Government seeks secrecy over North Carolinian who sought to fight in Syria
Source: Associated Press
Government seeks secrecy over North Carolinian who sought to fight in Syria
Associated Press in Raleigh
theguardian.com, Friday 17 January 2014 15.44 GMT
The US government wants to keep some evidence secret from the public in the case of a North Carolina man charged with trying to join an al-Qaida-linked group fighting in Syria's civil war. A judge will decide how to protect some of that classified information.
At a hearing on Friday, US district judge Terrence Boyle will begin balancing the government's concerns against the defendant's right to a fair trial.
The FBI says it has evidence collected by secret informants who kept up an online correspondence with Basit Sheikh of Cary, NC, in which he expressed a desire to join and fight with Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, which the US government has designated as a terrorist group.
Sheikh was arrested two months ago at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, on his way to Lebanon. The FBI said he planned to sneak into Syria and join the fight against forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, in a conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people over two and a half years. The Nusra Front is one of the primary rebel forces fighting Assad's troops.
[font size=1]
-snip-[/font]
Read more:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/17/government-secrecy-north-carolinian-fight-syria