Defense Language Expert Questions FBI Translation In Terrorism-Support Case

Monday, July 23rd 2007, 5:43 pm

By: News On 6

MIAMI (AP) _ An Arabic language expert testified Monday that the FBI inaccurately translated some telephone intercepts of three suspected terrorism supporters, and said words that prosecutors say were code for violence have innocent alternative meanings.

Translator Kamal Yunis was the first witness called by the defense in the trial of Jose Padilla, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi on charges of supporting Islamic extremist causes and groups, including al-Qaida. All three face possible life in prison if convicted.

The prosecution case is built largely on thousands of wiretaps collected over an eight-year period ending in 2001. Defense lawyers hope to raise questions in the minds of jurors about those conversations and about the definitions of Arabic words such as jihad and mujahedeen.

One purported code word for jihad, according to prosecutors, was ``tourism.'' Yunis testified that the Arabic equivalent word can mean travel for exploration or a religious pilgrimage.

``It has a wide range of meanings,'' he testified.

Yunis also testified that Arabic speakers frequently sprinkle the name of Allah, or God, routinely throughout their conversations. In a May 12, 1997, conversation, Hassoun and Jayyousi are overheard discussing a CNN interview with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, with Hassoun saying ``May Allah protect him'' at one point.

An edited version of the bin Laden interview played for jurors is one of the most powerful pieces of evidence in the case, but Yunis said Hassoun's comment about it was not meant literally.

``I think it was filler, based on the tone of voice, how they were talking about it,'' Yunis testified.

But later under cross-examination, Yunis acknowledged that Hassoun appeared to be ``beseeching God to protect'' bin Laden.

Yunis testified that the word ``eggplant'' used by Hassoun did not mean ``rocket-propelled grenade'' as a prosecution expert claimed. Rather, Yunis said, it referred to money, specifically donations intended to help orphans and other needy Muslims.

``It's talk about sums of money,'' said Yunis, who runs a private translation service based in the Orlando area.

Similarly, the phrases ``smelling fresh air'' or ``going on a picnic'' do not necessarily mean participation in violent jihad conflicts around the world as prosecutors claim, Yunis said. And ``football'' doesn't translate to violence or battle as the FBI claimed, he said.

``It means being kicked around,'' Yunis testified.

During cross-examination later Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell Killinger questioned some of Yunis' translations, asking at one point whether ``eggplant'' was frequently used as a substitute for ``money'' in the Arab world.

``Not in my experience, no,'' Yunis said.

This initial phase of the defense case barely involves Padilla, whose voice is heard on only seven of the FBI intercepts. Padilla allegedly filled out an application in 2000 to attend an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan.

Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant after his 2002 arrest on suspicion of plotting to blow up a radioactive ``dirty bomb'' in a major city. Those allegations are not mentioned in the Miami indictment that Padilla was added to in late 2005.