Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

November 22, 2010

Pete Seda, an Iranian-born U.S. citizen, was convicted earlier this year of tax fraud charges. He was accused of sending money to Muslim rebels in Chechnya, who are fighting for independence from Russian rule.

Seda, who ran a charitable foundation, insists that he was misled by an accountant regarding the $150,000 donation allegedly sent to Chechen rebels.

Despite the fact that Seda was not convicted of a terrorism-related offense, federal prosecutors are seeking a terrorism enhancement to his sentence. They claim that newly declassified evidence demonstrates Seda?s guilty knowledge that the money was funding terrorism. The evidence is provided by the Russian Federal Security Service ? that is, the successor organization to the Soviet KGB.

The KGB?s evidence -- along with material collected through illegal wiretaps -- was deemed inadmissible during the trial phase, but will be allowed during the sentencing hearing, during which the star witness will be colonel in the Russian Security Service. That development is far more ominous than anything Seda is accused of doing.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.