Federal Convictions for Conspiracy
Five middle eastern men have been found guilty by a federal jury in New Jersey. This was the case that depicted several individuals firing assault rifles on camera and making comments about the United States. There seemed to be very little evidence of an actual conspiracy to attack the military base as alleged in the federal indictment. This case is similar to a case in Miami where the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrest several individuals on charges that they conspired to attack the Sears Tower in Chicago. Both cases are based on FBI informants that are either being paid by the FBI or are getting some type of deal from the government for their information. In this federal indictment in New Jersey, the informants were allowed to stay in the United States for the information they provided.
The aggressive tactics deployed by the FBI after September 11th have resulted in many arrests and probably some convictions of innocent people. These five individuals should have been watched until they made some overt attempt to organize for the purpose of violating the law. They appeared to have no common plan or scheme to attack the United States, but rather were just talking and shooting some guns. Anyone charged with CONSPIRACY in Federal Court is well aware that the hand of one is the hand of all. In other words, whatever act any member of the conspiracy commits is attributable to all co-conspirators. Conspiracy indictments are the most common charge presented in federal court. Defending a conspiracy count in federal court is not easy, but a good criminal defense attorney can find several ways to explain a defendant's actions.
This could have been a case of the government deciding to indict and arrest because the suspects were not going to do anything more in furtherance of the alleged conspiracy. Arrest them now and release a statement that a plot has been foiled to attack the United States. One thing that has not been mentioned is the alleged target these guys had selected. An ARMY BASE was the target. Well, of all the targets in this country, that is the last one a terrorist group would attack. Not only will they most likely be killed in this attack by an ARMY RANGER, but there is a chance for the act to get our soldiers even more fired up and increase moral in the Middle East. I find it hard to believe that any group would try to attack a military installation in the United States.
Our federal attorneys in South Carolina are very capable of defending conspiracy indictments. Russell Mace is a defense attorney in Charleston who can represent you on any federal indictment. We also have defense attorneys in Miami, Savannah, Columbia, Florence and West Palm Beach. Our Myrtle Beach lawyer goes to several federal courts in South Carolina.
