"There are some definitional problems" in the new law, Kurtenbach says. Not only does it define some forms of protest as terrorism; it also allows the FBI and CIA to spy on many of us -- protestors or not -- without proving to a judge that we're a threat. "What they've done," Kurtenbach says, "is sort of set up judges as impediments to security."
But federal Magistrate Robert E. Larsen seemed anything but a security impediment on October 24, when he locked up without bail a pal of Saudi Prince Bandar. Adel F. Badri was bound over to a Kansas City grand jury for allegedly kiting checks worth $10,000 after federal agents busted him in their post-September 11 crackdown on suspicious characters. Badri's original crime? The Central Missouri State dropout had majored in aviation management. "At that time we merely had him on charges of being a student when he wasn't supposed to be," testified INS special agent Douglas Beemiss. Badri had a tourist visa, not a student visa.
Was the ensuing bank fraud an attempt to get deported to a free country? No, this detour through jail and a grand jury looks more like adventure travel, complete with souvenir shopping. Watching a courtroom artist sketch his orange-clad son, Badri's father, Fareed Badri, asked, "Can we buy that?"
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