VIRGINIA JIHAD NETWORK

WaPo reports

The U.S. government is considering upgrading the charges against the 11 Muslim men indicted as part of a “Virginia jihad network,” a prosecutor said in court yesterday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon D. Kromberg told a judge in U.S. District Court in Alexandria that one of the defendants had told investigators that the men’s ultimate goal was “to fight American soldiers” and not just support a Pakistan-based militant group fighting India.

This is getting interesting. So far, this case his been rather odd and smacked of overreach on the part of the Justice Department:

Although U.S. authorities have presented the case as part of the war on terrorism, the men are not charged with terror crimes. They are accused under a seldom-enforced law known as the Neutrality Act, which forbids Americans to fight countries with which the United States is at peace.

Hopefully, they’ll be charged with crimes that are normally prosecuted, and soon.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.