US District Court Judge Joseph Bianco visited with cadets in the LW 403 Constitutional & Military Law course taught by Professor and Constitutional Law Chair, Tony DiSarro. Judge Bianco was appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush in 2006. Prior to that, he supervised the Counterterrorism Section of the Department of Justice in Washington D.C., and headed the Terrorism Unit of the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan. Judge Bianco spoke with the cadets about prosecuting terrorism in the federal courts. He discussed his experiences as lead prosecutor in the case against lawyer, Lynne Stewart, who defended Omar Abdel-Rahman, known as “the blind shiek” and who was convicted for conspiring to bomb various civilian targets in the New York metropolitan area. Judge Bianco described how a judge allowed him to place a hidden video recording device to record conversations she had with Abdul-Rahman to convict her for conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism. The evidence showed that Stewart was passing messages between Rahman and his supporters, including Rahman's blessing for a resumption of terrorist operations in Egypt when there had been a ceasefire.
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Judge Bianco Visits Cadets in Military Law
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