Separatists Threaten Olympics

A Muslim separatist group yesterday claimed responsibility for a series of fatal explosions in several Chinese cities and threatened to target the Olympic Games, due to begin on 8 August.

Chinese officials dismissed video statements by spokesmen claiming to represent the little-known Turkestan Islamic Party, who warned that they would attack next month's Games and said they were to blame for the previous blasts. A US terrorism-monitoring firm published a transcript of their video.

The Chinese authorities have repeatedly alleged that extremists from the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang - known as East Turkestan by separatists among the Uighur Muslim population - were targeting the Olympics. Officials have blamed the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and, more recently, Hizb ut-Tahrir for plots. The AFP news agency quoted intelligence analysts Stratfor as saying the Turkestan Islamic Party was another name for ETIM. - Guuardian

In response, China has set up a 100,000 man anti-terrorist team.

Retrial of accused terrorist?

From the Boston Globe:

Shaky testimony and prejudice by the jury foreman should be enough to grant a new trial to a Lodi man convicted last year of terrorism-related charges, a defense lawyer argued Friday.

Attorney Dennis Riordan told a federal judge that jury foreman Joseph Cote was biased against his client because he is Pakistani-American, a Muslim and was charged with terrorist activities.

"We really have a question if we had 12 fair jurors," Riordan said during a hearing in U.S. District Court. "We know that one of them was not fair."

Hamid Hayat's sentencing has been postponed while Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. considers a defense motion seeking a new trial. The judge delayed making a decision.

Hayat, 24, was arrested in June 2005 and convicted last April of lying to federal agents when he denied attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan in 2003.

I wonder how this will unfold...was Cote really biased, or is Hayat just playing the race card? The latter, according to Assistant US Attorney Robert Tice-Raskin...

"Did Hamid Hayat receive a fair trial?" Tice-Raskin said during the hearing. "The answer is yes -- absolutely yes."