Cross-examination of FBI intelligence analyst John Pulcastro by lead defense attorney David Nevin ended dramatically this afternoon, as Nevin honed in on a statement at the bottom of several web pages Pulcastro had described - which appeared to show that the sites were still being operated by their former owner, Rayyan Media of Quebec, Canada, rather than the Islamic Assembly of North America. Nearly all the evidence introduced today came from two sub-sites of the www.islamway.com web site, www.islamway.com/qoqaz and www.islamway.com/palestine. But links to those sub-sites disappeared from www.islamway.com before IANA took the site over, Nevin pointed out.

That suggests the defendant, Sami Al-Hussayen, never had any connection to those sub-sites, which include such key evidence as a link to a site for Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization. That link is cited in the charges against Al-Hussayen for aiding terrorists.

Under questioning, Pulcastro refused to answer Nevin's question about whether there had been any link to those two sub-sites on www.islamway.com after May of 2000. Instead, Pulcastro repeatedly insisted that the sites still existed, if you knew how to find them directly without links.

After Nevin had the court reporter re-read the question and several objections from the prosecution were overruled, Nevin asked Pulcastro, "For the fifth time, is there a link?"

"I can't tell you that, sir," Pulcastro responded. "What I can tell you is that these sites still existed."

Nevin's cross-examination of Pulcastro will wrap up in the morning.

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