Why does this Toledo Blade story (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist) go out of its way in the second paragraph to quote the phrase that begins every court session all over the country? Is it trying to draw a parallel or equivalence between the global jihad of which Nuradin Abdi is probably a part and the United States?
COLUMBUS – A Somali immigrant accused of plotting with an al-Qaeda operative to blow up a shopping mall in the Columbus area pleaded not guilty yesterday.
Shortly after the court opened with “God save the United States and this honorable court,” Nuradin Abdi was arraigned in U.S. District Court.
Judge Algenon Marbley set trial for Sept. 12.
At a June, 14, 2004, news conference, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Mr. Abdi, a Columbus resident who co-owned a small cell-phone firm, received “military-style” training in Ethiopia and then worked with Iyman Faris, an al-Qaeda member and former truck driver from Ohio, in a plot to bomb a mall.
In addition to two charges of conspiracy to provide support to terrorists, Mr. Abdi faces two counts of fraud and misuse of immigration documents to commit a terrorist act, according to the four-count indictment.