The jihadists made it clear they wanted to blow up the synagogue with all inside.
The DA refused to believe that, and the charges will not reflect a bias hate-crime from Islam to Jews.
The GJ believed the two men wanted to blow the synagogue up when no one was inside. As if Islam would waste perfectly good C4 to NOT murder Jews.
From The New York Times June 14 by William Rashbaum and Colin Moynihan
Most Serious Charges Are Rejected in Terror Case
Two men who were accused of plotting to blow up the largest synagogue in Manhattan, and kill as many Jews as possible in the process, were formally indicted on Wednesday, but not on the most serious criminal charges sought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
The state grand jury that heard evidence against the men declined to indict them on the charges of second-degree conspiracy as a crime of terrorism and as a hate crime, rejecting the prosecution’s assertion that they had plotted to blow up synagogues while there were worshippers inside. Instead, the panel favored lesser charges that suggested that the defendants, at best, had wanted to destroy a synagogue when it was empty.
The case that led to the charges against the men, who were arrested last month, was unusual for both the way it was pursued — both the investigation and prosecution were handled by local, not federal, authorities — and the way it was announced at City Hall on May 12, with city officials displaying live-action arrest photos.
Indeed, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance, Jr.; and the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, were asked at that news conference why the case, which was presented as a serious investigation of a terrorist plot, had not been brought in federal court.
The men provided different answers. The mayor simply said that federal prosecutors “don’t take all the cases”; the commissioner noted that federal authorities have the right of first refusal, but that this case had actually started as a criminal matter and “morphed” into a terrorism inquiry; and Mr. Vance said his office focused on “local, unaffiliated threats.”
The F.B.I., which oversees the Joint Terrorist Task Force, whose agents and police detectives generally investigate such matters, declined to pursue the case and have said little about it. Federal prosecutors, apparently, were not consulted.
On Wednesday, after the defendants were arraigned on the indictment, a lawyer for one of them suggested that the investigation had continued because of politics and a desire to grandstand.
“I think you’re going to see that this case is a case based on the financial, political and personal ambitions of the police commissioner of the City of New York, the mayor of the City of New York and the district attorney of New York County,” said Elizabeth Fink, who represents the lead defendant, Ahmed Ferhani.
But Mr. Vance, in a statement, said the indictment highlighted how the defendants’ “desire to commit violent Jihad against Jewish Americans is not only an act of terrorism, but a hate crime.”
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The DA refused to believe that, and the charges will not reflect a bias hate-crime from Islam to Jews.
The GJ believed the two men wanted to blow the synagogue up when no one was inside. As if Islam would waste perfectly good C4 to NOT murder Jews.
From The New York Times June 14 by William Rashbaum and Colin Moynihan
Most Serious Charges Are Rejected in Terror Case
Two men who were accused of plotting to blow up the largest synagogue in Manhattan, and kill as many Jews as possible in the process, were formally indicted on Wednesday, but not on the most serious criminal charges sought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
The state grand jury that heard evidence against the men declined to indict them on the charges of second-degree conspiracy as a crime of terrorism and as a hate crime, rejecting the prosecution’s assertion that they had plotted to blow up synagogues while there were worshippers inside. Instead, the panel favored lesser charges that suggested that the defendants, at best, had wanted to destroy a synagogue when it was empty.
The case that led to the charges against the men, who were arrested last month, was unusual for both the way it was pursued — both the investigation and prosecution were handled by local, not federal, authorities — and the way it was announced at City Hall on May 12, with city officials displaying live-action arrest photos.
Indeed, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance, Jr.; and the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, were asked at that news conference why the case, which was presented as a serious investigation of a terrorist plot, had not been brought in federal court.
The men provided different answers. The mayor simply said that federal prosecutors “don’t take all the cases”; the commissioner noted that federal authorities have the right of first refusal, but that this case had actually started as a criminal matter and “morphed” into a terrorism inquiry; and Mr. Vance said his office focused on “local, unaffiliated threats.”
The F.B.I., which oversees the Joint Terrorist Task Force, whose agents and police detectives generally investigate such matters, declined to pursue the case and have said little about it. Federal prosecutors, apparently, were not consulted.
On Wednesday, after the defendants were arraigned on the indictment, a lawyer for one of them suggested that the investigation had continued because of politics and a desire to grandstand.
“I think you’re going to see that this case is a case based on the financial, political and personal ambitions of the police commissioner of the City of New York, the mayor of the City of New York and the district attorney of New York County,” said Elizabeth Fink, who represents the lead defendant, Ahmed Ferhani.
But Mr. Vance, in a statement, said the indictment highlighted how the defendants’ “desire to commit violent Jihad against Jewish Americans is not only an act of terrorism, but a hate crime.”
Read it all
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