Jurors repeatedly glanced at the courtroom audience on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008, which was made up a sea of nearly 40 earnest supporters of justice. Their eyes also glided to the defendants and their families, whose spirits were lifted by genuine moral encouragement. After a five-day weekend, prosecutor Jim Jacks continued the direct-examination of FBI agent Robert Miranda.
Jurors wiggled around and rubbed their eyes but were mostly alert on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008 as prosecutor Jim Jacks continued the direct examination of FBI agent Robert Miranda.
Jacks began the day by playing wiretapped conference calls organized by the Islamic Association of Palestine, where donors can listen to talks by international speakers and make donations to the Holy Land Foundation.
Clarity filled the icy courtroom air on Monday, Oct. 6, 2008 as defense attorneys continued to cross-examine FBI agent Lara Burns. Marlo Caddedu—who represents defendant Mufid Abdulqader—resumed by playing several short video clips that prosecutors previously showed to the jury. Caddedu asked Burns to count the band members who sang with her client; the numbers ranged from four to seven. By this, she meant to relay that her client wasn’t the only one on stage, but he was the only one on trial. (The reason: His half brother is Hamas leader Khalid Mishal.)
The prosecutors’ virtual pendulum swinging over the defendants was lifted hundreds of feet above on Friday, Oct. 3, 2008 as defense attorneys began cross-examining FBI agent Lara Burns. The government attorneys’ tinted arguments and bogus theories presented during the past four days were quickly crushed, making way for the genuine truth behind the Holy Land Foundation (HLF.)
Seconds after the jury entered the courtroom, prosecutor Barry Jonas passed the witness.
One of the first items presented to the jury on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008 was a clip of a speech by Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian spiritual leader who fought alongside Afghans against the Soviets during the late 1970s. In the 1987/1988 video, Hamas leader Azzam proclaimed passionately in Arabic, It is a duty for all Muslims to do jihad with their souls and money … I pray for the paralyzed man, a man who moves a generation, Ahmad Yasin … Oh children of Palestine, the opportunity to train you with weapons is open How does this relate to the Holy Land Foundation (HLF)?
The jury’s faces seemed emotionless much of Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008 as they watched numerous Palestinian patriotic videos of events that took place in the U.S. more than 15 years ago. Many jurors cracked small smiles, however, when U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis told them they were breaking for the day at lunchtime. The main reason: The witness on the stand, FBI agent Lara Burns was sick.
Jurors leaned forward at the screens in front of them to read Arabic translations much of Monday, Sept. 29, 2008 as the second week of the Holy Land Foundation retrial kicked off. When the screens were blank, many of them glanced at defendant Shukri Abu-Baker who was the government's subject of focus on Monday.
Moments before the jury entered the courtroom on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008, prosecutor Jim Jacks announced he would no longer ask government witness and FBI linguist Atef Shafik about his opinion that could have suggested that the defendants were Islamists.
In a quick cross-examination of Shafik , defense attorney Greg Westfall—who represents Abdulrahman Odeh—asked Shafik if any of the agents and prosecutors assigned to the HLF case speak Arabic? No, Shafik replied.
All Muslims are terrorists—that’s what prosecutors and a witness insinuated Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008 during the third day of the Holy Land Foundation retrial after the jury left for the day. It quickly became more apparent than ever before that the five defendants are being targeted for the religion they follow.
