Opinion ID: 613010
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Website in 1999 and 2000

Text: The government's evidence at trial showed that, by 1999, Care was operating a website that was described as similar in content to the Al-Hussam newsletters. A witness testified for the government that Mubayyid had approached him in 1997 or 1998 to discuss the construction of a website for Care. The two men worked together over the course of nearly a year on designing and naming the website, and on hiring a local business to host it. According to the witness, Mubayyid provided a CD of content that he wanted uploaded to the website, the witness constructed the website, and he provided Mubayyid with the administrative privileges to modify and update the website once it was up and running. The website was operational by early 1999. The government also introduced printed copies of the content of Care's website as of June 4, 2000, and March 1, 2001. Those printouts reveal that Care was providing regularly updated content to its website's readers. As one example, Care maintained a page entitled News from the Battlefields of Chechnya that provided daily news bulletins throughout late December 1999. The website also republished selected articles from the Al-Hussam newsletters, including a collection explaining the duty of jihad, an article entitled Story of a Muhajid, and an exhortation for readers to Do Something! Additionally, the website contained information about calculating Zakat and a contact page informing readers where to send their donations (with Care's United States tax identification number prominently displayed). In these respects, Care's website effectively replaced the publication of the Al-Hussam newsletter following its discontinuation in 1997. It provided an important communications link between the organization and potential supporters, and it sought to generate affirmative conduct to benefit the mujahideen. Hence, based on the website, the jury properly could have found that Mubayyid knowingly made a false statement about a material matter when he declared that the organization had engaged in no previously unreported activity in 1999 and 2000.