Category: Terrorism
Torture Looks Set to Free Terror Suspects in Canada
It appears that a significant amount of the evidence against two Canadians was from Abu Zubaydah, the clinically insane man tortured by the CIA.
As a result Mohammed Harkat, and Adil Charkaoui are now free on bail.
Either they never will terrorists, or they are free on bail and are terrorists.
They are so lucky that they are in the custody of Canada, a country with the rule of law and a functioning justice system.
A hundred miles further south, and they would be in Gitmo now.
That torturing mentally ill al Queida travel agent thing worked out great, didn’t it.
Breaking: Fire in Reichstag!
Me bad, it was a small bomb in Times Square, doubtless set by some nutter.
Of course, Fox News and Michael Chertoff will be screaming that this is the end of the world.
I’m sure that Dick Cheney has a stiffie about the possibility of exploiting this for political gain.
Reports that Hizbullah Had Role is Assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, It’s Chief of Operations
This Report is very brief, and it’s from the Jerusalem Post which is pretty right wing, though they claim that the report came from the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
They are asserting some sort of power struggle.
I have no clue what to make of it.
Moussaoui Looks to Appeal His Guilty Conviction
He is now claiming that he did not have effective counsel, because his lawyers could not fully brief him on the case, because of secrecy rules.
I don’t think that Mossaoui was the “20th Hijacker”. I think that he was a terrorist wannabee, and I think that he should be locked up for some time, though I’m not sure if that’s in a prison or a high security mental ward, but the fact that Bush and His Evil Minions™ screwed up this case just stuns me.
These guys could not organize themselves out of a wet paper bag.
A Report that Musharraf is not Long to His Post
They are talking about his leaving in the next few days.
I doubt it, but his exit would be good for America. Musharraf has never been serious about pursuing terrorism, and his presence is making Pakistan less stable.
Ex-Gitmo Prosecutor Offers to Testify for Defense
Air Force Col. Morris Davis, who resigned from his position as Guantanamo Chief Prosecutor, is offering to testify on behalf of the defense. (here and here)
The defense is arguing that political interference violates the Military Commissions Act, and I expect that Col. Davis will be offering evidence to confirm this.
This is a very brave thing to do.
“I think the rules are fair,” he said. “I think the problem is having political appointees injected into the system. They are looking for a political outcome, not justice.”
He alleges, for example, that senior officials pushed for a plea bargain in March 2007 for Australian David Hicks, allowing him to serve a nine-month sentence in his homeland for aiding the Taliban.
Davis said the sentence was too lenient and was orchestrated to help Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who was under criticism domestically for his support of President Bush and U.S. policies.
I hope that his testimony is public, but given the fact that the military has already forbidden him from appearing before congress on this matter.
If I were the defense, I’d get a subpoena, which would make any order for him not to appear illegal.
Turkey Launches Incursion into Kurdistan
Not good, and the insertion of ground troops into Northern Iraq in pursuit of PKK fighters is likely to destabilize the region, and possibly lead to ethnic reprisals against the local Turkomen.
Wait a Minute, We Can’t Have Acquittals.
So said Pentagon general counsel William Haynes, when it was explained that fair trials always have the possibility of acquittals.
I guess he just hates America and fair trials.
Read the article, largely based on interviews with Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor for the Guantánamo’s military commissions.
What we find is, as is stated in the article, “For people like Haynes, justice is meant to serve the party.”
Stalinism at its finest, ant it is unnecessary when the defendants are as guilty as hell.
It will be the Saddam show trials all over again, and the officers officiating and prosecuting, along with the civilians directing them, are violating international law, and US treaty obligations.
This Will Happen to Anonymous
Seriously, the people behind the internet attacks on Scientology will be hounded to death as Shawn Lonsdale has just been.
Scientology is an organization that harassed the Internal Revenue Service into submission.
See here for background.
Clinton Will Seek to Try 9/11 Defendants in Federal Court
Clinton is saying that if elected, she will ask the Justice Department to see if the trials can be moved to US courts, Obama is splitting the difference, saying that they should be tried in “traditional military” or federal courts, and McCain thinks the military kangaroo courts are just fine.
I think that it should be a core value of any candidate, not just the Democratic party candidate, that all efforts should be made to try the defendants in open court under US civilian rules.
Good for Hillary Clinton, and a C- (at best) to Barack Obama on trying to split the difference. This should be a core American value.
F- to the sick, old man.
More Evidence that Destroyed Evidence Will Prevent Fair Trials at Gitmo
It appears that tapes of interviews and torture interrogations were routinely overwritten, in defiance of a court order.
Not only does cast a pall over the Guantanamo show trials, it may make it impossible to hold a trial in a real court as a result.
The cynic in me believes that this was the intent. Screw it up so badly that the only alternative is a Kangaroo court.
Look at Saddam Hussein’s trial. How you run such an unfair trial, when the defendant was so plainly guilty, is completely beyond me.
Hezbollah Leader Killed in Explosion
Imad Mughniyeh was killed in a Damascus explosion.
Hezbollah, which translates to GOP in Arabic*, has claimed that the Israelis were responsible, though the Olmert government has denied responsibility.
Considering this guy’s rap sheet, the barracks bombing in ’83, plane hijackings, etc., I’m not heartbroken.
*This is not really true. It’s kind of the reverse almost true. There are any number of people in the Republican party who have either directly, or indirectly claimed that it is the “party of God”, which is what Hezbollah means in Arabic.
Pakistani Nuclear Personnel Go Missing in Al Queida Land
If this does not scare you, you need your head examined.
Two employees of Pakistan’s atomic energy agency have been abducted in the country’s restive north-western region abutting the Afghan border, police say.
One hopes that this was not a voluntary thing, because I’d rather have uncooperative nuclear technicians sharing a room with al Queida terrorists.
An Interesting Point on the Gitmo Show Trials
Over at Will Bunch’s Attytood, an interesting point is made:
But the timing of this strikes me as just a little bit too much of a coincidence here. The likely unraveling of Guantanamo is Bush’s worst nightmare. A legitimate criminal trial under American laws of jurisprudence would expose the worst of the Bush-Cheney torture regime, including waterboarding techniques, and have a result that nobody in this debate wants: Making it impossible to gain real justice against the 9/11 planners, because of inadmissable evidence.
A quick trial under military rules, and a speedy execution, is the only long-shot hope for Bush and Cheney for making the worst of the torture nightmare that they’ve created go away. That said, this new push for an execution is likely to rally more opinion around the world — the death penalty has been abolished or is not used in most civilized nations — against the United States; at the risk of appearing cynical, I doubt this decision would be announced if Mitt Romney and his famed “double Guantanamo” move or if Rudy Giuliani were still viable candidates.
But as today’s articles note, it is unlikely, with appeals and the like, that any conviction and death penalty could be carried out as quickly as January. That lays the problem on the lap of the next president — regardless of whether it’s McCain, Clinton or Obama — who would have to either affirm the military tribunals, or else declare on the first day of their presidency that one of their first officials acts will be to overturn a death sentence for a 9/11 mastermind.
These are sick evil bastards, and I’m not referring to the 911 terrorists.
Bush and His Evil Minions™ To Use Phony Gitmo Courts to Try 911 Suspects
The trials will be under the Any trials would be held by military tribunal under the terms of the Military Commissions Act, which is a mistake.
As representatives of the military say in the case, “Relatively little amounts of evidence will be classified,” and to use unfair and widely ridiculed courts at Guantanamo is a further stain on the reputation of the US.
I believe that Bush’s goals of this is two fold, to help the Republican presidential nominee in the general election, and to attempt to ensnare his successor in the military commissions quagmire, so as to avoid war crimes charges against himself.
These cases are, or should be, a …dare I say it… a “slam dunk, and they can, and should, be conducted in US courts under US rules, not phony courts under Gulag rules.
The US Is Intent on Pursuing a Child on War Crimes Prosecutions
He was 15 years old when arrested, and the US government, and the US military is determined to prosecute Omar Khadr, who was 15 when he was apprehended by US forces.
Khadr is charged in the Guantanamo war court with murder, attempted murder, conspiring with al Qaeda, providing material support for terrorism and spying by conducting surveillance of U.S. military convoys in Afghanistan. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Kuebler argued that U.S. and international law assume that children involved in an armed conflict are not there voluntarily, because they lack the experience and judgment to understand the risk of joining armed forces. Defense attorneys contend that any charges against Khadr should be pursued in a civilian court in a juvenile system where the goal is rehabilitation rather than punishment.
This is repugnant beyond belief. It refutes the principles upon which the republic was supposed to be founded, and it makes us less safe, because this war crime, and it is a war crime, inspires other people to become Jihadi.
Suicide Bombing in Israel
Damn. First in over a year.
911 Panel Ececutive Driector Had Close Ties to Bush and His Evil Minions™ and Regularly Talked to Karl Rove
What a bloody surprise. Neocon, and former Concoleeza Rice aid Philip Zelikow is hired as the executive director of the 911 commission, and it turns out that we was working to protect Bush, not the country. (here, here, and here)
The problems:
- “In his book, Shenon also says that while working for the panel, Zelikow appears to have had private conversations with former White House political director Karl Rove, despite a ban on such communication, according to Holland. Shenon reports that Zelikow later ordered his assistant to stop keeping a log of his calls, although the commission’s general counsel overruled him, Holland wrote.”
- Staffers accuse him of refusing to allow a report showing Rice to be incompetent to be submitted.
- Zelikow was responsible for demoting Richard Clark, but never told the committee members about this.
- His resume given to the 911 commission omitted details of his involvement in the events leading up to 911.
- He told his secretary to stop logging his phone calls.
Zelikow claims that, “Out of 85 staffers, half a dozen were disgruntled, Zelikow told ABC News. “Under the circumstances, that was a pretty low fraction,” he said. “But they all talked to Shenon.”
No for whistleblowing, 1 out of 500 is a low fraction. 1 our of 15 is insanely high.
Bush: “Osama Who???”
In an interview with (who else) Fox News, Bush is saying that it’s no big deal that Osama bin Laden is still breathing free air.
Interesting comment from George W. “Dead or Alive” Bush, don’t you think?