Homework 1.

Muslim Cleric's Lawyers Challenge Surveillance Program, Conviction

By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 17, 2008; B08

Attorneys for a prominent Muslim spiritual leader convicted on terrorism charges said yesterday that they have evidence that he was wiretapped under the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program, and they have asked a judge to declare the program illegal.

The filing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria is the latest development in a nearly three-year battle over whether Ali al-Timimi was a subject of the now-defunct National Security Agency anti-terrorist operation.

Timimi, of Fairfax County, was convicted in 2005 of inciting his Northern Virginia followers to train for jihad against the United States and was sentenced to life in prison.

Timimi's attorneys are using the controversial surveillance program to challenge his conviction, saying the Islamic scholar was a likely candidate for wiretapping. If he was, they say, that would have violated his constitutional rights because the program was illegal. Bush has said the program, under which the NSA monitored phone calls and e-mails involving U.S. residents and foreign parties without obtaining warrants from a secret court that handles such matters, was legal and necessary to protect Americans from terrorists.

In yesterday's filing, Timimi's attorneys wrote that "it has been established that surveillance related to Dr. al-Timimi was gathered under NSA's warrantless surveillance program and potentially other agencies." They did not specify the evidence, which has been litigated in secret proceedings since a federal appeals court sent the case back to the trial judge to explore the matter in 2006.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment and have said previously that they provided Timimi's defense all material required by law. In a hearing in October, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said the government might have violated federal rules by failing to turn over relevant evidence to the defense. But she also indicated that she is unlikely to grant Timimi a new trial.

Andrew McBride, a former federal prosecutor in Alexandria, said Brinkema might decline to rule on parts of yesterday's motion because "the issue of the program's legality isn't really before her. What's at issue is: Did they give the defense what they recorded, and would that have affected the outcome of the trial."

Homework 2.

Ga. sex offenders must hand over online passwords

ATLANTA — Privacy advocates are questioning an aggressive Georgia law that took effect yesterday that requires sex offenders to hand over Internet passwords, screen names and e-mail addresses.

Georgia joins a small band of states complying with guidelines in a 2006 federal law requiring authorities to track Internet addresses of sex offenders, but it is among the first to take the extra step of forcing its 16,000 offenders to turn in their passwords as well.

A federal judge ruled in September that a similar law in Utah violated the privacy rights of an offender who challenged it, though the narrow ruling only applied to one offender who had a military conviction on sex offenses but was never in Utah's court or prison system.

No one in Georgia has challenged the law yet, but critics say it threatens the privacy of sex offenders and burdens cash-strapped law enforcement officials.

"There's certainly a privacy concern," said Sara Totonchi of the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights. "This essentially will give law enforcement the ability to read e-mails between family members, between employers."

State Sen. Cecil Staton, who wrote Senate Bill 474, said the new law was designed to keep the Internet safe for children. Authorities could use the passwords and other information to make sure offenders aren't stalking children online or chatting with them about off-limits topics.

Staton said although the measure may violate the privacy of sex offenders, the need to protect children "outweighs a lot of the rights of these individuals."

"We limit where they can live, we make their information available on the Internet. To some degree, we do invade their privacy," said Staton, a Republican from Macon. "But the feeling is, they have forfeited, to some degree, some privacy rights."

Most states already make the addresses of sex offenders available online. Georgia is one of at least 15 states that have adopted laws requiring sex offenders to detail their e-mail addresses, user names and other Internet handles, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

But researcher Sarah Hammond said Georgia and Utah appear to be the only states that require sex offenders to hand over their passwords.

The new requirements are far from watertight. While offenders who don't report their user names and passwords could face probation violations — and possibly a return to prison — supporters admit it might not be difficult to skirt the law's requirements.

"My hunch is, where there's a will, there's a way," Staton said. "If people are intent on violating this law, there are many different ways. What's important is we have given law enforcement a tool."

For offenders like Kelly Piercy, convicted of child-pornography charges in 1999, the password requirement is the latest example of "pre-emptive justice."

Piercy, who suffers from a degenerative disease that has left him blind, said he already struggles to keep track of the roughly dozen screen names he has created, and he doubts deputies would have much sympathy for him if he forgets to report one.

"I made a mistake and I need to pay for it. And I did. But now we're the target of pre-emptive justice — and that concerns me," he said. "How much further down the road can sex offenders be chased?"

Homework 3.

Wis. parents accused of praying instead of treating dying daughter

WESTON, Wis. — Parents who prayed as their 11-year-old daughter died of untreated diabetes were charged yesterday with second-degree reckless homicide.

Family and friends had urged Dale and Leilani Neumann to get help for their daughter, but the father considered the illness "a test of faith" and the mother never considered taking the girl to the doctor because she thought her daughter was under a "spiritual attack," the criminal complaint said.

"It is very surprising, shocking that she wasn't allowed medical intervention," Marathon County District Attorney Jill Falstad said. "Her death could have been prevented."

Madeline Neumann died March 23 — Easter Sunday — at her family's rural Weston home. Her parents were told the body would be taken to Madison for an autopsy the next day.

"They responded, 'You won't need to do that. She will be alive by then,'" the medical examiner wrote in a report.

An autopsy determined that Madeline died from undiagnosed diabetic ketoacidosis, which left her with too little insulin in her body. Court records said she likely had some symptoms of the disease for months.

The Neumanns each face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. The couple and their attorney did not return messages left by the Associated Press in time for this story.

Falstad said the Neumanns have cooperated with investigators and are not under arrest. They have agreed to make an initial court appearance tomorrow, she said.

Randall Wormgoor, a friend of the Neumanns, told police that Dale Neumann led Bible studies at his business, Monkey Mo Coffee Shop, and believed physical illness was due to sin, curable by prayer and by asking for forgiveness from God, the complaint said.

Wormgoor said he and his wife, Althea, were at the Neumann home when Madeline — called Kara by her parents — died. Wormgoor said he had urged the father to seek medical help and was told the illness "was a test of faith for the Neumann family and asked the Wormgoors to join them in praying for Kara to get well," the complaint said.

Althea Wormgoor said she "implored" the parents to seek medical help for the girl, according to the complaint.

Leilani Neumann, 40, told the AP previously that she never expected her daughter to die. The family believes in the Bible, which says healing comes from God, but they have nothing against doctors, she said.

Dale Neumann, 46, a former police officer, has said he has friends who are doctors and started CPR "as soon as the breath of life left" his daughter's body.

According to court documents, Leilani Neumann said in a written statement to police that she never considered taking the girl, who was being home-schooled, to a doctor.

"We just thought it was a spiritual attack and we prayed for her. My husband Dale was crying and mentioned taking Kara to the doctor and I said, 'The Lord's going to heal her,' and we continued to pray," she wrote.

The father told investigators he noticed his daughter was weak and slower for about two weeks but he attributed it to symptoms of the girl reaching puberty, the complaint said.

A day before Madeline died, according to the criminal complaint, the father wrote an e-mail with the headline, "Help our daughter needs emergency prayer!!!!." It said his daughter was "very weak and pale at the moment with hardly any strength."

The girl's grandmother, Evalani Gordon, told police that she learned her granddaughter could not walk or talk on March 22 and advised Leilani Neumann to take the girl to a doctor.

Gordon eventually contacted a daughter-in-law in California who called police on a non-emergency line to report the girl was in a coma and needed medical help. An ambulance was dispatched shortly before some friends in the home called 911 to report the girl had stopped breathing, authorities said.

One relative told police that the girl's mother believed she "died because the devil is trying to stop Leilani from starting her own ministry," according to the complaint.

The Neumanns said they moved to Weston, a suburb of Wausau in central Wisconsin, from California about two years ago to open the coffee shop and be closer to other relatives. The couple has three other children, ages 13 to 16; they are living with relatives.

The family does not belong to an organized religion or faith, Leilani Neumann has said.

Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said the parents once belonged to the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church but later became what he called religious "isolationists" involved in a prayer group of five people.

"They have gone out on their own," he said. "They have a very narrow view of Scripture and I would say not many people hold to that narrow of view."

In March, an Oregon couple who belong to a church that preaches against medical care and believes in treating illness with prayer were charged with manslaughter and criminal mistreatment in the death of their 15-month-old daughter. The toddler died March 2 of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection that could have been treated with antibiotics, the state medical examiner's office said.