VIRGINIA JIHAD NETWORK

James Joyner | Saturday, August 2, 2003

WaPo reports

The U.S. government is considering upgrading the charges against the 11 Muslim men indicted as part of a “Virginia jihad network,” a prosecutor said in court yesterday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon D. Kromberg told a judge in U.S. District Court in Alexandria that one of the defendants had told investigators that the men’s ultimate goal was “to fight American soldiers” and not just support a Pakistan-based militant group fighting India.

This is getting interesting. So far, this case his been rather odd and smacked of overreach on the part of the Justice Department:

Although U.S. authorities have presented the case as part of the war on terrorism, the men are not charged with terror crimes. They are accused under a seldom-enforced law known as the Neutrality Act, which forbids Americans to fight countries with which the United States is at peace.

Hopefully, they’ll be charged with crimes that are normally prosecuted, and soon.

About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.

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