Bombing suspect Daoud again writes federal judge with litany of complaints

SHARE Bombing suspect Daoud again writes federal judge with litany of complaints
CHICAGO_TERRORISM_ARREST_41151265_999x727.jpg

This undated file photo provided by the U.S. Marshal’s office shows Adel Daoud, of Hillside. (AP Photo/U.S. Marshal’s office, File)

A Hillside man who was asked to only communicate through his lawyers with the federal judge overseeing his trial for trying to blow up a downtown bar in 2012, has again written the judge.

Adel Daoud, who previously wrote U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman to call Americans “Islamophobic,” and suggest she read the Quran and seek his jurors from foreign countries, this time sent a litany of complaints about his treatment.

At a hearing last month, Coleman said Daoud’s trial, scheduled to begin Jan. 5, would be delayed while she decides whether he is mentally fit for trial. Lawyers had agreed to discuss a competency hearing after he wrote Coleman his first letter in November.

Daoud was arrested in September 2012 after he allegedly pushed the detonator on a fake car bomb in hopes of blowing up a downtown Chicago bar. The fake explosive had been given him by an undercover federal agent at the end of a months-long investigation, according to the feds.

In his second letter to the judge, mailed Dec. 29, Daoud begins with complaints over bad quality sound and video on the video screen through which he receives visitors; and his family not receiving letters he’s mailed from the Metropolitan Correctional Center, nor he theirs.

It goes on to request the judge allow his best friend, Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, who pleaded guilty last August to attempting to provide support to a terrorist group, be jailed with Daoud, so the two can spend time together.

“When I got arrested, I thought I was only going to be in jail for a few days,” Daoud writes. “…they arrested my best friend. I was so sad that day but then I thought that maybe the FBI actually felt bad and thought I was lonely in jail so they locked up my friend to keep me company … Please remove the separatee (sic) between us. I want to spend time with him in case he goes to prison.”

Daoud also requests his confiscated computers and iPad, writing, “If the stuff on my computers will not be used against me I can care less, but assuming that it will I would like that and anything else that might be used against me.”

Daoud faces additional charges of three counts of assault — including one with intent to murder — and with possessing a weapon inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center. He is accused of trying to have the undercover federal agent killed in the months after his arrest as he stewed in the Kankakee County Jail, and with trying to kill a fellow inmate in May over a cartoon drawing of the Prophet Muhammad.

Daoud, in his newest letter, maintains he is victim of a conspiracy, and goes on to request a correction in a court transcript; a book about the so-called Illuminati, and a sit-down with the judge.

“There is no explicit proof that I was plotting a terrorist attack without the super-assistance from the FBI. All of the ‘evidence’ against me is just stuff to incriminate me,” Daoud writes Coleman.

“I think you should literally sit down with me and with your attorneys and clearly explain to me why and how I am guilty. If you can convince me of my guilt then I’ll apologize for wasting your time … I would be just as willing to explain how I’m not guilty,” he continues. “I want you and every member of the Illuminati to know that you can’t destroy Islam.”

Coleman last year ordered Daoud undergo a psychological examination, which found him competent to stand trial. His lawyer, Thomas Anthony Durkin, had challenged the finding, and sought the hearing after the November letter to determine whether his client suffers from a mental disease that should halt his trial. Daoud’s trial could now be delayed at least six months.

The Latest
The man was found unresponsive in an alley in the 10700 block of South Lowe Avenue, police said.
The man suffered head trauma and was pronounced dead at University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
Another federal judge in Chicago who also has dismissed gun cases based on the same Supreme Court ruling says the high court’s decision in what’s known as the Bruen case will “inevitably lead to more gun violence, more dead citizens and more devastated communities.”
Women make up just 10% of those in careers such as green infrastructure and clean and renewable energy, a leader from Openlands writes. Apprenticeships and other training opportunities are some of the ways to get more women into this growing job sector.
Chatterbox doesn’t seem aware that it’s courteous to ask questions, seek others’ opinions.