With a failed attempt to sound like an academic, the Holy Land Foundation retrial’s first witness, Matthew Levitt, continued direct examination on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2008 with a transparent agenda.

He began by speaking about the 1993 Oslo Accords, an agreement singed by late Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat and late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Oslo, Norway. Hamas was against it. It sought to undermine it by conducting attacks, he said. And challenging the peace process has been the number one obstacle to securing peace for Palestinians.

Same soup, different bowl.

That’s what federal prosecutors presented to a federal jury Monday, Sept. 22, 2008 at the first day of the retrial of the high-profile Holy Land Foundation case.

The judge opened the trial by giving instructions to a 12-member jury with four alternates.

Defense and government attorneys spent the first half hour of Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2007 striking jurors. During the three-day Voir dire, the judge dismissed 22 jurors. So out of the 66 jurors questioned, 44 remain.

By about 10 a.m. Thursday, all the jurors who were not struck made up the 10-woman, 2-man jury with four additional jurors (2 men and 2 women) who will attend the retrial as alternates. Their ages range from early 20s to late 60s.

Opening statements will begin Monday, Sept. 22, 2008. It will likely last about 6 weeks.

Defense and government attorneys brought in the last 16 jurors on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008, ending the jury questioning process of the Holy Land Foundation retrial.

The first couple of potential jurors questioned on Wednesday said they had no prejudices against Arabs and Muslims.

The third individual, however, did have one major concern: Since she travels frequently to predominantly Muslim countries, she was concerned that some people from those countries could seek revenge against her if they she was a juror in this case.

Defense and government attorneys individually questioned 24 more jurors on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008 during the Holy Land Foundation retrial's second day of voir dire.

The first couple of people questioned Tuesday seemed like they would be fair jurors. They said they had no prior knowledge of the case and no biases against Arabs and Muslims. The also said they had no problem with returning a not guilty verdict if the government did not prove their case.

The deja vu was as transparent as a glass of water on Monday, Sept. 15, 2008 as the first day of voir dire began for the Holy Land Foundation retrial. The guards who stood at the entrance of each floor, the suited attorneys who filled the courtroom and the courageous defendants who crowded near their lawyers were all reminders of the trial (which ended in a mistrial) that began 14 months earlier.

The final start date for the Holy Land Foundation retrial has finally been set. The voir dire, or jury questioning, will begin Sept. 15, 2008. Opening statements would follow about a week later on Sept. 22, 2008.

The Holy Land Foundation retrial will likely be postponed until early September 2008. The voir dire, or jury questioning, could begin Sept. 4, 2008. Opening statements would follow about a week later. More information to come ...

U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis set the new - and probably final - date for the Holy Land Foundation retrial: Sept. 8, 2008.

The case is being retried because it ended in a mistrial on Oct. 22, 2007 after the jury failed to return a single guilty verdict out of 197 counts.

Nearly four months after a mistrial was declared in the Holy Land Foundation case, U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis — the new judge presiding over the case — set the retrial date for Aug. 18, 2008.

That's right. The government is retrying the case.

The same five defendants — Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu-Baker, Mohammad El-Mezain, Abdulrahman Odeh and Mufid Abdulqader — will be defendants in the upcomming trial.

On Oct. 22, 2007, a 12-member jury failed to return a single guilty verdict out of 197 counts after sitting on a six week trial and deliberating for 19 days.