Yesterday’s News 2026-10-05

curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’

Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi

Peter Beck:
Prosecutors test the elasticity of a decades-old terrorism statute

…
Al-Muhtadi’s case in Louisiana, however, marks a significant hurdle for the Justice Department’s push to prosecute conduct tied to Oct. 7th and a test for how the criminal justice system handles overseas acts of terrorism. Prosecutors’ principal claim is that Al-Muhtadi provided material support to Hamas, contributing to the deaths of Americans and Israelis on Oct. 7th. The bulk of the evidence prosecutors plan to introduce against him comes from Israeli intelligence, intercepted phone calls, clandestine investigations, and battlefield reports—for crimes that all allegedly happened outside the U.S.

The federal defenders representing Al-Muhtadi argue his case undermines basic due process principles, writing that the government’s evidence relies on the Israeli government’s word and that the “proof that would corroborate [his defense] no longer exists,” lost to the ruins in Gaza. To prosecutors, he’s a terrorist who lived among us.
(Peter Beck   more…)