Recent Appearances...

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Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Ramzi bin al Shibh	Ramzi bin al-Shaibah	al-Qaeda	Europe	Yemeni	In Jug	Key Aide	20050613
Ramzi bin al-Shibh	Ramzi bin al-Shibh	al-Qaeda in Europe	Europe				20040322

Home Front: WoT

9/11 detainee ruled mentally unfit for trial after torture at Guantanamo

2023-09-23

[IsraelTimes] Military judge says Ramzi bin al-Shibh, diagnosed with mental illnesses, is unable to defend himself; trial of alleged criminal mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, three others to go ahead
Nothing a good trepanning with a cordless drill wouldn't help
A judge at the US military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay on Thursday ruled that a Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
i detainee who was tortured by the CIA is unfit to stand trial in a death penalty

case, US media reported.

Ramzi bin al-Shibh,

...also Ramzi Binalshibh, the unhandsome Yemeni fixer accused of finding flight schools for the hijackers, helping them enter the United States, and assisting with financing the operation. He allegedly was selected to be a hijacker and made a "martyr video" in preparation for the operation, but was unable to get a U.S. visa. He also is believed to be a lead operative for a foiled plot to crash aircraft into London's Heathrow Airport...

51, had been scheduled to be one of five defendants in a trial related to the September 11, 2001, attacks on US cities by Al Qaeda that left almost 3,000 people dead.

But Colonel Matthew McCall, a military judge, said the prisoner was too psychologically damaged to help defend himself, The New York Times

...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
reported.

Doctors at the US base on the eastern tip of Cuba diagnosed Bin al-Shibh with post-traumatic stress disorder and secondary psychotic features, as well as a delusional disorder.

The military psychiatrists said his condition left him "unable to understand the nature of the proceedings against him or cooperate intelligently" with his legal defense team, the Times reported.

Bin al-Shibh has for years complained of being "tormented by invisible forces that caused his bed and cell to vibrate and that stung his genitals, depriving him of sleep," the paper added.
Quit putting quarters into the vibrator bed, idiot
Bin al-Shibh’s defense lawyer has claimed that his client was tortured by the CIA and went insane as a result of what the agency called enhanced interrogation techniques, which included sleep deprivation, waterboarding, and beatings.

He had been due to face pretrial proceedings on Friday with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, believed to be the criminal mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and three other defendants. Their hearing will proceed as scheduled, the paper said.

Bin al-Shibh was accused of helping organize the Al Qaeda cell in Hamburg, Germany, that hijacked one of two passenger jets that crashed into the World Trade Center in New York.

Another suicide airliner attack targeted the Pentagon in Washington, and a fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania when passengers overpowered the hijackers.

Link

Good Morning

2021-09-09

Biden speech: 'Now, I'm supposed
to stop and walk out of the room'

Thursday September 9th, 2021

Resistance leaders Massoud, Saleh still in Afghanistan's Panjshir, setting up parallel govt

irene ryan 64660_n

Two Russian planeloads of Kyrgyzstan citizens evacuated from Kabul		Two cells were set on fire in southern Israel's Ramon Prison
Coalition targets 15 Iran-backed Houthi missile launchers during the last night airstrikes on eastern Taiz Yemen		US Navy launches Mideast drone task force amid Iran tensions
Ramzi bin al Shibh strolled into courtroom at Gitmo this morning wearing sunglasses and smiling while talking to mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammad		PMF and security forces arrested two ISIS members in Baghdad

Trial of Elizabeth Holmes, former CEO of Theranos begins

Link

Home Front: WoT

Ramzi bin al Shibh strolled into courtroom at Gitmo this morning wearing sunglasses and smiling while talking to mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammad

2021-09-09

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

Accused 9/11 planner Ramzi bin al Shibh strolled into courtroom at Gitmo this morning wearing sunglasses and smiling while talking to mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammad three days before 20th anniversary of terrorist attacks.
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) September 8, 2021

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Did the U.S. Government Hide bin Laden In Iran? Alleged Whistleblower Releases Evidence to Make His Claim

2020-10-21

The writer appears to be a Q true believer. She started writing about it for American Thinker here. We addressed Mr. Parrot’s claims a week ago here.

Strolling through the Rantburg archives when I possibly should have been doing something more useful, I was reminded that after Al Qaeda was cornered in Tora Bora, Al Qaeda split itself in two. Twenty to thirty members of the management council, led by Al Qaeda #3 Saif Adel, fled to welcoming arms in northern Iran, taking most of Osama bin Laden’s wives and underage children. The Shura consultative council, led by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, broke into smaller groups and wandered from safe house to safe house across Pakistan. Some of them were found and arrested along the way, including the big guy himself in Abbottabad. Former #2 Ayman al Zawahiri is still out there, no doubt just as protected by the ISI as ever he was. With so many allies, no American collusion was needed.

Details from our files:
Northern Iran contingent: 20-30 Al Qaeda senior members of the management council including Saif Adel (AlQ #3 and operations chief), Suleiman Abu Ghaith (info chief, spokesmen), AlQ CFO Shaik Said, AlQ personnel director Abu Hafs, Abu Dahak (Yemeni, AlQ ambassador to the Chechen rebels), Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, two of bin Laden's teenage sons — Saad (drone zapped in Pakistan in 2009) and Hamza (killed in AfPak in 2019) — plus three Osama bin Laden wives and about 20 offspring. Iran Al Quds unit supported Ayman al-Zawahiri’s Egyptian Islamic Jihad and OBL’s Al Qaeda starting in about 1990 with significant weapons and logistics support and training. So they were very happy to put their clients under “house arrest” to keep the Americans off their backs. OBL’s youngest wife rejoined him in Pakistan in 2002, the two middle ones wandered back later.

Pakistan contingent: the Shura consultative council included Osama bin Laden and #2 Ayman al-Zawahiri along with Abu Zubaydah (recruitment and training leader arrested in Faisalabad), Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (Balochi, operations commander grabbed in Rawalpindi) and two of his deputies: Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Abu Faraj al Libbi (taken in Karachi and Multan). The ISI carefully has not noticed them or their supporters, even when they were neighbours in the military town of Abbotabad.

OBL’s first wife, Najwa bin Laden, left Afghanistan for her family in Damascus before 9/11, taking her handicapped son, but leaving most of the rest of her eleven children with their father.

[AmericanThinker] Alan Howell Parrot is an unusual character with a flowing gray beard and wizard’s turban who looks like he popped out of a movie. Born in Maine, he followed his fascination with falcons to the Middle East, serving as Chief Falconer to the Shah of Iran and organizing falconry hunts for the royal families of Saudi Arabia. His falconry skills often brought him into Iran, where he says he met Osama bin Laden six times. Parrot claims that both George W. Bush and Barack Obama were fully aware that bin Laden and more than 100 of his top Al Qaeda fighters were sheltering in Iran, along with their families. And he’s now released documents to support his claim, including an audio recording, that he has not denied, of Joe Biden's attorney admitting that Osama bin Laden was being kept in Iran as part of a deal with the U.S government.

For years, Parrot tried to alert the public about his disturbing experience with American intelligence agencies that he says refused to take action against bin Laden’s encampment. "John Brennan and Clinton and Biden outsourced the imprisonment of Al Qaeda leaders to Iran," Parrot recently told Charles Woods, father of fallen Benghazi hero Tyrone Woods. (You can watch their conversation here.) "My team planned a program to go in and get bin Laden in Iran. We were going to catch him while he was falconry hunting."

According to Parrot, U.S. intelligence agencies first ignored, then obstructed, and finally threatened him, warning they would alert the Iranians if he attempted to capture bin Laden. Eventually, Parrot says, Hillary Clinton arranged to move bin Laden to Pakistan for a "trophy kill" to ensure Obama’s reelection. In 2010, Parrott made a movie, "Feathered Cocaine," about his encounters with bin Laden, which was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival. (Here’s the trailer.) In 2011, his lawyer, John Loftus, alleged more details of U.S. intelligence’s complicity in sheltering bin Laden in an article that included this intriguing tidbit: "My friend laughed and said, "Don’t you get it, John? The last thing they want is for anyone to capture bin Laden alive. Think of what he could say on the stand in a public trial." I didn’t believe him at first."

Last week, Parrot’s story started to get traction when Anna Khait, an independent journalist, published, via Twitter, documents and audio that she says Parrot had given her. The documents include a signed non-disclosure agreement between Parrot, Congressman Curt Weldon & Joe Biden's attorney (and fixer) Brian S. Ettinger, on information leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden, letters asking why the intelligence on bin Laden is being ignored, and audio of conversations between Parrot, Weldon, and Ettinger, in which Biden’s attorney acknowledges U.S. government policy is to shelter bin Laden in Iran: "He is being protected by us. We don’t really want to get him...we want him under the radar screen because he basically made a deal with us that he’s not gonna uh...hit us here in the US." Neither Ettinger nor Biden has issued a statement denying it.

Parrot is not the only person making credible claims about bin Laden’s safe haven in Iran. Mike Moore, an intelligence expert and Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, came to the same conclusion after interviewing government intelligence operators, informants, and lawmakers. Moore notes that Robert Mueller was the FBI Director during these events and that John Brennan was "neck deep" in arranging the bin Laden deal with the Saudis and Iranians. Mueller and Brennan, of course, were key figures in the coup efforts against President Trump.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Death penalty trial date for men accused of planning 9/11 is finally set

2019-09-01

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

mastermind of the 9/11 attacks for Al Qaeda, he is also indicted an outstanding terror indictment for the unsuccessful Bojinka plot to simultaneously take down multiple airliners over the Pacific Ocean in the 1990s...

and four other accomplices charged with plotting attacks that killed 2,976 people will be held at Guantanamo Bay in January 2021.

Colonel W. Shane Cohen of the Air Force announced on Friday that the trial is set for January 11, 2021

The case will take place at Camp Justice at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba

Date announcement was included in a 10-page trial scheduling order that also said that prosecutors had until October 1 to get material to defense teams

Cohen's announcement marks the first time that a trial judge in the case actually established a date

Prosecutors had tried to get the ball rolling with two previous judges after the 2012 arraignment of the five men

The other men also charged include: Walid bin Attash,

...also Waleed bin Attash, a Yemeni who allegedly ran an al-Qaeda training camp in Logar, Afghanistan, where two of the 19 hijackers were trained. Bin Attash is believed to have been bin Laden's bodyguard. Authorities say bin Laden selected him as a hijacker, but he was prevented from participating when he was briefly detained in Yemen in early 2001...

Ramzi bin al-Shibh,

...also Ramzi Binalshibh, the unhandsome Yemeni who allegedly helped find flight schools for the hijackers, helped them enter the United States, and assisted with financing the operation. He allegedly was selected to be a hijacker and made a "martyr video" in preparation for the operation, but was unable to get a U.S. visa. He also is believed to be a lead operative for a foiled plot to crash aircraft into London's Heathrow Airport.

Ammar al-Baluchi

...born in Pakistan and reared in Kuwait, KSM’s nephew is also known as Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali. He allegedly helped nine of the hijackers travel to the United States and sent them $120,000 for expenses and flight training. He is believed to have served as a key lieutenant to Mohammed in Pakistan...

and Mustafa al-Hawsawi

...also Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, a Saudi who allegedly helped the hijackers with money, western clothing, traveler's checks and credit cards. Al-Hawsawi testified in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, saying he had seen Moussaoui at an al-Qaeda guesthouse in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in early 2001, but somehow was never introduced to him or conducted operations with him...

Link

Afghanistan

Pakistan says DNA report confirms Mullah Mansoor’s death

2016-05-30

[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The authorities in Pakistain have said DNA report have confirmed that the man killed in a US drone strike was the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.
We knew he was dead when they named his successor. But this is the Official Verification. Mullah Mansour has departed the building.
According to the local media reports, citing the local authorities, a DNA report said it was definite that the man killed in the US strike on May 21 was Mullah Akhtar Mansour.
He is One with the Ages.
The country’s interior ministry has said the confirmation was made following the DNA matching of DNA samples collected from the charred body against the relative who came forward to claim the remains.
He is no longer oxygen-dependent.
Pakistain’s foreign affairs adviser Sartaj PrunefaceAziz
Problem, not solution

...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in good jihadis and bad jihadis as a matter of national policy...
earlier said "All indicators confirm that the person killed in the drone strike was Mullah Akhtar Mansour who was travelling on a fake identity. The DNA test result will be available shortly."
That's the secret: just put on a pair of fake glasses and nobody will recognize you.
The country’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar had earlier said the government could not confirm the death without a scientific and legal basis.
He was killed in Pakistain, just like Osama bin Laden. That's where Abu Zubaidah, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad were all captured. The Quetta Shura is located in Pakistain. So is the Haqqani Network. Do we see a pattern here?
Mullah Mansoor was killed in a US drone strike in Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
province of Pakistain in the afternoon of 21st May as he was travelling in a vehicle.
But he was wearing glasses and carrying a Pak passport and ID, so nobody in Pakistain recognized him.

Link

India-Pakistan

Embarrassment and patriotism

2012-05-12

Around 7:45 in the morning on 2nd May 2011, two consecutive calls on my cellphone pulled me out of bed. 'Osama has been found and killed in Abbottabad
... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden....
,' said the caller, my younger brother. This electrifying revelation worked more than what the early morning coffee does to you. A strong sense of disbelief, shock and shame overtook me.

A year later, early morning on May 3, I found an absorbing account of a visit to Osama's compound in Abbottabad in my email. An old friend Peter Bergen, author and terrorism expert, had managed to get access in February this year, and thus came back with a riveting account of the compound.

May 2 was the most shameful day for Paks; it exposed the many lies they had been told

The news of his elimination reminded me of an observation Amrullah Saleh, the former chief of Afghan intelligence - National Directorate of Services (NDS) - had made at a conference organized by the Jamestown Foundation in Washington on 13 December 2010, had

'Unless all these boys [OBL, Mullah Omar
... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality...
, Hekmetyar] are pulled out of the basements of their hideouts in Pakistain, there will be no peace in Afghanistan, nor will the violence come down,' Saleh had thundered in a gathering of almost 350 people at the National Press Club, where I was also to read a paper on the troubles in the border regions.

Saleh repeated those words immediately after the Operation Neptune Spear - mounted to take out Bin Laden - and exuded a certain sense of vindication in several interviews he gave in days after Osama's elimination. And rightly so.

Although skeptical Paks and officials, particularly those from the security apparatus, dismissed certain details of the Washington narrative on the raid, yet his wives admitted before the Abbottabad Commission, that Osama was indeed present in the compound when the US SEALs hit. They had been living there since late 2005. The commission even reconstructed a video that the Americans claimed had been recovered from the Bin Laden house. The film, released a few days after the incident, depicts Bin Laden sitting in a small cabin-sized shabby room in front of a small, possibly 21-inch old-fashioned TV and playing with the video remote control. The widows' deposition before the Commission essentially gave a lie to all the skeptics who - still mired in a state of denial - refused to believe that OBL was present at the time of the raid.

May 2 indeed was the most shameful day for Paks; it exposed the many lies they had been fed and living with.And it was in this context that the American ambassador to Pakistain, Cameron Munter, took on the skeptics by posing counter-questions to news hounds at a press stakeout in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
on 9 May 2011: 'We need to know what was he doing all these years in Pakistain', Munter asked, echoing the suspicions running deep in Washington since the killing of Bin Laden. Most outsiders, including US politicians in the Congress, began questioning the possible motives of the ISI and other Pak security institutions: Had they been protecting Bin Laden, the most wanted terrorist since he disappeared in December 2001 from the Tora Bora cave complex in Afghanistan?

The wives practically demolished all the conspiracy theories and questions surrounding the debate over Osama's life at the compound. He was there indeed and went cold within seconds after a SEAL pierced his head and chest with two bullets through the silencer-armed rifle. He was almost instantly dead because of the fatal gunshot in the head.

What an unbelievable end to the man who challenged the sole superpower and was solely responsible for sucking the USA into the history's longest conflict, being fought in the largely mountainous and socially tribal Afghanistan that refuses to transition into a democratic and pluralistic society. Much of it we owe to the legacy that Osama has left behind in the region. Some of the supporters of Osama's ideology continue to be a source of external pressure, embarrassment and diplomatic isolation of Pakistain.

Ironically, rejection and denial followed foreign secretary

Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as The Liberatress of Libya and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another George C. Marshall ...
's May 7 remarks in New Delhi about Dr Ayman al-

Zawahiri
... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is...
's perceived presence in Pakistain. Hina Rabbani Khar, the foreign minister, demanded "actionable proof" if the US had it. But viewed against the abysmally low trust in Pakistain's security establishment, why will the American establishment risk failure by sharing information about the new most wanted terrorist? No amount of denial will fend off external pressures. Only demonstrable actions can help, at least restraining the anti-US and anti-India rhetoric. There is no way around this at all, unless those in power are bent upon piling more misery and isolation on the people of Pakistain.

Why are we upset over Zawahiri's alleged presence somewhere in Pakistain? After all, beside the late Osama bin Laden
... who was laid out deader than a mackerel, right next to the mackerel...
, Abu Zubaida, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Aimal Kansi, Adil Al Jazeeri, Ramzi bin al Shibh, Abu Faraj al Libi, Ilyas Kashmire, Abu Yazid, Tahir Yuldashev inter alia were all discovered either in the tribal areas or in big cities such as Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Bloody Karachi, and Abbottabad.

Link

Home Front: WoT

US Charges 9/11 Mastermind And Four Others

2012-04-05

[AFP] - The United States charged the self-proclaimed criminal mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, along with four alleged plotters on Wednesday, vowing to seek the death penalty in a much-awaited military trial.

"The charges allege that the five accused are responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York and Washington DC, and Shanksville, Pa., resulting in the killing of 2,976 people," the Defense Department said in a statement.

"The convening authority referred the case to a capital military commission, meaning that, if convicted, the five accused could be sentenced to death."

KSM, along with Walid bin Attash of Soddy Arabia, Yemen's Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Pakistain's Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali -- also known as Ammar al-Baluchi -- and Mustafa al-Hawsawi of Soddy Arabia will appear in court for arraignment proceedings within 30 days.

The trial, which could be months away, will be held at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the US government has set up military commissions to try terror suspects.

Link

Home Front: WoT

9/11 Mastermind Set To Face US Military Court

2012-03-12

WASHINGTON: Nine years after his arrest in Pakistain, self-proclaimed 9/11 criminal mastermind Khaled Sheikh Mohammed could soon be back in court for the much-awaited "trial of the century."
So much for the "right to a speedy" trial. 'Course, if the concept of "justice" came into it he'd have been pushing up daisies within a month of going into our custody.
After years of delays, a significant step took place last week when a former aide to Mohammed, Majid Khan, accepted a plea deal with US authorities that will require him to testify against other terror suspects at a tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

More than a decade after the 2001 attacks that left nearly 3,000 people dead on US soil, the 46-year-old bully boy known simply as "KSM" remains the ultimate figurehead in a legal battle fought by two successive US administrations.

President Barack Obama
Why can't I just eat my waffle?...
"can claim credit for killing (Osama) bin Laden and (al-Qaeda holy man Anwar) Al-Awlaqi, so nailing KSM would complete the hat trick and help quiet the conservative fearmongers who say he's weak on terrorism," former chief US military prosecutor Colonel Morris Davis told AFP. Victory in the trial could prove critical to Obama this year in his re-election bid, where he faces Republicans critical of his approach to terrorism.

The Democratic president had sought to hold a trial for KSM and his four accused accomplices in New York, just steps from the Ground Zero site where the World Trade Center's twin towers fell. But congressional Republicans put an end to those plans by blocking the transfer of terrorism suspects to the United States.

Correctly understanding that the entire trial would be a farce, especially since the Attorney General guaranteed a conviction. That sort of certainty hasn't been seen since the show trials in 1930s Moscow...

The five September 11 defendants, known as the "Guantanamo Five" for their incarceration at the US naval base in southern Cuba, will face a trial under special military tribunals created by the George W. Bush administration after the attacks. Procedures for the military tribunals, also known as commissions, were modified by the B.O. regime.

KSM, along with Walid bin Attash of Soddy Arabia, Yemen's Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Pakistain's Ammar al-Baluchi or Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Mustafa al-Hawsawi of Soddy Arabia, all face possible death penalties.

The 88-page indictment lists 2,976 murder counts for each of the victims of the coordinated attacks.

"Let's get rid of the alleged. KSM has admitted (the crimes) many times," said Michael Mukasey, who served as US attorney general under Bush.

KSM's first confessions were made when he was subjected 183 times to a simulated drowning method known as waterboarding and other so-called "enhanced" interrogation techniques at a secret CIA prison after his March 2003 capture. But "no statement obtained as a result of coercion can be used" in a military commissions trial, chief prosecutor Brigadier General Mark Martins said in an interview.

We won't need them. And the info that KSM provided saved lives...

Although KSM has since repeated his confessions, the prosecution needs to obtain statements that are legally admissible in court.

This is where Khan's awaited testimony fills the gap. The Pak national, who lived legally in America and graduated from a US high school, pleaded guilty at Guantanamo to a reduced charge of "conspiracy" to commit terrorism in exchange for a lighter sentence. "If Khan provides information on KSM and others, as has been suggested was part of the deal, it will no doubt speed up the prosecutions," said Karen Greenberg, a terrorism expert at Fordham Law School. With Khan's testimony in hand, KSM can be officially tried before a Guantanamo judge, which observers say could take place at any time.

The person who presides over the commissions, a judge known as the convening authority, now has "everything he needs to make the decision but he's not under a timeline," Martins said.

Baluchi has requested that he be spared the death penalty, saying he played a lesser role in the attacks. But, following a vote in Congress, if the Guantanamo Five plead guilty, "they're allowed to be executed," said Adam Thurschwell, a general counsel in charge of defending Guantanamo detainees.

Baluchi's lawyer, James Connell, said it is the convening authority's choice to decide a date for the trial. "We don't want them to rush into a decision but on the other hand, we don't want them to drag their feet," he added.

Although the defendants might make pre-trial appearances soon, the crucial trial could be months away. "KSM wanted to use the rest of the trial as an opportunity to deliver a diatribe against US policy," said appellate attorney David Rivkin.

KSM himself has declared that he wants to die and become a martyr.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Accused disrupt the US military court for 9/11 case

2009-07-19

FIVE alleged 9/11 plotters who were to appear before a judge at Guantanamo Bay disrupted the US military court yesterday. The five accused, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, refused to attend the hearing, the BBC reported.

The judge rejected prosecution calls for them to be compelled to attend but three did appear after a two-hour delay.

If they want to be judged without being present, fine by me ...

Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul al-Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi entered the courtroom. But Mr al-Hawsawi asked to leave after he was refused the opportunity to speak. He was escorted out by military guards.

Mr bin Attash asked the judge whether he could question a witness. When told he could not, he asked: "Even if he told lies?" When the judge insisted he could not question the witness, Mr bin Attash replied: "This is good justice!"

Yesterday's hearing was meant to focus on whether Mr Hawsawi and another defendant, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, were mentally competent to represent themselves.

The military lawyer representing Mr bin al-Shibh said he suffered from a delusional disorder. When the lawyer went into detail about how he had been deprived of sleep, her microphone was cut off by a censor.

"The government can't hide the fact that they used sleep deprivation," she said before the audio feed outside the courtroom was cut. The audio is on a 40-second delay that allows a security officer to block material believed to be classified.

Sleep deprivation is an 'enhanced interrogation technique'. Works, too ...

The prosecutor later said Mr bin al-Shibh's complaints of sleep deprivation could be explained by the diagnosis that he suffers from delusions.

And they were such informative delusions ...

Link

India-Pakistan

Pak determined to eradicate menace of terrorism: Gilani

2008-09-25

(PTI) Expressing dissatisfaction over the law and order situation in Pakistan, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani today underlined his government's commitment to fight terrorism.
"Yeah! They're really gonna get it! Just you wait and see!"
Chairing a meeting of his cabinet here, Gilani stressed the "need for stringent measures with utmost vigour and strategy to eradicate the menace of terrorism from society".

Omar Saeed Sheikh's still alive. He's the Kandahar hijack laddy, who killed Daniel Pearl. He's been in jug for six years, going through appeal after appeal, probably with a "spectacular escape" in his future.
He also called for an "effective strategy to deal with terrorist incidents in a more coordinated manner" to provide an environment of peace and security to the people.

Hafiz Saeed, the head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa and the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba is not only still alive, he's free as a bird and respected throughout the Land of the Pure. His boyoz are making special guest appearances in the mosques of Peshawar, preaching jihad, rolling their eyes and hollering "death to the infidel" whilst looking just as fearsome as can be. His collection boxes are freely available for the ~~rubes~~ Faithful to drop their hard-earned into to help finance global jihad.
An official statement said Gilani, "while expressing dissatisfaction over the overall law and order situation in the country, has reaffirmed the government's commitment to fight terrorism".

Masood Azar is also at large. He's a member of the Supreme Council of Global Jihad and the head of Jaish-e-Mohammad, the most prominent Deobandi terrorist organization, and its several false nose and moustache organizations. He was one of the hard boyz freed in Omar's Kandahar hijack operation.
While discussing law and order, he said "criminals do not have any ground to stand on (and) therefore they must be pursued in the hottest way. The law of the jungle cannot be allowed to persist as we are deeply concerned about the life and property of the people of Pakistan."

Sufi Mohammad, head of the TNSM that turned Swat from a fairly peaceful tourist destinaiton into a source of refugees and mindless violence, was released from jug for "health reasons." His son-in-law, Mullah Fazlullah, remains at large and doesn't appear to be pursued with any specific vigor even while the Mighty Pak Army is "suppressing" his minions. Fazlullah's issued edicts declaring girls' education 'un-Islamic' and declaring polio vaccination un-Islamic. He operates an illegal FM radio station that exhorts the faithful to jihad against the government and that's apparently impervious to radio direction finding.
Referring to Saturday's deadly suicide attack on the Marriott Hotel that killed 53 people, including Czech Ambassador Ivo Zdarek, and injured 266, Gilani said: "Today's cabinet (meeting) is haunted by the legacy of the Marriott Hotel suicide bombing." The meeting offered prayers for the dead and observed a minute's silence for the foreigners who died in the attack.

On various occasions we've given the Paks Mullah Omar's address and probably his phone number in Quetta. We know when and very likely where Mullah Omar's Quetta Shura meets, and we know when and very likely where Jalaluddin Haqqani's Northern Shura meets. We have a handle on where Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's headquarters and staff are in FATA.

Every now and then there's a report that bin Laden is "hiding" in Pak territory and those reports are always immediately and firmly denied even in the face of evidence to the contrary. NWFP and FATA are crawling with Arabs, Uzbeks, Chechens, and similar Islamic lice. U.S. drone strikes, that rouse indignation -- and calls for jihad -- among Pak legislators routinely eject this or that Qaeda big turban from the gene pool, including any number of Qaeda Numbah Threes. In the case of the first strike on Damadola we almost got Zawahiri.

When big turbans are snagged it's often not from NWFP but from Pak's big cities: Abu Zubaydah from Faisalabad, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad in Rawalpindi, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Tawfiq Attash Kallad in Karachi, just off the top of my head.

I joke every now and then about Binny living in Qazi's guest house -- but it's not really a joke. Probably he's got a house in a nice neighborhood in Faisalabad or someplace like that, with a garden and a driver, and he commutes to his command post -- probably in Chitral, at the end of the highway and a little beyond, that you just never hear about in the news -- for major operations. It's entirely likely that, clean shaven and un-beturbanned, wearing a neat business suit and a rep tie, he routinely flies Pak Airlines or Saudia to visit friends and relatives and to attend this or that wedding or funeral as "Abdul Rehman" or "Mr. Abdullah."
The members of the cabinet desired that "stern action" must be taken by law enforcing agencies as "their intelligence agencies are failing miserably to lay hands on the perpetrators" of attacks.
Failing miserably and failing intentionally, I'd say.

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Home Front: WoT

US Drops Charges Against Alleged '20th Hijacker' in September 11 Attacks

2008-05-14

The United States has dropped charges against the alleged "20th hijacker" in the September 11th, 2001, terror attacks on the United States. The Defense Department says charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani of Saudi Arabia were dropped without prejudice, meaning they can be filed again later. Charges against five other suspects in the attacks were referred to trial. Those suspects include the alleged mastermind of the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman could not say why the charges against al-Qahtani were dropped, but did say that the reasons could include the nature of the charges, the evidence and commission rules, among other potential factors. Whitman says the five suspects referred to trial should be arraigned within 30 days, and the trial could begin within 120 days. The Pentagon says the five men will be tried jointly in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that they face the possibility of being sentenced to death.

U.S. prosecutors said al-Qahtani did not take part in the attacks because he was denied entry into the United States by an immigration agent. Al-Qahtani recanted a confession he made at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, alleging it was made after he was tortured and humiliated.

Prosecutors filed murder and war crimes charges in February against the suspects, who also include Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi. All of the men are being held at the U.S. military facility in Guantanamo Bay.

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