The Houston Terrorist and The Order On Ineptitude
February 9, 2016
On January 6, 2016, the United States Department of Justice filed a three-count Indictment Under Seal against Defendant Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas ("SDTX"). United States of America, Plaintiff, v. Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, Defendant (Indictment, SDTX, 15-CR-009, January 6, 2016). The Indictment alleges that Defendant Al Hardan, 24, had entered the United States of American as a refugee around November 2, 2009, and was granted Legal Permanent Residence around August 22, 2011. Al Hardan is charged with:
- Count I: Attempting to provide Material Support to a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization;
- Count II: Procurement of Citizenship or Naturalization Unlawfully; and
- Count III: False Statement or Representation Made to an Agency of the United States.
Specifically, Al Hardan is charged with having attempted to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ("ISIL"). Press reports assert that Al Hardan had been arrested in connection with his attempts to build and set off bombs at two Houston, TX malls. As related under Count III, Al Hardan had:
Represented that he had never received any type of weapons training, whereas in truth and in fact as the defendant well knew, he had received weapons training, specifically on an automatic machine gun . . .
NOTE: An Indictment contains allegations and the Defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
As this important anti-terrorism case makes its way through the federal court system, presiding SDTX Judge Lynn N. Hughes felt compelled to issue an unusual and scathing order on February 5, 2016. Before reading Judge Hughes' Order, please log on to his website and enjoy the thrilling background music:
Order on Ineptitude
1.If the pretentious lawyers from "main" justice knew what they were doing - or had the humility to ask for help from the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas - it would not have taken three days, seven telephone calls, three voicemail messages, and one snippy electronic message for them to indirectly ask the court for assistance in ordering a transcript.
2.The Washington lawyers might have looked at the Court's website:
http://www.txs.uscourts.gov/
page/OrderingTranscripts.
Bill Singer's Comment
As I listened to the stirring refrain of the Battle Hymn of the Republic on Judge Hughes' website and after reading about the allegations in the Indictment against Defendant Al Hardan and after reading the Order on Ineptitude and after remembering the long walk that I made on September 11th from near Ground Zero and after recalling the terror attacks in Boston and San Bernardino, I was reminded of Abraham Lincoln's remarks about his Senatorial campaign defeat in 1858 by Stephen Douglas: "It hurts too bad to laugh but I am too old to cry."
I mean, you know, they're trying to kill us and we're arguing over ordering transcripts and snippy messages.