Tel-Chai Nation: Richard Convertino was right all along

There is an update available now for Richard Convertino, the district attorney who's been prosecuted on trumped-up charges. From the AP/Detroit Free Press (via Debbie Schlussel):

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A botched Detroit terrorism case that already has embarrassed the Bush administration is taking a new twist: A fresh FBI analysis of the evidence undercuts the recent indictment of the former chief prosecutor in the case.

The 13-page report by FBI Agent Paul George concludes that satellite photos of a Jordanian hospital closely match hand-drawn sketches found in 2001 inside the Detroit apartment of four North African immigrants who the government claimed had surveyed the site as part of a terrorist plot.

The new analysis conflicts with the Justice Department's argument that photographic evidence did not match the sketches, and renews questions about whether the government correctly arrested the four men as a terrorist cell shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.

[...]

Last month, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard G. Convertino and a State Department investigator were indicted on charges they conspired at the trial to withhold the pictures because they would have shown that the drawings were not surveillance sketches of the hospital, as Convertino and trial witnesses had portrayed.

"The object of the conspiracy was to present false evidence at trial and to conceal inconsistent and potentially damaging evidence," the indictment says.

In an earlier court filing, Justice went further, saying the photos disproved the sketches: "It is difficult if not impossible to compare the day-planner sketches with the photos and see a correlation."

Department officials said they were aware of George's report but remained confident they could prove the ex-prosecutor and the State Department official lied about the existence of photos, which were e-mailed to Convertino before the trial and were not turned over to defense lawyers. Convertino said he never saw the e-mail or photos.

"The pending prosecution is not about the guilt or innocence of the defendants" in the original terror case, Justice spokesman Bryan Sierra said. "This is about lies perpetrated by a federal prosecutor and a federal agent, as alleged in the indictment. It's about perjury and the integrity and fairness of the judicial system."

Justice officials also acknowledge they don't possess one of two sets of photos taken in the case and don't know if they exist anymore. Aerial photos believed to have been taken by helicopter before the trial are missing, but prosecutors do have a set of ground and helicopter photos of the Jordanian hospital they say were e-mailed to Convertino before the trial.

Convertino says he is being prosecuted solely because he sued then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2004, alleging mismanagement of the war on terror.

Convertino and the investigator, Harry Raymond Smith III, were arraigned Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit and pleaded not guilty. His lawyer said Thursday that the new FBI analysis "disproves the indictment's preposterous allegations" and vindicates the original terrorism convictions.

"The government now agrees, after three years of inquiry and millions of dollars, that the evidence in the original case proves the terrorist convictions originally rendered by the jury," attorney Bill Sullivan said.

A next court date for Convertino and Smith wasn't immediately set.

The criminal charges against Convertino are based on the principle that prosecutors must turn over to defendants all evidence that could help them prove their innocence.

Legal experts said the emergence of George's analysis could help Convertino's lawyer create reasonable doubt. Defense lawyers could argue that if photos matched the sketches -- instead of disproved them -- Convertino would have had no motive to hide them and no obligation to turn them over, experts said.

I certainly hope it can help. Because it seems that the bad feds are trying to sneer at this new development that helps prove Convertino's innocence, showing more why the US law enforcement needs some repairs.

Visit the Convertino's website and blog for more on this case.

And now, while I'm on the subject, about two weeks ago, I got an obnoxious reply to the earlier post by a commentor calling herself "Qiyyama Ra'eesha", allegedly the wife of one of the criminals whom Convertino prosecuted. She yelled:

RICHARD CONVERTINO GETS WHAT HE DESERVE'S. MY HUSBAND AND TWO OF MY FAMILY MEMBERS HAVE TAKEN A BITE FROM CONVERTINO'S CORRUPTINESS. LET HIM GO TO PRISON LET HIS FAMILY SEES WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO NOT HAVE HIM AROUND FOR 12 YEARS. ANGER WIFE OF ONE OF THE MEN HE INCARCERATED IN 1996

Interesting what a bad misspeller this Ra'eesha is. And if he hadn't turned to a life of crime, maybe he'd be around the house today; did she ever think about that? And doesn't she mean "taken a blow" when she says "bite"? I dunno. She lost me somewhere along the way anyway. All I have to say in response to Ra'eesha now is: you're husband was a terrorist supporter, and is paying for his crimes. If you can't come to terms with that, tough. I shed no tears for him or for you, and all you've done and are doing is something similar to what's spoken about in this topic: you don't care that your relative caused harm and pain to someone else, because the victims are just inferior dhimmis in your twisted viewpoint, one so twisted in fact, that I question your femininity, no joke. So enough with the sob-stories, unless you want to entertain the public some more.

I'd say more, but, since that's all I can think of for now, I'll let someone else sum it up...