Kohlmann was retained by the Justice Department Monday when Rohan Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, told prosecutors he would not be available to testify.

Gunaratna, a highly regarded expert on the formation and structure of radical Islamist groups, issued a report on the Albany case months ago that remains sealed in U.S. District Court. In his place, federal authorities enlisted Kohlmann, who has written a book about al-Qaida and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Georgetown University, where he specialized in Islamic studies.

Prosecutors want Kohlmann, age 27, who operates a terrorist information Web site from his Manhattan office, to explain to the jury the inner workings of two political groups they contend were actively embraced by Aref and Hossain.

Who is Even F. Kohlman and what makes him an expert on terrorism or terror groups? The lawyers are fighting mightily to keep him off the stand. He's been described as the "Doogie Howser of Terrorism." Because of his late entry into the case, the Judge recessed the trial for a day so defense lawyers could take his deposition.

[Defendant] Hossain, a Bangladeshi immigrant who is a U.S. citizen, told an FBI informant three years ago that he is a member of Jamat-E-Islami, a fundamentalist Bangladeshi political party whose members have been elected to parliament and ministerial positions.

Kohlmann's knowledge about the group was called into question Monday while he was being deposed by Hossain's attorney, Kevin A. Luibrand, in preparation for his testimony as a government witness. During the deposition, portions of which were filed in federal court, Kohlmann was unable to answer several basic questions regarding Bangladesh and JEI.

"Who is the current prime minister of Bangladesh?" Luibrand asked.
"I don't know," Kohlmann answered.
"Who was the prime minister in 2003?" Luibrand asked.
"Don't know," said Kohlmann, who also was unable to answer questions about JEI's political platform, and the names and number of political parties in Bangladesh.

You can read the defense affidavit and applicable portions of the deposition here (pdf) and here (pdf).

The Government also wants Kohlmann to testify about "the Islamic Movement in Kurdistan (IMK), which had an office in Damascus, Syria, where Aref worked for less than a year in 1999 before moving to Albany with his family."

Federal authorities contend Aref lied about his connections to IMK on a U.S. green card application, and that some of IMK's former leaders are now considered terrorists by the United States. "Aref's affiliation with the IMK also shows Aref's intent, knowledge and absence of mistake in assisting in laundering proceeds from the importation of a surface to air missile to be used by jihadists in a terrorist attack," prosecutors wrote in a memorandum filed last month.

How is Kolmmann an expert on this group? That's not known right now. Here's how Kohlman lists his credentials:

Kohlmann, who will be paid about $5,000 for his work in the Albany case, has testified for the Justice Department in a handful of terrorism cases and is a self-described expert on al-Qaida and the Taliban. On his Web site, globalterroralert.com, Kohlmann claims to use many sources, including declassified intelligence reports and interviews with alleged terrorist recruiters, to deeply research topics that include terrorism fund-raising. Kohlmann also has worked as a terrorism consultant for MSNBC, and used to work for the Investigative Project, a think tank that researches terrorism organizations.

Kohlman has testfied in four trials so far. The Government is planning on using him in Jose Padilla's case, and the defense is objecting. Marvin Miller, an excellent defense lawyer in Alexandria, Virginia who represented a defendant in a trial in which Kohlmann testified, says:

Miller, who was the defense attorney for a Virginia man convicted on charges that he trained at a terrorist camp and was part of a "jihad network," contends Kohlmann's growing acceptance as an expert witness may have evolved from a federal court in Virginia.

"He is young. He doesn't have experience. He's never done any original research," Miller said. "They were very clever in starting him as an expert in federal court in Alexandria (Va.), because Alexandria is an area where they have the most favorable jurisdiction for these kinds of cases in the country. They bring them here because ... they have the best chance to win here as anywhere else."

Miller said the federal judge in his case prevented him from challenging Kohlmann's credentials by deposing him before the trial began. "It's good propaganda. He runs off at the mouth and a lot of judges won't control him the way they will other witnesses," Miller said. "A lot of these cases are based on politics rather than law enforcement needs. It's all high theater, and a lot of judges are afraid and terrified against ruling against the government in a terrorism case."

Is Kolmann any more an expert than a blogger?

"If the judge cares about being fair, he'll knock him out because he doesn't know anything. He reads the Internet ... repackages it and claims he's an expert," said Marvin Miller, a Virginia attorney who cross-examined Kohlmann while defending a man on terrorism charges. "He gives an argument to scare the jury about terror and fear."

One federal judge who approved Kolmann as an expert wrote in an opinion:

His methodology consists of gathering multiple sources of information, including original and secondary sources, cross-checking and juxtaposing new information against existing information and evaluating new information to determine whether his conclusions remain consonant with the most reliable sources," U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein wrote in an opinion handed down in January as part of a terrorism trial in Manhattan.

The stakes are high:

Aref, a Kurdish refugee, and Hossain, an Albany pizzeria owner, face up to 400 years in prison if convicted on charges that include money laundering and supporting terrorism.

The Government appears to be grooming this 27 year old, 2004 law school graduate and self-professed terror expert to put the fear of terrorism in the heart of every juror. He has no Masters degree, no PhD, he cannot speak, read or write Arabic, Kurdish or Urdu. It sounds like he's managed to bootstrap his way up from college kid/law student to international expert-witness-scourge in a few easy bounces, with the first couple of bounces taking place in, not surpsingly, the Fourth Circuit.

It sounds like this young man is an "expert" not because of any actual qualifications, but because of his well-developed ability to tell the government what it wants to hear. All smoke and one mirror. Is terrorism expertise going to be the next form of junk science?