This is definitely trouble

Inkara1

Inkara1

Well-Known Member
"Web site" baffles Internet terrorism trial judge

By Mark Trevelyan Thu May 17, 11:52 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - A British judge admitted on Wednesday he was struggling to cope with basic terms like "Web site" in the trial of three men accused of inciting terrorism via the Internet.
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Judge Peter Openshaw broke into the questioning of a witness about a Web forum used by alleged Islamist radicals.
"The trouble is I don't understand the language. I don't really understand what a Web site is," he told a London court during the trial of three men charged under anti-terrorism laws.
Prosecutor Mark Ellison briefly set aside his questioning to explain the terms "Web site" and "forum." An exchange followed in which the 59-year-old judge acknowledged: "I haven't quite grasped the concepts."
Violent Islamist material posted on the Internet, including beheadings of Western hostages, is central to the case.
Concluding Wednesday's session and looking ahead to testimony Thursday by a computer expert, the judge told Ellison: "Will you ask him to keep it simple, we've got to start from basics."
Younes Tsouli, 23, Waseem Mughal, 24, and Tariq al-Daour, 21, deny a range of charges under Britain's Terrorism Act, including inciting another person to commit an act of terrorism "wholly or partly" outside Britain.
Tsouli and Mughal also deny conspiracy to murder. Al-Daour has pleaded not guilty to conspiring with others to defraud banks, credit card and charge card companies.
Prosecutors have told the jury at Woolwich Crown Court, east London, that the defendants kept car-bomb-making manuals and videos of how to wire suicide vests as part of a campaign to promote global jihad, or holy war.
The trial continues.
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Source

So we have an internet terrorism case and the judge doesn't even know what a Web site is. Comforting, eh?
 
Inkara1 said:
So we have an internet terrorism case and the judge doesn't even know what a Web site is. Comforting, eh?
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I doubt that this is in any way unusual in any western country. You'd be surprised how may people a week I have to tell that you don't have to put "www" in front of an email address.
 
It's more troubling that he didn't research that kind of stuff before the start of the case. Maybe read the Cliffs Notes version of "The Internet for Dummies" or something. No need to know how to write a javascript program that can steal your identity, but at least the basics.
 
chcr said:
I doubt that this is in any way unusual in any western country. You'd be surprised how may people a week I have to tell that you don't have to put "www" in front of an email address.
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usually.


inciting terrorism via the Internet
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Saying shit is legal. Committing an act is not. Where does the line get drawn? (ok, winky, start on about internet pedophiles here)
 
*ahem*

Inky's source said:
LONDON (Reuters) - A British judge
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BTW...I'm almost 45 years old, and I've never put a "www" in front of an e-mail address...:p
 
My last job had the President and CEO both as technophobes. Neither had computers in their offices and had their secretaries print up every email, hand write responces and hand them back.

Plenty of people not on the internet or familiar with it...hell, I'm still teaching my father about the differences between the internet and email, and how to manoever around both...and this is a man who does the NY Times crossword and 4 more every day (in two languages), plus a few Sudoku to boot.

It's not lack of brains that's tripping up these judges...but lack of experience. :shrug:
 
I never said the judge was stupid... just that it's troubling that he didn't do any research beforehand, since you'd think he would know ahead of time that he doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to the internet.
 
My dad is in his early 60's and was part of inventing some of the computer stuff of today. That judge must either be under a rock or spends his time in the Canary Islands with one of his mistresses.
 
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