Fawaz Damra case from the Cleveland Plain Dealer. How could Damra’s statements about terrorism be irrelevant and prejudicial to a case about his past links to terrorism?
The government’s chief witness in Fawaz Damra’s case says the indicted imam is a “classic case study of a radical Islamic militant” with ties to associates of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.
In a report filed in federal court, Matthew Levitt says Damra actively aided “in the persecution of Israelis and Jewish people in general.” The report, interpreting Damra’s Arabic speech, quotes him as saying in 1989, “The first principle is that terrorism, and terrorism alone, is the path to liberation. . . . If what they mean by jihad is terrorism, then we are terrorists.”