NYPD radicalization report applied in court

Terrorism suspects fit mold, professor testifies in Miami court

October 31, 2007 - Defense attorneys shouted objections and asked for a mistrial. But their complaints didn't stop the government's controversial expert witness from making his point to the jury on Tuesday.

The seven men on trial in Miami federal court, charged with supporting al-Qaida, fit the mold of homegrown terrorists, said Raymond Tanter, a terrorism professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Prosecutor Allyson Fritz ticked off the defendants' names, one by one: Narseal Batiste, Stanley Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Rothschild Augustin, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin and Patrick Abraham.

Where, Fritz asked, did each man fall among the four stages law enforcement agencies use to describe how ordinary people become terrorists?

Each time, Tanter responded with the name of the final phase in that process, a stage he labeled "jihadization."

Posted on 11 November 2007 @ 15:25 GMT