Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Home Front: WoT

Pentagon prosecutors working on deal to SAVE 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his accomplices from death penalty before his Guantanamo Bay trial

2022-03-16

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]

Guilty pleas in exchange for a life sentence could finally bring to a close the over two decade-long case, the longest ever at the war court

The cases have been bogged down in pretrial proceedings due to the CIA's use of terrorism, but plea agreements could ignite fury from 9/11 families

The al-Qaeda terrorists have been charged with terrorism; hijacking aircraft; conspiracy; murder in violation of the law of war; attacking civilians and more

The five men were allegedly directly involved with hijacking four airplanes and carrying out the coordinated attacks across the US that led to the death of 2,977

They are: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,

...also Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. He was captured in Faisalabad, Pakistain in 2002 and interned at Guantanamo...
Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash,

... Walid bin Attash and Waleed bin Attash, a Yemeni who 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 ,

...a.k.a. Ramzi ibn Al-Shaiba, senior Al Qaeda man involved in the famous Hamburg cell. The unhandsome Yemeni helped find flight schools for the hijackers, helped them enter the United States, and assisted with financing the operation. He was supposed to be a hijacker, but was unable to get a U.S. visa. He also took the lead in a foiled plot to crash aircraft into London's Heathrow Airport...

Ali Abdul Aziz Ali,

...KSM’s nephew and one of KSM’s many relatives in the Karachi cell, also known as Ammar al-Balochi, helped nine of the hijackers travel to the United States and sent them money for expenses and flight training. He was also part of the Heathrow team ...

and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi ,

... also Mustafa al-Hawsawi, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, Mustapha Ahmed al-Hawsawi, and no doubt other variations. Saudi Arabian accused of giving financial backing to the group, he 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...

all expected to face the death penalty if convicted

Update from PJ Media at 10:10 a.m. ET

During the Trump administration, prosecutors tried to work out a plea deal that would have sent the plotters to a supermax prison in Florence, Colo. with life sentences. Those negotiations fell through when the prisoners demanded they serve their life sentences in Guantanamo, which is far less restrictive.

Now the Biden administration, the guys that caused the debacle in Afghanistan

Biden administration, the guys that caused the debacle in Afghanistan

...the pack of self-imagined masterminds of strategy and intrigue at the service of the Biden Crime Family and a grateful nation...
is trying once again to settle the legal situation for KSM and the other plotters and has opened negotiations that would give the snuffies life sentences.

Even with successful negotiations, any deal would have to secure the Pentagon’s approval.
Lapdogs Milley and Austin would surely do whatever they're told
Even the suggestion of a deal during the Trump administration enraged then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who complained to Defense Secretary James N. Mattis about the convening authority, Harvey Rishikof. Shortly after that, Rishikof was fired.

Link

Europe

Germany deports man convicted over 9/11 terror attack 17 years after atrocity

2018-10-16

[OUTLINE] Germany has deported a Moroccan man who acted as a "book-keeper" for the 9/11 terrorists, 17 years after the deadly attacks.

Mounir el Motassadeq, a member of a terrorist organization known as the called "Hamburg cell", was imprisoned in 2006 after he was convicted of aiding lead hijacker Mohammed Atta and two other al-Qaeda forces of Evil by paying their tuition and rent to keep the pretence that they were students.

Almost 3,000 people were killed when two hijacked planes were flown into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001. Two more jets were taken over by terrorists, one crashing into the Pentagon and the other into a field in Pennsylvania.

El Motassadeq, who had protested his innocence during the 2006 trial, is now expected to be put on a flight to Marrakesh, Morocco, after being collected from his Hamburg jail cell, where he had served almost 15 years.

The 44-year-old was flown by helicopter to the airport on Monday, and then escorted by two heavily armed coppers into a waiting area pending the afternoon flight, news agency dpa International reported.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Kurdish commander claims German jihadist tied to 9/11 attacks caught in Syria

2018-04-19

[IsraelTimes] Pentagon looking into reports that al-Qaeda recruiter Mohammed Haydar Zammar was detained by separatist forces

A Syrian-born German national accused of helping to plan the September 11, 2001 attacks has been detained by Kurdish forces in Syria, a senior Kurdish commander told AFP Wednesday.

"Mohammed Haydar Zammar

...the arrogant, 6’ tall, 300 lb. founding member of Al Qaeda’s Hamburg cell, who recruited chief 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta among others...

has been placed in durance vile
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
by Kurdish security forces in northern Syria and is now being interrogated," the top official said, without providing further details.

Zammar, who is in his mid-fifties, has been accused of recruiting some of the September 11 hijackers to al-Qaeda.

He was detained in Morocco in December 2001 in an operation involving CIA agents, and was handed over to the Syrian authorities two weeks later.

A Syrian court sentenced Zammar to 12 years in prison in 2007 for belonging to the Moslem Brüderbund, a charge that at the time could have resulted in the death penalty.

But conflict broke out in Syria four years later, and many hardline Islamist prisoners were released from jail or broke free and went on to join jihadist groups fighting in the war.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of Arab and Kurdish fighters, has caught several foreign members of IS in Syria in recent months, particularly since the SDF captured the northern city of Raqa from the jihadists.

The Kurdish commander who spoke to AFP on Wednesday declined to say whether Zammar had been actively fighting as a member of an bad boy group in Syria.

The Pentagon said it had nothing to confirm on Zammar’s capture but was looking into it.

Link

Europe

France charges Al-Qaeda suspect deported from Pakistan

2013-10-13

[Al Ahram] A French-Algerian man suspected of Al-Qaeda ties and deported from Pakistain this week has been charged with terror offences, French judicial officials said Saturday.

Intelligence officials believe Naamen Meziche was once connected to Al-Qaeda's so-called "Hamburg cell," which planned the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

Deported Tuesday, he was charged and remanded in jug in Gay Paree Friday for criminal conspiracy in relation with a terrorist enterprise, with a view to carrying out criminal acts, the source said.

Meziche had been in Pak custody since being tossed in the clink
You have the right to remain silent...
in May 2012 in the southwest of the country along with three other suspected French jihadis, who were sent back to La Belle France in April and charged on the same count.

Born in Gay Paree in 1970, Meziche left La Belle France in the early 1990s for Afghanistan, then Germany where he is alleged to have come into close contact with the "Hamburg Cell."

He has been known to intelligence officials for more than a decade, though he has no criminal record in Europe.

French law gives authorities broad powers to detain and prosecute a suspect for intending to carry out terrorist acts or contacting organizations suspected of terrorism.

Though Meziche is suspected of being a long-time Al-Qaeda member, no proof has yet emerged of his involvement in any specific act of terror, and security officials are divided about how big a player he is.

One French anti-terror officer told AFP this week Meziche was "a big fish -- right in the ... heart of Al-Qaeda."

But another source close to the case said it was "hard to say if he is an active player or a bit of a has-been."

Link

India-Pakistan

Pakistan Expels French Al-Qaida Suspect

2013-10-09

[An Nahar] Pakistain on Tuesday deported a Frenchie accused of links to al-Qaeda and suspected of recruiting Islamist fighters, diplomatic sources told Agence La Belle France Presse.

Intelligence officials believe the man, Naamen Meziche, was once connected to al-Qaeda's so-called "Hamburg cell", which planned the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Meziche has been in Pak custody since being tossed in the clink
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
in May 2012 in the southwest of the country along with three other suspected French jihadis, who were sent back to La Belle France in April.

He was escorted onto a flight from Islamabad and arrived in Gay Paree Tuesday afternoon French time, a diplomatic source said.

French police are expected to question him about links to myrmidon networks.

At the time of his arrest, French intelligence officials described Meziche, who also holds an Algerian passport, as "an important al-Qaeda cadre linked to the Hamburg cell", but his genuine significance in jihahi circles is unclear.

The case is likely to spark strong interest in La Belle France, where memories are still fresh of the murderous rampage by Mohammed Merah in March last year.

Merah rubbed out seven people in southwest La Belle France after returning from spending several months in Pakistain, saying he was acting on behalf of al-Qaeda.

The three others arrested along with Meziche in southwest Pakistain were incarcerated
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
on their return to La Belle France for "associating with wrongdoers with a view to committing terrorist acts".

Sources say Meziche is likely to face charges under the same section of French law. It gives authorities broad powers to detain and prosecute a suspect for intending to carry out terrorist acts or contacting organizations suspected of terrorism.

Though Meziche is suspected of being a long-time al-Qaeda member, no proof has yet emerged of his involvement in any specific act of terror, and security officials were divided about how big a player he is.

One French anti-terror officer told AFP this week Meziche was "a big fish -- right in the historic heart of al-Qaeda".

But another source close to the case said it was "hard to say if he is an active player or a bit of a has-been".

Western and Pak intelligence officials have described Meziche, aged around 43, as close to Younis al-Mauritani, an important al-Qaeda figure arrested in Pakistain about six months before him.

According to the Pak military al-Mauritani was personally charged by the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones...
with planning attacks against targets in the U.S., Europe and Australia.

The fact that Meziche was arrested in the company of three young Frenchies in a part of Pakistain where numerous Islamist faceless myrmidons circulate added to suspicions he was in the business of recruiting young Europeans for extremism.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Guantanamo: 9/11 suspect expelled from courtroom

2013-09-17

[Al Ahram] One of five men accused of plotting the 11 September 2001 attacks was expelled from a Guantanamo courtroom Monday after trying to speak without permission. The incident involving Yemeni Ramzi Binalshibh happened shortly after the start of a new round of preliminary hearings at the US military facility in Cuba.

"I have the right to talk," Binalshibh said in English after the presiding military judge, Colonel James Pohl, asked the suspects if they understood their rights to waive their right to be present at the start of the proceedings broadcast to Fort Meade near the US capital.

"No you don't have the right to talk," Pohl countered before deciding to temporarily expel the detainee.

"He was warned not to be disruptive," Pohl said, adding that Binalshibh's conduct justified his exclusion.

Investigators say Binalshibh would have been on one of the hijacked planes that smashed into US buildings on 9/11 had he not failed to get a visa granting him entry to the United States.

Binalshibh, allegedly a member of Al-Qaeda's German-based Hamburg cell which planned and carried out the attacks, was captured in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
in September 2002 before being handed over to US officials.

Self-declared 9/11 kingpin Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, donning camouflage and sporting a red-tinted beard, also tried to speak about his incarceration at Guantanamo's secretive Camp 7.

Camp 7 is the most secure part of Guantanamo.

"We are never allowed to get any paper from our lawyers," he said in Arabic comments that were translated into English. He was subsequently also cut off by the judge.

But Mohammed, the translation of whose comments became inaudible, was not expelled.

David Nevin, Mohammed's lawyer, told the judge that his client feared that failure to meet with his defense counsel could negatively affect his case.

Miami Herald has more here.

Link

India-Pakistan

Captured French 'Qaeda' man headed toSomalia: Officials

2012-06-23

(Sh.M.Network)- Pak officials said Thursday that a French al Qaeda bully boy linked to the 9/11 attacks was probably heading to Somalia when he was captured near the Iranian border.

Naamen Meziche was placed in long-term storage
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
in May after disclosures by Younis al-Mauritani, captured inPakistainlast year and apparently tasked by the late Osama bin Laden
... who no longer has to waste time and energy breathing...
to plot attacks onAustralia, Europe and theUS.

"Meziche was probably on his way to Somalia when he was caught," one Pak security official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The official said it was difficult to know exactly what route Meziche was taking on the day of his arrest.

Western experts said he had been en route toPakistain's semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border, a stronghold of al Qaeda and the Taliban.

But another security source suggested he was in transit fromIran, en route to Somalia.

"Recently lots of al Qaeda people left Pakistain to move toYemen or Somalia. The tribal belt is a very important place for jihadis on their way, because there they can get the support, logistics and contacts to move on," the source told AFP.

Pak agents are interrogating Meziche and information has been shared with American, French and German intelligence agencies, the first security official said.

"Eventually he will be deported toLa Belle France," he added.

The arrest came with Islamabad under huge US pressure to do more to eliminate the threat from al Qaeda and other hard boyz sheltering on its soil.

Pak-US relations have been in freefall since Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in Pakistain in May 2011.

Born in 1970 and of Algerian descent, security sources say Meziche is an "important" al Qaeda figure in Europe who was linked to the 9/11 attacks as a member of the Hamburg cell that theUSsays criminal masterminded the 2001 hijackings.

He reportedly recruited jihadists at a notorious mosque in the northern German city, which authorities closed in 2010 for breeding fanatics.

Link

India-Pakistan

9/11 plotter fled to Pakistan, passport found in S. Wazoo

2009-10-29

Pakistan Army troops have found a passport of a member of Hamburg cell, a group of radical Islamists known to have plotted the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, in northwestern Pakistan, DawnNews reported Thursday.

The Pakistan troops advancing to South Waziristan for an offensive against Taliban seized the passport of Said Bahaji, a German of Moroccan origin, in a village near the Afghan border on Oct. 17, the television report said.

According to the passport, Said Bahaji entered Pakistan via Karachi International Airport on Sept. 4, 2001 -- a week before the terror attacks in the United States.

Said Bahaji, born to a Moroccan father and a German mother, was a member of Hamburg cell, which is believed to have provided logistic and financial support to the hijackers of the Sept. 11 attacks. He has been on the wanted list of the United States in connection with the attacks and his link with al-Qaida.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Suit by 5 ex-captives of CIA can proceed, appeals panel rules

2009-04-28

Should have a Lawfare subheading
The president cannot avoid trial of a lawsuit brought by five former CIA captives, who allege they were tortured, by proclaiming the entire case a protected state secret, a federal appeals panel ruled today.

Both former President George W. Bush and President Obama's Justice Department lawyers had argued before federal courts that a lawsuit brought by former Guantanamo prisoner Binyam Mohamed and four others should be dismissed in the interests of national security.

The lawyers argued that "the very subject matter" of the allegations that U.S. agents kidnapped and tortured terrorism suspects was entitled to the protections of the president's state secrets privilege. In a move that surprised many human rights groups, the Obama administration declined to revise the Bush lawyers' claims that the case needed to be dismissed to protect national security.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the executive privilege claim was excessive and the case could go to trial. The lawsuit by the five alleged torture victims is against Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing Co. subcontractor accused of complicity in the men's mistreatment for having flown them to secret CIA interrogation sites after they were nabbed abroad by federal agents.

Previous lawsuits alleging abuse were brought against the U.S. government and dismissed by the courts presented with presidential claims of state secrets privilege.

Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan now goes back to U.S. District Court in San Francisco for trial, with the U.S. government, which is backing Jeppesen, free to argue that specific documents or pieces of evidence can be protected from disclosure if they pose a genuine national security risk, but not the entire case, said the opinion.

"By excising secret evidence on an item-by-item basis, rather than foreclosing litigation altogether at the outset, the evidentiary privilege recognizes that the executive's national security prerogatives are not the only weighty constitutional values at stake," said the unanimous opinion written by Circuit Judge Michael Daly Hawkins, an appointee of President Clinton. ...

Binyam Mohamed
The items Mohamed admitted include the following:

1. The detainee is an Ethiopian who lived in the United States from 1992 to 1994, and in London, United Kingdom, until he departed for Pakistan in 2001.

2. The detainee arrived in Islamabad, Pakistan, in June 2001, and traveled to the al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan, to receive paramilitary training.

3. At the al Farouq camp, the detainee received 40 days of training in light arms handling, explosives, and principles of topography.

4. The detainee was taught to falsify documents, and received instruction from a senior al Qaeda operative on how to encode telephone numbers before passing them to another individual.

At a minimum, therefore, we know that Mohamed has admitted being an al Qaeda-trained operative.

Mohamed claims that he was not going to use his skills against America. Mohamed told his personal representative that "he went for training to fight in Chechnya, which was not illegal." In 2005, Mohamed's lawyer echoed this explanation in an interview with CNN. "He wanted to see the Taliban with his own eyes," Mohamed's lawyer claimed. "I am not saying he never went to any Islamic camp," the lawyer conceded, but he "didn't go to any camp to blow up Americans."

There are obvious problems with this quasi-denial.

The al Farouq training camp was responsible for training numerous al Qaeda operatives, including some of the September 11 hijackers. Al Qaeda used the al Farouq camp to identify especially promising recruits who could take on sensitive missions. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, this is what happened with members of al Qaeda's infamous Hamburg cell. Some of the future 9/11 suicide pilots also first expressed an interest in fighting in Chechnya, but ended up being assigned a mission inside the United States.

This is what the US government, or at least the parts of it that investigated Mohamed's al Qaeda ties, believes happened to Mohamed. In the unclassified files produced at Guantánamo, as well as an indictment issued by a military commission, the Department of Defense and other US agencies have outlined what they think happened during Binyam Mohamed's time in Afghanistan and then Pakistan.

According to the US government's allegations, Osama bin Laden visited the al Farouq camp "several times" after Mohamed arrived there in the summer of 2001. The terror master "lectured Binyam Mohamed and other trainees about the importance of conducting operations against the United States." Bin Laden explained that "something big is going to happen in the future" and the new recruits should get ready for an impending event.

From al Farouq, Mohamed allegedly received additional training at a "city warfare course" in Kabul and then moved to the front lines in Bagram "to experience fighting between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance." He then returned to Kabul, where the government claims he attended an explosives training camp alongside Richard Reid, the infamous shoe bomber.

Mohamed was then reportedly introduced to top al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah. By early 2002, the two were traveling between al Qaeda safehouses. The US government alleges that Mohamed then met Jose Padilla and two other plotters, both of whom are currently detained at Guantánamo, at a madrassa. Zubaydah and another top al Qaeda lieutenant, Abdul Hadi al Iraqi, allegedly directed the four of them "to receive training on building remote-controlled detonation devices for explosives."

At some point, Padilla and Mohamed traveled to a guesthouse in Lahore, Pakistan, where they "reviewed instructions on a computer ... on how to make an improvised 'dirty bomb.'" To the extent that the allegations against Mohamed have gotten any real press, it is this one that has garnered the attention. Media accounts have often highlighted the fact that Padilla and Mohamed were once thought to be plotting a "dirty bomb" attack, but that the allegation was dropped, making it seem as if they were not really planning a strike on American soil.

Indeed, all of the charges against Mohamed were dropped last year at Guantánamo. But this does not mean that he is innocent. As some press accounts have noted, the charges were most likely dropped for procedural reasons and because of the controversy surrounding his detention. According to US government files, Padilla and Mohamed were considering a variety of attack scenarios.

Zubaydah, Padilla, and Mohamed allegedly discussed the feasibility of the "dirty bomb plot." But Zubaydah moved on to the possibility of "blowing up gas tankers and spraying people with cyanide in nightclubs." Zubaydah, according to the government, stressed that the purpose of these attacks would be to help "free the prisoners in Cuba." That is, Zubaydah wanted to use terrorist attacks to force the US government to free the detainees at Guantánamo.

According to the summary-of-evidence memo prepared for Mohamed's combatant status review tribunal at Guantánamo, Mohamed was an active participant in the plotting. He proposed "the idea of attacking subway trains in the United States." But al Qaeda's military chief, Saif al Adel, and the purported 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), had a different idea. Al Adel and KSM allegedly told Binyam that he and Padilla would target "high-rise apartment buildings that utilized natural gas for its heat and also targeting gas stations." Padilla and Mohamed were supposed to rent an apartment and use the building's natural gas "to detonate an explosion that would collapse all of the floors above."

It may have been this "apartment building" plot that Mohamed and Padilla were en route to the United States to execute when they were apprehended. In early April 2002, KSM allegedly gave Mohamed $6,000 and Padilla $10,000 to fly to the United States. They were both detained at the airport in Karachi on April 4. Mohamed was arrested with a forged passport, but released. KSM arranged for Mohamed to travel on a different forged passport, but he was arrested once again on April 10. Padilla was released and made it all the way to Chicago before being arrested once again.

The gravity of the charges against Mohamed is rarely reported in the media. The Bush administration and US intelligence officials believed he was part of al Qaeda's attempted second wave of attacks on US soil.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Judge Lets 9/11 Defendants Urge Ramzi bin al-Shibh to Appear

2008-09-24

A military judge on Monday ordered Ramzi Binalshibh, one of the accused Sept. 11, 2001, plotters, brought to court here by force if necessary, after he refused to leave his cell to attend a hearing in his case.

But the presiding judge, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, also decided to let Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged operational planner of the terrorist attacks, and three other defendants write letters to Binalshibh to encourage his appearance Tuesday morning without recourse to force. Binalshibh's lead attorney said that, after receiving the letters, Binalshibh agreed to appear in court Tuesday.

Binalshibh acted as a liaison between the Hamburg cell that spearheaded the attack and al-Qaeda's leadership in Afghanistan. He refused to come to court Monday for hearings on a series of motions before his trial, which has yet to be scheduled. Binalshibh, who wants to represent himself, has also declined to meet with his military or civilian attorneys.

The pretrial hearings also will cover defense demands for more resources, the production of transcripts of proceedings in Arabic and requests by Binalshibh's counsel for the appointment of clinical and forensic psychologists.

Navy Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, Binalshibh's lead attorney, said there are substantial questions about Binalshibh's mental state and his competence to stand trial. She noted that among the medications being administered to him "is a psychotropic drug prescribed to persons with schizophrenia."

If he's that crazy he shouldn't ever be set free ...

Binalshibh's attorneys said it remains unclear whether the detainee has been diagnosed with schizophrenia or if the drug, which they declined to identify because the information is classified, is being used for behavior control.

Two psychiatrists hired by the government examined Binalshibh two weeks ago, but defense attorneys said they have not received a report of the findings. The defense is seeking to have its own independent examination of Binalshibh and asked that the proceedings be suspended until a hearing is held on his competence to stand trial.

The judge rejected the motion, siding with the prosecution. "Our position is that you don't get to opt out," said Army Col. Lawrence Morris, the chief prosecutor. "He is presumed competent."

The prosecution's desire to see Binalshibh brought to court was stymied, however, when the military refused to forcibly extract him from his cell without a formal order from the judge. The behind-the-scenes standoff led the judge to suspend proceedings.

As the judge discussed the legal wrangle with the prosecution, Mohammed raised his hand and offered to meet with Binalshibh in an effort to persuade him to come to court. The other defendants also said they would help out.

Link

Europe

Spain braced for verdicts in 3/11 train bombings

2007-10-31

The verdict on those accused of involvement in Europe's worst Islamist terrorist attack will be announced in a Spanish court today after a trial that has lasted four months and 17 days and heard testimony from more than 300 witnesses.

Ten bombs packed with dynamite and nails exploded on four trains heading into central Madrid, killing 191 people and injuring nearly 1,800.

If found guilty, 19 men, mostly of Moroccan origin, will be sentenced on charges of planning and carrying out the bombings on the morning of March 11 2004, as thousands of commuters made their way to work. Ten bombs packed with dynamite and nails exploded on four trains heading into central Madrid, killing 191 people and injuring nearly 1,800. It was the worst act of terrorism in Europe since the bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie in 1988, which claimed 270 lives. Nine Spaniards, including one woman, are also accused of providing the explosives used by the alleged terrorists.

The eight main defendants could serve 40 years, the longest possible in Spain regardless of the sentence actually passed. Other alleged conspirators face between four and 27 years. All of the accused have pleaded not guilty.

All will serve less than ten years after time all and Y'urp-peon hospitality.

Three weeks after the bombings, seven of the alleged ringleaders blew themselves up as Spanish police surrounded them in a flat where they were hiding out, taking with them vital evidence. Among the dead were Serhane Ben Abdelmajid, known as the Tunisian and the alleged mastermind of the plot, and Jamal Ahmidan, a hashish trafficker turned fundamentalist nicknamed the Chinaman.

Enjoy hell, boys.

At least four suspects, including two who may have been central to the attack, have disappeared. One is understood to have died in a suicide attack in Iraq.

The figure who drew most attention at the trial was Rabei Osman, said to be the link between the Madrid bombers and other Islamist terrorist groups. Mr Osman, also known as the Egyptian, was arrested in Milan in June 2004 after allegedly saying in wiretapped conversations that he planned the train bombings. Mr Osman claims he has been mistranslated, and condemned the attacks during the trial.

Just a little misdirection for the benefit of us infidels. Did he say it publicly in Arabic?

Suspects accused of planting the bombs include Jamal Zougam and Abdelmajid Bouchar. The latter is said to have fled the flat in Leganés just before the alleged ringleaders killed themselves.

Rogelio Alonso, a lecturer in politics and terrorism at the King Juan Carlos university, said he believed the trial had shown that "it is possible to fight this type of [Islamist] terrorism through the courts". He also said the investigation had uncovered a link between the Madrid suspects and the wider world of al-Qaida.

It's not likely that all terrorists can be tried this way. As far as we know, there's no great secrets, no intel links, no sources compromised by the trial, and the defendants are stone cold guilty. We could have tried the 9/11 mooks, assuming any had lived, and convicted them, but look at the problems we've had with other terror-related trials in this country.

However, Scott Atran, a US academic who has investigated the Hamburg cell connected to the 9/11 attacks as well as those behind the Bali bomb attacks of 2002, and who witnessed the trial, said: "There isn't the slightest bit of evidence of any relationship with al-Qaida. We've been looking at it closely for years and we've been briefed by everybody under the sun ... and nothing connects them."

Apparently this Scott Atran. He wrote this op-ed piece in 2003. Not sure what his role is in the 'investigation'.

Link

Europe

Norway Can't Deport Mullah Krekar; CIA Can't Snatch Him

2006-12-04

A bit long, but I think registration is required, so I give you the whole thing.
OSLO -- Two months after he helped kidnap a Muslim cleric in Italy, records show, an undercover CIA officer boarded a flight to Norway on another secret mission. Two other U.S. spies followed a few weeks later and checked into the same hotel.

Shortly after the agents arrived in the spring of 2003, an Islamic militant living in Oslo known as Mullah Krekar received a warning from an anonymous Norwegian official, according to Krekar's lawyer. The message: Krekar, then head of a Kurdish insurgent group, was a CIA target and should watch his back.

The spies left Norway by the end of the summer, according to records of their travels compiled by European investigators. If the CIA was planning to abduct Krekar, like other Islamic radicals it had secretly apprehended in Europe after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, those plans were quietly abandoned.

But it would not be the first or last time that the U.S. government had sought to push Krekar out of Norway. For more than a decade, the Kurdish cleric had enjoyed protection in the Nordic country as a political refugee, even as he frequently slipped back into his homeland in northern Iraq to lead an armed separatist movement called Ansar al-Islam, which has carried out attacks on civilians and U.S. troops.

The case shows how the United States has struggled to deal with Islamic militants who are allowed to live freely in Europe despite being labeled serious security risks. Others have included radical clerics in London and supporters of the Hamburg cell responsible for the Sept. 11 hijackings.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More