[Mb-civic] Sentenced for Speaking - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Sentenced for Speaking

Washington Post Editorial
Sunday, July 17, 2005; Page B06

ALI AL-TIMIMI was sentenced last week in a federal court in Alexandria 
to spend the rest of his life in prison. Mr. Timimi was the spiritual 
leader of a group of would-be Virginia jihadists, who aimed, after Sept. 
11, 2001, to take up arms on behalf of the Taliban. His crime was not 
any act of terrorism or violence but making a series of speeches that 
prosecutors contended -- and a jury found -- incited his followers to 
train for war against the United States. Some took up paintball. Others 
attended terrorist training camps. But none actually fought against 
American troops or their allies. Mr. Timimi, in other words, has been 
sentenced to life in prison for words that had little effect.

<>We don't mean that his conviction is necessarily improper. Procuring a 
crime, even if one does it orally, is not protected by the First 
Amendment, and Mr. Timimi clearly instructed his followers in the 
immediate aftermath of Sept. 11 to join the war in Afghanistan. The jury 
evidently concluded that Mr. Timimi's words were not merely an 
expression of his political or religious beliefs but an active 
solicitation of criminal behavior by someone who was admired among a 
group of people who attempted to carry out his wishes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/16/AR2005071600939.html?nav=hcmodule 

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