was an expression understood by both men to mean $2,000 in donations for Muslim children abroad. Translators had testified for the prosecution that the eggplants were rocket-propelled grenades bought with Muslims’ donations. Mr. Hassoun’s references to “football” were another way to say someone was “kicked around,” Mr. Yunis testified, contradicting translations by prosecution experts who said football referred to jihad. Mr. Hassoun and another defendant, Kifah Jayyousi, were heard using those and other unusual expressions in thousands of hours of calls collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation over nearly 10 years. The three men are accused of providing money, equipment and other support to terrorist organizations abroad. A prosecutor, Russell Killinger, questioned Mr. Yunis’s credentials. Questioning his honesty might be even more pertinent. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #9 Why would someone need to talk in a code about charitable operations? Is it because Bush has degraded our rights and criminalized charities? |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2007-07-24 13:54 |
| #8 Think how tedious it must be for the jurors to have to sit through this nonsense. I'd be so pissed off at having my time wasted that I'd refuse to deliberate more than five minutes. Let's all hope that the jurors have as much sense as you, treo. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-07-24 13:06 |
| #7 Yeah, I think "cut infidel heads off" means "Drink more Ovaltine". In Arabic. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-07-24 10:50 |
| #6 Raj, I think that is "groundwork for a peel" |
| Posted by: Steven 2007-07-24 10:13 |
| #5 Think how tedious it must be for the jurors to have to sit through this nonsense. I'd be so pissed off at having my time wasted that I'd refuse to deliberate more than five minutes. |
| Posted by: treo 2007-07-24 10:09 |
| #4 Just laying the groundwork for an appeal... |
| Posted by: Raj 2007-07-24 07:19 |
| #3 When you don't have the facts, you argue the law. When you don't have the law, you argue the facts. When you have neither, you persecute the prosecutor. |
| Posted by: gromky 2007-07-24 06:28 |
| #2 Defense Attorneys in Jose Padilla Trial want to ban the word terrorist Defense Lawyer, "fascist Chimpy Bushitler claims my client IS a terrorist.. Padilla, "No way! not me Jose, it all depends what IS, IS, we did'sit all for the childrens.. /Law firm; W. Kunstler/ J. Cochran/ B. Clinton |
| Posted by: RD 2007-07-24 03:20 |
| #1 Mr. Yunis said that a phone call in 1997 with a Lebanese religious leader in which Mr. Hassoun expressed a desire “to send you two eggplants” was an expression understood by both men to mean $2,000 in donations for Muslim children abroad. According to my own—more than extensive—food experience, shipping a pair of eggplants overseas is neither cost-effective nor a timely way of remitting vegetative substances to those abroad. What's more, if the intention was something so innocuous as "collecting donations for Muslim orphans overseas", why was it necessary to couch any mention of that act in such oblique terminology? The euphemistic nature of such a reference can only be implicit. Given the patently ridiculous nature of this code-name, it is safe to assume the worst. Padilla's lawyer desperately needs a legal smackdown by the presiding judge. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-07-24 02:56 |