A hearing has been held in the case of Jamshid Muhtorov, the Uzbek activist about whom I've written a fair amount who is now suspected of aiding the terrorist group Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) in Turkey.

During this hearing, Muhtorov acknowledged that he knew the nature of the IJU:

A prosecutor told a federal judge this morning that Uzbek refugee Jamshid Muhtorov admitted he knew the Islamic Jihad Union was a combat organization that fights NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

It's funny that it should take this Uzbek suspect, trying to deny that he did anything wrong, to confirm something that Registan and other terrorism-minimizers kept denying themselves: the existence of the IJU as a real organization that really fights NATO. They keep telling us it doesn't exist.

The FBI found him with $2,800 in cash, two i-phones and a GPS device, the Denver Post reports.  By itself, these items are indeed standard fare especially for immigrants trying to make a dollar and operate in the black economy, which is a survival technique, not necessarily related to terrorism. Yet the prosecutor will show how it is related to intent to commit a crime.

Muhtorov denies that he was supporting terrorism and that given he could barely support his family, he wasn't engaged in any attempt to support the IJU. But his quitting of his job, withdrawal of cash, and goodbyes to his family (he said he would see his daughter in heaven) and his telephone calls to IJU operatives of course legitimately cast doubt on his claims.

The prosecutor says he has a witness who will describe Muhtorov's

In a statement that seems to draw on everything we have ever heard about desperation and violence from centuries of Russian literature, the prosecutor says:

"He is an educated man and the only jobs he could get were manual labor jobs and his wife had to work to help support the family," Holloway said. "He was living in a crappy apartment and having to move because of bed bugs.You can see an escalation of frustration and communication of that frustration in the (documents)."

The FBI has said their witnesses are classified and the lawyer has been denied a request to get more information.

So all that has prompted Joshua Foust to declare this case as a "thought crime" based on flimsy anti-terrorism legislation put into effect since 9/11.

Sure, we have to look out if all the feds have is some pious Muslims who seemed to talk to some other pious Muslims about stuff that may or may not rise to the level of "incitement of imminent violence" under the Supreme Court precedent rulings.

But Foust seems not to realize that the law on criminal conspiracy doesn't  exempt you merely because you didn't commit the act, or only seemed to plan it and not get anywhere. And on this question, and how much Muhtorov's actions rise to the test of possible crime, I wouldn't believe what Foust would say, as he is dismissive of the whole idea that there are terrorists and isn't a legal expert; I also wouldn't believe left-wing anti-government lawyers like Glenn Greenwald, because they would be pre-disposed to exonerate anyone accused of terrorism for their own reasons of opposition to the Obama Administration from the left. But I would like to hear a credible mainstream human rights lawyer on this question — although there's still a lot we don't know.

The judge in the case seemed to mull whether he might even release Muhtorov with a GPS locator but then said he was concerned about his potential for flight, given that he was just willing to leave his wife and two small children with a one-way ticket to Turkey. And ultimately in the latest update from the Denver Post, we learn that the judge denied the bond release.

This may be about not terrorist conspiracy or even selling i-phones illegally or something, but just this (one of my favourite quotations) statement from Tom Wolfe:

Where is the poet who has sung of that most lacerating of all human emotions, the cut that never heals–male humiliation?

We also learn from the Denver Post something we couldn't find from dredging uznews.net and such — his sister, accused at the age of 19 apparently falsely of murder, is still in jail.

That — and the jailing (still?) of his father after he fled to Kyrgyzstan with his family might are obviously a galling factor, but what else? Was it really the bed bugs and the long hauls?

ABC News ran a story about the FBI's drilling of the digital mine in Muhtorov's case, a reminder of what remains after you think you've deleted data.

"The analysis could directly implicate or eliminate the suspect based on the information recovered, or serve as corroboration or contradiction to a suspect or witnesses statement," said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Sean O'Brien, director of the Rocky Mountain Regional Computer Forensics Lab in Centennial, Colorado.

This sort of deep dive is what enabled prosecutors to send another suspect to jail:

The Rocky Mountain Regional Computer Forensics Lab played a key role during the 2009 investigation of Najibullah Zazi, who later pleaded guilty in a plot to trigger bombs on New York City subway trains. Analysts searched for evidence on several computers, helped execute search warrants, and examined surveillance video that showed Zazi buying bomb making ingredients at a beauty supply store.

For some reason the Center for Democracy and Technology and their campaign for digital privacy is referenced and the need to insist on judges' warrants, but in fact the FBI got a warrant to confiscate Muhtorov's computer and phones.

In one of the more bizarre Internet phenomena surrounding Muhtorov's long career, a Christian group has now "adopted" him in their "adopt a terrorist for prayer" project taking literally Jesus' admonition to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you".

I personally would like to wait until there is a trial and conviction before I decide that Muhtorov is a terrorist and therefore an enemy

An Internet forum has come up with Muhtorov's last post on Facebook (allegedly — I never found anything resembling a FB page for him):

Ilm o'rganish -Allohdan qo'rqish, uni talab qilish -ibodat, izlash – jihod, bilmaganga o'rgatish -sadaqa, uni o'z ahliga o'rgatish -Allohga qurbatdir. Ilm – tanholikda hamroh, hilvatda -do'st, to'g'ri yo'l ko'rsatuvchi – dalil, begonlar oldida – eng sodiq do'st, Jannat yo'lining minorasidir. Hazrati Umar

Any translators out there? You can read up about Hazrati Umar on the Internets of course.