By Debbie Schlussel
Sadly, the four federal judges in U.S. District Court in Detroit who’ve been the softest on Islamic terrorists are all my fellow co-religionists, all Jews. I hate to point it out because I believe it breeds anti-Semitism. And because three of the tougher and most fair judges in federal court in Detroit are also Jewish–Judges Lawrence Zatkoff, Bernard Friedman, and Paul Borman. They’re also three of the smartest jurists in the nation.
But I point out the extreme liberalism of Judges Avern Cohn, Arthur Tarnow, Nancy Edmunds, and Gerald Rosen, in juxtaposition to regard to the allegations made by convicted Hezbollah arms smuggler Fawzi Mustapha Assi against Judge Rosen.
Assi claims that Judge Rosen won’t be fair in sentencing him because Rosen is a Jew and, therefore, allegedly “a Zionist.” He made a motion to that effect, and Rosen denied the motion.

JOOO Judge Gerald Rosen
& Hezbollah Weapons Supplier Fawzi Mustapha Assi
This is the first time I’ve seen Judge Rosen conduct himself honestly in his courtroom (in saying he’s not a Zionist and that he’s bent over backward to help Assi, which he has). As I’ve written on this site, Judge Rosen–a George H.W. Bush appointee–is a despicable judge who admittedly engaged in extrajudicial investigations into the Detroit Terror Cell case (including a trip to Virginia to meet with CIA officials) and apparently repeatedly leaked evidence and information about the case to Detroit Newsistan fabricator David Shepardson and spoke with myriad other reporters, while the case was still before him.
You know there’s something wrong when a judge presiding over a case has to get an attorney, as Rosen did. The man should be behind bars, not presiding on the federal bench. Sadly, short of Senate impeachment, incapacitation, or death, he’s there for life.
In addition to all of this, ultimately Rosen massaged the U.S. government into asking for the Detroit Terror Cell convictions to be overturned, which he happily granted. And yet he issued the toughest sentence possible to the U.S. government’s informant in the case–a great message to other Muslims who are considering helping the U.S. He also gave extremely soft sentences to the Detroit Terror Cell Muslims who were, indeed, convicted on lesser charges of insurance fraud.
Oh, and Judge Rosen also apologized on behalf of America to the Detroit Terror Cell men who planned to blow up U.S. tourist sites and a U.S. air base in Incirlik, Turkey, where American and Israeli military planes take off.
Rosen also allowed one of the Detroit Terror Cell members release from detention to attend an National Lawyers Guild dinner. He also allowed a Detroit Terror Cell member to get a commercial driver’s license (CDL) and get a job driving a truck–just the vocation we want hardened Al-Qaeda terrorists.
During the whole fiasco, I spoke with Rosen for an on-the-record interview for a New York Post column. I was shocked Rosen returned my call and spoke with me, because that’s highly improper. A judge is not supposed to speak in any sort of ex-parte manner with a media outlet about a case pending before him. When Rosen figured out that I was not on his side, he suddenly insisted that the entire interview was off the record and threatened me. Read the details.
Incredibly, Judge Rosen teaches a continuing legal education course, “In Trial With Judge Rosen,” and will be a lecturer, this fall, at The University of Michigan Law School. Both his courses should be subtitled, “Do as I say, Not as I do.”
So, it is in light of all this, that I laugh at the allegation of Fawzi Mustapha Assi that Rosen won’t be fair to him because Rosen is a Jew. Assi knows he hit the jackpot in drawing Rosen as his judge. Rosen will bend over backward for Assi. And, even if he hadn’t planned to, this motion will succeed in getting him to bend over, as it was designed to do. In fact, I predict Assi will be released by Rosen for time served.
And that’s another issue. A few words about Fawzi Mustapha Assi. In 1998, the then-Ford Motor Company engineer was charged with smuggling weaponry to Hezbollah. He was stopped by U.S. Customs agents (when Customs was a great agency before it was ICEd down) at Detroit’s Metro Airport about to fly to Lebanon, with global positioning equipment, night vision goggles, and a thermal imaging camera. He admitted the items were for Hezbollah use.
Assi was indicted, but against federal official’s wishes Judge Denise Page Hood–an uber-liberal–released Assi on an electronic tether. He dressed up as an Islamic woman in a hijab and thobe and escaped out of the country to Canada, from where he flew to Lebanon.
In 2004, Assi suddenly decided to return to the U.S. and face charges. And many people have questioned why he’d do that. My sources tell me that this was part of an illicit deal the Justice Department made with Hezbollah go-betweens in exchange for the freedom of a much bigger fish, Hezbollah financier Talal Chahine.
Not long after Assi returned to U.S. custody, Talal Chahine was allowed by U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy a/k/a “Abu Porno”–a Bush nominee for the federal bench–to flee the country. Despite at least three federal raids on Chahine’s homes and businesses and the Justice Department’s full knowledge that Chahine not only defrauded the government of $7 million in taxes on $21 million dollars he illegally laundered to Hezbollah, but also paid off ICE officials to allow illegal aliens into the country and to look the other way on sham marriages, Chahine was not stopped by federal agents as he took off to Lebanon and never returned.
My sources tell me that Stephen Murphy and others in the Justice Department and U.S. government made a deal: We’ll accept smaller fish Assi back from the Lebanon pond, and we’ll allow a far more important Hezbollah fish–Talal Chahine–to flee the country.
Just as outrageous, as part of the deal, Assi would not be charged nor would he get any more jailtime for fleeing the country and becoming a fugitive. And that’s exactly what happened. Assi was not indicted for his flight from justice. And Justice Department officials, like Stephen Murphy, get to look like they’re tough on terrorism and going after Hezbollah, when they aren’t.
That’s why Assi surrendered and came back, and that’s why he won’t do any more jailtime than what he’s already served in detention since his surrender in 2004.
Nice deal for Hezbollah. Terrible deal for America.
America . . . Desperate But Not Serious.