FLORIDA MAN, ACCUSED OF TERRORISM BASED ON BOOK COLLECTION, SET FREE
Source: The Intercept
The U.S. government had produced snippets of information from various sources, out of context, to weave together a narrative of terrorist ideation, a Florida judge said Friday, ordering the release of Marcus Dwayne Robertson, an Orlando-based Islamic scholar who stood accused of supporting terrorism.
Robertson, also known as Abu Taubah, had been incarcerated since 2011 on charges of tax fraud and illegal gun possession. After his arrest and subsequent conviction on those charges, prosecutors sought to add aterrorism enhancement to his sentence, a sentencing guideline modification that would have sent the Islamic scholar to prison for up to 20 years.
Instead, following the judges rejection of the enhancement, he was sentenced to time served and ordered released immediately.
Robertsons case attracted national attention after prosecutors attempted to argue earlier this year that the contents of his book collection constituted evidence of his connection to terrorism. Prosecutors singled out roughly 20 titles from the more than 10,000 e-books Robertson owned, highlighted a selection of controversial passages, and used that to argue that he should be sentenced as though he were a terrorist.
Read more: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/29/case-orlando-imam-judge-rules-islamic-books-evidence-terrorism/
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)cstanleytech
(26,361 posts)(yes I lost track about 15 years ago when I last counted them all so its grown alot since then) that they could in theory use in some bullshit claim that I support terrorism as well.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)hobbit709
(41,694 posts)i.e. the Declaration Of Independence
I also have e-books ranging from Aristotle to Voltaire and everything in between.
mainer
(12,037 posts)I own a copy of the "Anarchist's Cookbook" among other scary reference books. All for research purposes, of course.
csziggy
(34,140 posts)Most of which date from the 1970s but I have one I just purchased at a discount just to add to my collection.
Proving that I have grown pot would be difficult, though. The evidence is long gone!
ck4829
(35,096 posts)in hopes to drum up a civil war, he's a perpetrator of a horrible act (But explicitly NOT terrorism) according to that same government?
Call both terrorism or call neither terrorism.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)yes, the Feds NSA use those 'anti-terror laws' to cast a very wide net and then pop the person on some minor 'crime' and tack on the life sentence in Federal prison.
Little Tich
(6,171 posts)The thought police are giving themselves an enormous task, for sure.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)by bringing in literature; at the top of the pile was a little work called "The Little Prince"