Providing lodging was prosecuted as terrorism support for mundane items
Evidence
In yet another tragic case, Fahad Hashmi, a US citizen who grew up in Queens, New York, was arrested in 2006 and charged with providing material support to terrorists. Hashmi’s crime was that he had allowed an acquaintance to stay in his London apartment, a man named Junaid Babar, who was carrying items that would later be delivered to al-Qaeda. These dangerous items included raincoats, ponchos, and waterproof socks. By the government’s logic, Hashmi should have smelled a rat, knowing how deadly waterproof garments are and how decisively they would tip the balance of power in the direction of al-Qaeda. For this crime, he spent three years in pretrial solitary confinement. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 581
Categorization
Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims
- CANDY: The absurdity — waterproof socks as items ‘that would tip the balance of power’ toward al-Qaeda — is a genuinely surprising, shareable detail.