(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette) To protect against government secrets being exposed during the trial of a Helena-West Helena man accused of supporting a terrorist organization in Yemen, a federal judge agreed Thursday to the Justice Department’s request for a designated classified information security officer.
Bilal Al-Rayanni, 28, who is also known as Bilal Kassim Alawdi, is a Yemeni citizen who is facing a jury trial beginning July 6 in the Little Rock courtroom of U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright.
An indictment handed up in August charges him with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization — al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula — and a second charge of providing a false name on a passport.
