Mahjoub Hearing – Thursday, January 20, 2011

Hi all:

Three friends (including myself) of Mohamed Mahjoub attended for the Thursday afternoon portion of the 2 ½ day testimony of Dr. Fawaz A. Gerges, Professor of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is an expert on Middle Eastern affairs and is often called as a commentator on CNN Europe.

The part we heard was the 2 ½ hour cross-examination regarding Mr. Gerges’ testimony of the previous day (Wednesday). I don’t know what was in his testimony except for what we heard during the cross-examination by the Ministers’ Counsel, Ms. Rhonda Marquis. The subject had to do with the history during the 80’s and 90’s of the operations of the political organizations, Egyptian Islamist Jihad (EIJ), Al Jihad, Vanguards of Conquest (VOC), Al Qaeda and perhaps other groups, including leaders or characters (spelling may not be accurate) such as Al Zawaheri, Al Geza, Sheik Rahman, Osama bin Laden – in places like Egypt, the Sudan, Bosnia, Pakistan and Afghanistan – and the evolution and changes in these organizations as they experienced opposition and conflict. Some of this history was covered by Dr. Wesley Wark during his testimony in late November, 2010 – with reference to events leading up to the bombings of the two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998. We also heard some graphic descriptions of suicide bombings and often failed assassination attempts.

However what we primarily heard during the afternoon was a debate between a lawyer attempting to use a black and white approach and an academic who tried his best to argue that there were nuances in the stories he told in his books and articles that were referred to. Over and over Professor Gerges lectured the Ministers’ lawyer on her tactic of quoting summaries of more detailed situations from his books to get him to admit to something that he refused to do because it would not be the truth. Ultimately, near the end of the afternoon, he became so frustrated with the lawyer’s method of questioning that he accused her of committing the academic crime of ‘attempting to distort the facts for her purposes.’ The question I assume being argued, is whether there is any evidence at all that Mr. Mahjoub had any connection to these organizations and events. We cannot know as long as much of the evidence, if it exists at all is still kept secret on the grounds of national security. Mr. Mahjoub has denied all along that he had any connection to these individuals and groups and there is no publicly known evidence to support any connections.

Several books were referred to during the aftenoon – The Looming Tower, by Lawrence Wright; The Far Enemy, by Fawaz Gerges; America and Political Islam, by Fawaz Gerges.

The cross-examination was to continue on Friday morning, but just before adjournment near 4:30 pm, requests for easement of two conditions related to Mr. Mahjoub’s daily restrictions were brought up and Judge Blanchard ruled on one of these negatively and would rule on the other on Friday morning. We cannot forget that Mr. Mahjoub is living under severe daily restrictions that interfere with his ability to live a normal life that the rest of us take for granted.

Please note that there is no court schedule so far for next week – the week of January 24 to 28. I will announce any resumption of hearings in this blog.