Seattle Post Intelligencer:

'This guy must pay,' potential juror wrote

He and others rejected as jury selection begins for Haq murder trial

By TRACY JOHNSON
P-I REPORTER

One man thought that whoever opened fire at the Jewish Federation offices was "an anti-Semitic, Islamic coward" and was fuming because the chaotic episode stranded him in downtown Seattle for hours.

Another believed that the insanity defense was just something "put up by defense lawyers to get their client off the hook."

Both men were kindly thanked for their time Wednesday -- and then sent on their way -- as attorneys began questioning potential jurors for the trial of Naveed Haq, a 32-year-old Tri-Cities man who is charged in the deadly July 2006 shooting.

Judge Paris Kallas plans to have 12 jurors and two alternates chosen before April 14, when the trial is expected to begin in King County Superior Court.

Indiscreet reminders:

"This is about the Jews and what they are doing. The Jews are running the country. This is about getting the U.S. out of Iraq. I am an American and I got no problem with America but we have to get out of Iraq. But we give bombs and guns and bunker-buster bombs to Israel and we shouldn't be doing it, it's got to stop, that's what this is all about."
"I'm upset at your foreign policy."

Reporting in the mainstream media (MSM) has notably underplayed this terrible incident, which should be taken as a wake-up call for Americans, especially American Muslims.

Naveed Haq is of Pakistani origin, which points to an unfortunate but undeniable reality: the Pakistani-American Sunni Muslim community is dominated by radical Islamist ideology. Pakistani clerics in Sunni mosques are well-known for their extreme teaching. In the Seattle area alone, a Sunni mosque has been the scene of sectarian conflict with Iraqi Shia Muslims - an importation of terrorist rhetoric from tormented Iraq. The latter has been documented by the Center for Islamic Pluralism.

For now, 75 of the approximately 130 prospective jurors are being brought in to the courtroom individually to discuss thoughts on religion, mental illness or personal matters without their comments tainting the whole jury pool.

Of 13 who showed up Wednesday morning, the judge excused about half of them and will have the rest return for further voir dire questioning next week.

Some candidates had concerns about the idea of insanity -- which Haq's attorneys will try to prove -- and whether it's a free pass for committing a crime.

"It's just because I can't relate to it," said one man. "I understand the difference between right and wrong, and I don't know how someone couldn't."

The jury panel that is selected will be given lengthy instructions about the definition of insanity but little information about what it would mean if Haq is found insane -- that he would almost certainly be confined to a state mental hospital until a judge finds that he is not a danger.

Until when?