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Home Front: WoT

'They don't want closure, they want justice!' Fury from 9/11 families as it's revealed five Guantanamo Bay prisoners accused of planning terror attack are negotiating for PLEA DEALS that would take death penalty off table

2022-09-12

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]

Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles was the pilot on American Airlines Flight 77 which crashed into the Pentagon that day, is angry about the possibility

She says she's not alone: 'The families are outraged. They don't want closure, they want justice'

Burlingame says there is no justice for her brother and the families without a death penalty sentence

It was first revealed in March that guilty pleas in exchange for a life sentence could finally bring to a close the over two decade-long case

The anti-war group 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows , has said that the plea deals are in part a good faith agreement due to CIA torture of the five

It was first revealed in March that 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.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, Walid bin Attash and Ammar al-Baluchi were all expected to face the death penalty if convicted.

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Home Front: WoT

9/11 suspects are meeting to lay out strategy for NY trial

2009-12-25

Thanks Bambi. You wanted a circus, you're getting a circus.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four co-defendants accused of organizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks are meeting to plot legal strategy in advance of their transfer to New York and are learning as much as possible about criminal procedure in U.S. federal court, according to sources familiar with the detainees' deliberations.

While the five men wanted to plead guilty in a military commission earlier this year to hasten their executions, sources now say that the detainees favor participating in a full-scale federal trial to air their grievances and expose their treatment while held by the CIA at secret prisons. The sources, who cautioned that the detainees' final decision remains uncertain, spoke on the condition of anonymity because all communications with high-value detainees are presumptively classified.

One hopes most sincerely the meetings are also presumptively and thoroughly bugged. One is, however, not sanguine.

The detainees' "brothers' meetings" were set up to allow them to prepare for a trial at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The military has allowed the gatherings to continue because charges have not been formally withdrawn in the commission process, despite the announcement last month that Mohammed and the others would face trial in Manhattan.

The five accused have held two all-day meetings at Guantanamo Bay since Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said they would face federal criminal prosecution, according to Joseph DellaVedova, a spokesman for the Office of Military Commissions. DellaVedova said they break only for meals and prayers during the get-togethers. The military has also provided the men with computers in their cells at Guantanamo Bay to work on their defense.

It is unclear when the men will be transferred to New York. The Obama administration has yet to file a 45-day classified notice with Congress that it intends to move the prisoners into the United States, according to Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman. That suggests that their initial appearance in court in Manhattan will not come before February; the trial isn't expected to begin until late 2011.

A federal grand jury in New York is hearing evidence and testimony, according to a report by NBCNewYork.com, the Web site of a local station. Both the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan declined to comment on the report.

Courtroom as pulpit?

In hearings at Guantanamo Bay, the five detainees have trumpeted their role in the 9/11 attacks and broadcast their fealty to Osama bin Laden, causing some consternation among observers that the men will use their federal trial as a pulpit of sorts. Federal officials, though, say they are confident that some of the rhetorical flourishes that Mohammed, in particular, offered at Guantanamo Bay will be kept firmly in check in U.S. District Court.

"Judges in federal court have firm control over the conduct of defendants and other participants in their courtrooms, and when the 9/11 conspirators are brought to trial, I have every confidence that the presiding judge will ensure appropriate decorum," Holder said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last month.

Facing trial with Mohammed are four other alleged key players in the Sept. 11 conspiracy: Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni; Walid bin Attash, a Yemeni better known as Khallad; Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, Mohammed's nephew and a Pakistani also known as Ammar al-Baluchi; and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, a Saudi.

Among other issues being raised at Guantanamo, Mohammed and the others are discussing defense counsel, sources said. At the military tribunal, Mohammed, bin Attash and Ali represented themselves with assistance from both civilian and military lawyers. Lawyers for both Binalshibh and Hawsawi, however, had challenged the mental competence of their clients to represent themselves, and the issue had not been resolved when the Obama administration suspended proceedings at Guantanamo Bay.

The lawyer question

The issue of self-representation will have to be taken up again in federal court for all five defendants.

In New York, lawyers for defendants in death cases are usually drawn from a "capital panel," a short list of attorneys with experience in death penalty cases. Attorneys will also need security clearances to handle classified evidence that is off limits to the defendants.

The American Civil Liberties Union plans to ask the court to consider allowing some civilian lawyers from outside New York who worked at Guantanamo Bay to continue in the case. Mohammed's civilian attorneys at Guantanamo, for example, are from Idaho. They declined to comment on the issue of representation in federal court.

The sources said the five have not yet established a common position on the role of defense counsel. But, the sources said, the five are beginning to understand the harsh conditions they will face in Manhattan and that meetings with lawyers will be their only human contact apart from any interaction with their jailers.

The strategy meetings in Guantanamo will almost certainly end. Federal authorities are likely to impose "special administrative measures" on the defendants, according to Boyd.

Apart from measures already in place at Guantanamo Bay -- including bans on social visits, phone calls and access to the media -- special measures can limit access to other inmates, a privilege currently enjoyed in Cuba by high-value detainees such as the 9/11 defendants.

The attorney general can order the Bureau of Prisons to impose such conditions to protect national security and prevent the leak of classified information, according to federal guidelines.

At Guantanamo Bay, Mohammed and 15 other high-value detainees held at the top-secret Camp 7 can share recreation time with another detainee; visit a media room with movies, newspapers and electronic games; or work out in a gym, according to a Pentagon study, which recommended even more communal activities. Mohammed and the others have been told by military defense lawyers that once in New York, they will be in a sparse 23-hour-a-day lockdown with one hour of individual recreation, according to the sources.

"They are quite anxious about the new system and the new living conditions," one of the sources said. "They've been treated like rock stars compared to other detainees at Gitmo. And they know that all of that is about to change."

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Home Front: WoT

Amid Death-Penalty Doubts, 9/11 Suspects Withdraw Offer to Confess

2008-12-10

Five of the men accused of planning the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks said Monday that they wanted to plead guilty to murder and war crimes but withdrew the offer when a military judge raised questions about whether it would prevent them from fulfilling their desire to receive the death penalty. "Are you saying if we plead guilty we will not be able to be sentenced to death?" Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed operational mastermind of the attacks, asked at a pretrial hearing here.

The seesaw proceedings Monday raised and then postponed the prospect of a conviction in a case that has become the centerpiece of the system of military justice created by the Bush administration. A conviction would have capped a seven-year quest for justice after the 2001 attacks, but the delay in entering pleas will probably extend the process beyond the end of the Bush presidency.

The willingness of the defendants to "announce our confessions and plea in full," according to a document they sent to the judge in the case, Army Col. Stephen Henley, potentially bestows some hard decisions on the incoming administration. President-elect Barack Obama has vowed to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, but he has not indicated whether he will retain the military commissions that may be close to securing the death penalty for suspects in the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history.

If the judge ultimately accepts guilty pleas, the ability of the Obama administration to transfer the case to federal court -- a desire expressed by some Obama advisers -- might be constrained, said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

the new administration may have to oversee an execution resulting from a process that many Obama supporters and legal advisers regard as deeply flawed.

That could mean the new administration may have to oversee an execution resulting from a process that many Obama supporters and legal advisers regard as deeply flawed.

A guilty plea, however, could shield the Obama administration from what some legal experts view as potentially hazardous proceedings in federal court, where evidence obtained by torture or coercive interrogation would not be admitted. CIA Director Michael V. Hayden has acknowledged that Mohammed was subjected to waterboarding, an interrogation technique in which a prisoner is restrained as water is poured over his mouth, causing a drowning sensation.

Although legal analysts say Mohammed and his co-conspirators would probably be convicted of terrorist offenses, the ability to obtain a capital conviction may have been undermined by the use of practices that have been criticized as torture. "It is absurd to accept a guilty plea from people who were tortured and waterboarded," said Romero, who is observing the proceedings. He said in an interview that the Obama administration should clearly signal that it intends to abolish the military commissions as well as the detention system, so the judge and other Pentagon officials will not move forward with the proceeding. The Obama team declined to comment Monday.

Offering to plead guilty along with Mohammed were Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, Tawfiq bin Attash and Ammar al-Baluchi, also known as Ali Abdul Aziz Ali. Baluchi is a nephew of Mohammed.

"Our success is the greatest praise of the Lord," Mohammed and the four others wrote of the attacks in a document they sent to Henley last month.

Binalshibh and Hawsawi have not yet been judged competent to represent themselves, and Mohammed and the two others said they would defer a decision on a guilty plea until all five could act together. But the motivation behind withdrawing the plea offer appears to be the prospect of execution, lawyers here said. Mohammed has expressed a desire to die as a martyr, yet Henley questioned whether a death sentence is permissible without a verdict by a military jury.

The Pentagon, in announcing formal charges against the five in May, said each was accused of "conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, terrorism and providing material support for terrorism."

"We all five have reached an agreement to request from the commission an immediate hearing session in order to announce our confessions," the defendants said in their letter, parts of which Henley read aloud Monday. They said they were not under "any kind of pressure, threat, intimidations or promise from any party."

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Home Front: WoT

KSM, Four Others Offer to Plead Guilty at Guantanamo Bay

2008-12-09

Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed operational mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and four co-defendants told a U.S. military court in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Monday that they want to make a "confession" and enter guilty pleas to murder and war-crimes charges in the death-penalty case.

The startling announcement came at the start of what was supposed to be a week of pre-trial hearings on various motions. It could create a major dilemma for the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama, who has said he wants to close the Guantanamo detention facility and prosecute defendants such as Mohammed in federal courts.

Judge Stephen R. Henley, an Army colonel, asked three of the defendants who are representing themselves if they were willing to enter guilty pleas Monday. All said they were ready to do so. Henley read from a document that the five sent him on Nov. 4 after they met together that day to plot legal strategy. The five said they had decided to "announce our confessions and plea in full," according to the document, which Henley read in court.

"Our success is the greatest praise of the Lord," the judge read from the document.

Offering to plead guilty along with Mohammed were Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, Tawfiq bin Attash and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali. A nephew of Mohammed's, Ali is also known as Ammar al-Baluchi.

Henley said he would not be able to accept pleas anytime soon from two defendants, Binalshibh and Hawsawi, because the court has yet to hold hearings on whether they are mentally competent to represent themselves.

Mohammed later told the court he would not enter a plea until a decision was made on whether the two can defend themselves. "I want to postpone pleas until decision is made about the other brothers," Mohammed said.

The military court was told in an earlier hearing that Binalshibh, an alleged liaison between the hijackers and al-Qaeda's leadership, is being administered psychotropic drugs. An attorney for Hawsawi, a Saudi and alleged financier of the attacks, said Monday he had requested a mental competency hearing for his client, but the lawyer did not provide any details on what prompted his concern.

Mohammed said he wants to end the death-penalty case quickly. He has previously expressed a desire to be executed, which he said would allow him to die a martyr.

"I understand we are in a big drama," said Mohammed. "We don't want to waste our time with motions and motions."

Earlier Monday, he requested the dismissal of the military attorney who has been advising him.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Lawyers Criticize Quality of Guantanamo Interpreters

2008-10-15

Something was being lost in interpretation. Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, a Saudi national accused of war crimes and murder for his alleged role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was speaking in Arabic. Ralph H. Kohlmann, a Marine colonel and military judge at Guantanamo Bay, was listening to a simultaneous interpretation in English.

At a recent pretrial hearing, Hawsawi, according to his military lawyer, wanted to discuss the potential responsibilities of his attorneys and the implications of representing himself before the military commission. Those in the courtroom, however, often heard head-scratching sentences such as, "In the beginning of the timing of the laws, I said there is no difficulties base."

A linguist working with Hawsawi's team later estimated that half of what the defendant said was rendered incorrectly by court interpreters and that Hawsawi didn't understand at least 25 percent of what was said in English.

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Home Front: WoT

9/11 accused Khalid Sheikh Mohammed grills Guantanamo judge: Are you an extremist?

2008-09-24

The man accused of being the architect of September 11 has turned the tables on a Guantanamo judge by demanding to know whether he is an "extremist".

Mohammed, acting as his own attorney, asked Marine Colonel Ralph Kohlmann about his views on religion and torture at an unusual pre-trial hearing of five accused September 11 co-conspirators.

"We are well-known as extremists and fanatics, and there are also Christians and Jews that are very extremist," Mohammed told the judge.

"If you, for example, were part of Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson's groups, then you would not at all be impartial towards us," he said, referring to U.S. evangelical Christian leaders who have denounced Islam as violent.

Kohlmann replied that he did not belong to a congregation.

"When I have attended church, I was a member of various Lutheran churches and Episcopal churches, and I have not attended any of them for a long time because I have moved so often," the judge said.

Kohlmann dismissed as "inaccurate," an assertion by co-defendant Ramzi Binalshibh that he had a "Jewish name."

Kohlmann was also asked about how he followed news coverage on the day of the attacks and replied that his memory was imprecise.

He also said he had no opinion on the facts of the September 11 incident, which triggered President George Bush's "war on terror."

Binalshibh, Mohammed and three other defendants -- Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi, Walid bin Attash and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali -- are charged with conspiring with al Qaeda to kill civilians in the attacks.

The men face 2,973 counts of murder, one for each person killed when hijacked airliners crashed into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field. Prosecutors want to execute them if they are convicted.

Extensive exploratory questioning of a judge's qualifications and bias by the defense is unique to military courts, including the commissions set up by Congress to try suspected terrorists at the Guantanamo U.S. Naval base.

Defence attorneys said they had not yet decided whether to ask Kohlmann to disqualify himself based on his answers.

Mohammed is one of three al Qaeda suspects known to have been subjected to CIA waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning used in interrogation that human rights groups consider torture.

He asked Kohlmann about a high-school seminar the judge conducted in 2005 on interrogation and torture, and about his views on waterboarding.

Kohlmann said he had given two articles to the class at his daughter's high school, discussing the pros and cons of harsh interrogation techniques in circumstances such as when a suspect knows of an imminent attack. "I set out the scenarios ... to try to show it's a complex question," he said.

Binalshibh was absent from Monday's session, but appeared on Tuesday after his co-defendants urged him in letters to appear rather than be brought in by force under the judge's order. Binalshibh appeared relaxed and unrestrained at the hearing, and chatted with co-defendants.

Kohlmann put a firm stamp on court proceedings.

He ruled out a late start to accommodate the Ramadan fasting schedule of the five Muslim defendants, and brushed off a request to end the day early for Ramadan. He denied Mohammed's request that he order some women participants to dress more modestly.

And after rejecting one request by the lead prosecutor for a bathroom break, Kohlmann relented 3 1/2 hours into the morning session, with an admonition that court participants should watch their fluid intake. "You all should be able to go as long as me without having to step out," he said.

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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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Home Front: WoT

US May Ask Death for 9-11 Suspects

2008-02-11

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon is planning to charge six detainees at Guantanamo Bay for the Sept. 11 terror attacks on America and seek the death penalty. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said an announcement of the charges could come Monday.

A second official said that military leaders also will seek the death penalty for the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans.

Among those held at Guantanamo is Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the attack six years ago in which hijacked planes were flown into buildings in New York and Washington. Five others are expected to be named in sworn charges.

"The department has been working diligently to prepare cases and bring charges against a number of individuals who have been involved in some of the most grievous acts of violence and terror against the United States and our allies," Whitman said.

Prosecutors have been working for years to assemble the case against suspects in the attacks in New York and Washington that prompted the Bush administration to launch its global war on terror. "The prosecution team is close to moving forward on referring charges on a number of individuals," Whitman said, declining to name the defendants.

The New York Times reported in Monday's editions that the others are Mohammed al-Qahtani, the man officials have labeled the 20th hijacker; Ramzi bin al-Shibh, said to have been the main intermediary between the hijackers and leaders of Al Qaeda; Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, known as Ammar al-Baluchi, a nephew of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who has been identified as Mohammed's lieutenant for the 2001 operation; al- Baluchi's assistant, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi; and Walid bin Attash, a detainee known as Khallad, who investigators say selected and trained some of the hijackers.

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Terror Networks

Role of KSM nephew Ammar al-Baluchi in the 9/11 attacks comes into focus

2006-05-22

Until recently, Ammar al-Baluchi was considered a peripheral player in Al Qaeda, a functionary who made travel arrangements and wired money for terrorists.

But new government disclosures place Baluchi in a larger role in the Sept. 11 preparations and rank him No. 4 among the conspirators captured by U.S. forces after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Indeed, investigators say he was instrumental in acquiring a Boeing 747 flight simulator and a Boeing 767 flight-deck video for the hijackers to practice on before heading to the United States.

"He was turning up everywhere we looked like a chameleon," recalled one federal agent who spoke on condition of anonymity because of ongoing investigations.

A man of many names, Baluchi seemed to have his hand in everything.

He allegedly served as travel agent, personal banker and mother hen for at least nine of the 19 hijackers, sending them off from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for their fateful rendezvous in the United States.

Baluchi also reportedly sent onetime "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla on his way to Chicago with thousands of dollars and travel documents, though Padilla was captured as he stepped off the plane.

He tried to sneak a terrorist into New York to blow up gas stations on the East Coast, according to evidence in another terrorism trial. And when he was captured in April 2003, he was found hiding in his native Pakistan with the man behind the suicide attack on the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole.

A few of Baluchi's activities were sketchily cited in the Sept. 11 commission report and elsewhere. He has been variously identified as Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and, more simply, as "Losh" in the Sept. 11 conspiracy. In the plot to blow up gas stations on the East Coast, he presented himself variously as "Habib" to one collaborator and "Mustafa" to another.

But it was not until the end of the sentencing trial of avowed Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui that a clearer portrait of Baluchi emerged.

The last piece of evidence in the trial was a four-page document in which the government, for the first time, officially identified the six top Al Qaeda figures captured in the Sept. 11 plot.

The captives were listed in order of importance, and Baluchi came in at No. 4.

Believed to be in his late 20s, Baluchi was born into the business. The man at the top of the list, Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, is his uncle. His first cousin is Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, architect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Baluchi's multiple identities kept investigators at bay. Finally, it was his own slip-up in providing personal contact information for a wire transfer to hijacker Nawaf al Hamzi that "helped the FBI unravel his aliases," the Sept. 11 commission said.

Others on the list: No. 2, Ramzi Binalshibh, and No. 3, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, both Sept. 11 financiers; No. 5, Walid Muhammad Salih Bin al-Attash, also known as "Khallad," who helped formulate the Sept. 11 operation after his earlier success orchestrating the 2000 attack on the Cole; and No. 6, Mohammed al-Qahtani, the man now confirmed as the intended 20th hijacker who was denied U.S. entry by Customs officials in Florida shortly before the attacks.

Baluchi was reportedly hiding with Attash in Pakistan when both were captured in a raid by local officials in April 2003. A month earlier, Baluchi's uncle, Mohammed, was apprehended, and Baluchi and Attash were trying to take up his mantle and push ahead with new terrorism plots. One was the plan to blow up East Coast gas stations.

The government document described Baluchi as "a key travel and financial facilitator for the Sept. 11 hijackers," a role assigned to him by his uncle. His work on the Sept. 11 plot began as early as January 2000 when, at his uncle's request, "he purchased a Boeing 747-400 flight simulator" using the credit card of Marwan al Shehhi, who piloted the second plane into the trade center.

In spring 2001, Baluchi's uncle sent him to Dubai to organize "hotel reservations, future travel arrangements and local shopping needs" for the hijacking teams.

"In the end," the government said, "Baluchi assisted at least nine of the hijackers as they came through Dubai en route to the U.S. He helped them with plane tickets, travelers checks and hotel reservations. He also taught them everyday aspects of life in the West, such as purchasing clothes and ordering food."

The Sept. 11 panel said "Ali Abdul Aziz Ali," or Baluchi, also used funds from Shehhi's credit card to acquire a Boeing 767 flight-deck video and pilot literature, and had them shipped to his workplace, a computer wholesaler in the United Arab Emirates.

But the July 2004 commission report doubted that Baluchi was clued in to the magnitude of the Sept. 11 operation. Rather, the panel said, he would have "assumed the operatives he was helping were involved in a big operation in the United States." But "he did not know the details."

In footnotes referring to CIA and FBI intelligence documents, the commission said Baluchi asked his uncle if he could participate in whatever the suicide mission was. In May 2001 he "appears to have" contacted Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker, "to join the operation," the footnotes state.

Baluchi did apply in Dubai for a U.S. visa on Aug. 27, 2001, listing his intended arrival date as Sept. 4 one week before the hijackings. But his entry was denied because the U.S. viewed him as an economic immigrant coming here to stay.

In summer 2004, then-Deputy Atty. Gen. James B. Comey testified on Capitol Hill about the Padilla case. Padilla was arrested in May 2002 at O'Hare International Airport, after allegedly returning to this country from Central Asia to scout for fresh bombing targets.

Comey said Padilla told interrogators that Baluchi was Mohammed's "right-hand man." He said Baluchi gave him $10,000 in cash, travel documents, a cellphone and an e-mail address to notify him once he landed in Chicago.

"Padilla also said something else remarkable," Comey said. "He said that the night before his departure, he attended a dinner with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, with Ramzi Binalshibh and with Ammar al-Baluchi. That is, the night before Jose Padilla left on his mission to the United States, he was hosted at a farewell dinner by the mastermind of September the 11th and the coordinator of those attacks."

And ultimately, there was the plot to blow up gas stations.

In November 2005, Uzair Paracha, a young Pakistani, was convicted in federal court in New York of conspiring to help Al Qaeda in its failed effort to bomb the stations.

At the trial, attorneys read written statements to the jury from secret interrogations with Baluchi and another Al Qaeda operative, Majid Khan, about a series of meetings over dinner and at an ice cream parlor in Pakistan with Paracha and his father, Saifullah Paracha. The father is now a detainee at the U.S. naval base prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The government's case centered on Baluchi and Khan offering to pay the Parachas $200,000 if they would falsify visa documents to get Khan into the United States so he could bomb the stations.

In his statement, Baluchi said he kept his cover with the Parachas and they never believed him to be a bona-fide Al Qaeda leader. But after Baluchi's uncle was arrested and his photograph seen worldwide, Baluchi showed Saifullah Paracha the "famous picture of KSM's capture, and Saifullah Paracha was surprised to learn that KSM was as important a man as he was," Baluchi boasted in his statement.

A month later, Baluchi was taken into custody in a crackdown in Karachi, Pakistan. About 25 operatives were rounded up, including Attash, the man behind the Cole bombing.

It was the capture of Attash that seized the headlines that day. Even President Bush trumpeted the arrest, proclaiming: "He's a killer."

Baluchi went largely unnoticed.

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Home Front: WoT

Al-Qaeda Nuremburg?

2005-05-05

The arrest of a top deputy to Osama bin Laden this week raises anew an issue that has bedeviled Bush administration officials for some time: what will America ultimately do with captured Al Qaeda leaders after they have been milked for all the intelligence they have to offer?

The apprehension in Pakistan of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, reputed to be Al Qaeda's No. 3 commander, is only the latest in a series of "big catches" announced by U.S. counterterrorism officials since the American invasion of Afghanistan in the fall of 2001. Spirited away to secret locations overseas and reportedly subjected to extreme interrogation techniques under the murkiest of rules, the captured Al Qaeda leaders include most of those believed to be directly responsible for the September 11 terror attacks—with the notable exception of bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

But even as President George W. Bush today hailed al-Libbi's arrest as a "critical victory in the war on terror," a number of top counterterrorism officials are increasingly frustrated over the lack of any plans to put top Al Qaeda leaders on trial—either in special military tribunals that were authorized by Bush in November 2001 or in civilian courts.

Sources tell NEWSWEEK that administration lawyers have made virtually no headway in resolving the dilemma. In part, this is because of continued arguments by the U.S. intelligence community that "high value" prisoners such as 9/11 master planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was captured in March 2003, may still yield useful information about Al Qaeda plans and operatives that can help thwart future attacks.

But that line of argument becomes harder to sustain as time goes on and the information known to captured detainees such as Mohammed, Ramzi bin al-Shibh (another key 9/11 planner) and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi (the alleged 9/11 paymaster) becomes inevitably outdated. "At a certain point, whatever residual intelligence value they have is far outweighed by their value as defendants," said Brad Berenson, a former White House lawyer who worked on President Bush's order authorizing the creation of military tribunals in the fall of 2001. Berenson now advocates a mass Nuremberg-style trial of Al Qaeda leaders.

Another reason for pressing the issue relatively soon, some officials say, is the recent guilty plea of accused 9/11 co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. His case now enters a new phase in which prosecutors will argue that Moussaoui, who played a peripheral role in the 9/11 conspiracy at best, should be executed while the actual architects of 9/11 remain alive indefinitely—with no apparent plans to even put them on trial.

Aside from the fundamental inconsistency in the U.S. government's position, the lack of trial plans for top Al Qaeda leaders could gravely undermine the position of prosecutors in court: under federal death penalty law, if defense lawyers can establish that Moussaoui's superiors such as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh are in U.S. custody and are not facing death, it would count as a "mitigating factor" that could help Moussaoui avoid execution.

The internal tensions over what to do with top Al Qaeda leaders became briefly visible last year when FBI Director Robert Mueller told reporters that the bureau was gathering evidence for use in a possible military tribunal case against Mohammed and other high-value detainees. "I would expect that there would be tribunals at some point," said Mueller in response to a reporter's questions about whether Mohammed and others would face trial.

But within hours of those remarks, Mueller aides and administration officials quickly moved to tamp down any speculation that trials of the real perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks were anywhere close to happening. In fact, administration officials told reporters, no decisions had been made—or were even being contemplated.

If anything, the difficulties in bringing top Al Qaeda leaders to trial have only grown since then. The constitutionality of the military tribunals authorized by Bush is being challenged in the federal courts by lawyers for accused detainees. Even more significantly, in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal, there have been a series of disclosures that White House and Justice Department lawyers approved the CIA's use of a number of extreme interrogation techniques against top Al Qaeda detainees. These include "water boarding"—in which a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe he might drown. Some lawyers say any trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and others—even in military tribunals—would open the door for their defense lawyers to potentially embarrass the U.S. government by introducing evidence to suggest that their clients had been tortured by CIA interrogators in violation of international law.

In part, the Bush administration may dodge the bullet in the case of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, or "the Libyan," as he is known, by simply deciding not to press for custody of him. The Al Qaeda commander was captured by Pakistani security forces after a firefight on Monday involving a group of terrorist operatives in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.

In the past, the Bush administration successfully pressed Pakistani authorities to turn over to American representatives—usually the CIA—high-level Al Qaeda operatives such as Mohammed and al-Shibh. But in this case, a U.S. official said, the Pakistanis have good reason to want to hold al-Libbi themselves and possibly put him on trial in Pakistan. Pakistani officials have accused him of orchestrating two December 2003 assassination attempts against Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Reports from Pakistan also describe al-Libbi as a major suspect in other terrorist attacks in Pakistan, including the attempted assassination of the country's prime minister last year and several bombings.

Officials in Washington say the administration appears to be content to allow the Pakistanis to hold al-Libbi—so long as U.S. interrogators get access to him. Closely allied with Musharraf, the American government is confident it will get such access.

Al-Libbi is important because some U.S. intelligence officials describe him as just below bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri in importance. Considered an Al Qaeda fixer who also had an "operational planning role," al-Libbi is said by some U.S. authorities to have moved into the bin Laden network's top leadership to replace Mohammed, Al Qaeda's top field commander.

U.S. officials say they have reason to believe that al-Libbi directly participated in the planning for post-9/11 attacks inside the United States, possibly during last year's presidential-election campaign and between Election Day and Bush's second inauguration. No such attacks occurred.

Some officials said intelligence may tie al-Libbi to an Al Qaeda computer expert who was arrested in Pakistan about a year ago. That expert was allegedly in contact with a suspected terrorist cell in London whose leaders included an associate of Mohammed who allegedly visited the U.S. prior to 9/11 to conduct surveillance of financial targets in New York, New Jersey and Washington. Officials declined to give any further details on the purported plots or threats that al-Libbi allegedly was orchestrating against the U.S. mainland.

Link

Home Front

Dismissal Sought in Case Vs. Moussaoui

2003-09-25

Goodbye federal rights, hello! military tribunal!
By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Prosecutors have agreed with Zacarias Moussaouiâs lawyers that all charges against the terrorism defendant should be dismissed but only to hasten an appeal that challenges his right to question fellow al-Qaida prisoners.
challenge then Gitmo for the boy lol
In a written motion made public Thursday, the government also asked U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema to issue a stay, an order that would keep the charges in place during the appeal.
Leonieâs a liberal icon in the making
Prosecutors want an appellate court to overrule two of Brinkemaâs orders that gave Moussaoui the right to question three captives who, he says, could testify he was not a conspirator in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

A panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) in Richmond, Va. has heard oral arguments on one of the orders allowing Moussaoui to question enemy combatants but said it would rule only after Brinkema punished the government for defying the court.

"In light of the rulings this court has already made ... the government believes that, at this juncture, dismissal of the indictment ... is the surest route for ensuring that the questions at issue here can promptly be presented to the 4th Circuit," the government said.

Testimony by the witnesses would disclose classified information and damage national security, the government contended.

Brinkema could impose a punishment next week, after a Monday deadline expires for Moussaoui to submit his recommended sanctions against the government. While dismissal is the most severe possible sanction, the judge could take lesser action, including barring the government from seeking the death penalty.

Prosecutors have opposed any direct access between the prisoners and Moussaoui, who has acknowledged his loyalty to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and is the only U.S. defendant charged as a conspirator with the Sept. 11 hijackers.

The government has argued that national security would be gravely harmed if any details were revealed about the sensitive interrogations or statements made by the prisoners, who are held in undisclosed locations outside the United States.

However, federal law says that when a defendant is prevented by court order from disclosing classified information â in this case the al-Qaida testimony â the judge is obligated to dismiss the case unless the court determines the interests of justice would be served by another solution.

Moussaouiâs defense team, representing his interests while he serves as his own lawyer, said in a motion released Wednesday the case should be dismissed.

Two of the prisoners were among Osama bin Ladenâs top operatives, Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and a key planner of the attacks, Ramzi Binalshibh. The third is Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, a suspected paymaster for al-Qaida.

In a statement, the Justice Department (news - web sites) said, "We believe the Constitution does not require, and national security will not permit, the government to allow Moussaoui, an avowed terrorist, to have direct access to his terrorist confederates who have been detained abroad as enemy combatants in the midst of a war."

The government said in the motion the issue before the court is whether the constitutional right to access to favorable witnesses applies to an enemy combatant "seized and held abroad during armed hostilities."

"As the government has explained, the Constitution provides an accused terrorist with no such right to ... questioning of his confederates detained by the military overseas."

Prosecutors also said there were other ways to introduce witness statements beyond direct testimony but added that that issue could be decided later.

Link

Terror Networks

Kalid recently used messengers to communicate with Bin Laden

2003-03-06

Now in US custody at Bagram Air Base, "Khalid Shaikh Mohammed admitted he was in contact with Osama bin Laden," as recently as the past few weeks, a Pakistani intelligence officer said. "The contacts were through messengers - but he insisted that he was not aware of (bin Laden's) whereabouts."
Have you, like, seen him recently, Khalid?

This would tend to contradict the "Koranathon"-"ain't sayin' nuttin'" story, below...

Khalid's last refuge was a spacious villa inside a neat walled garden in a tranquil neighbourhood called Westridge, an upscale oasis in the crowded northern city of Rawalpindi. Flanked by doctors' and army officers' residences, it lies between Pakistan's sprawling military headquarters and a local office of its secretive intelligence wing ISI.
Much nicer than his new digs - and heh, heh, I still suspect much more roomy and spacious than Bin Laden's new digs.
Storming with Kalashnikovs, flashbulbs and shouts were two dozen US and Pakistani intelligence commandos. The raiders [also] picked up Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi, a wanted Saudi terrorist who wired money to the hijackers; the "slow" Pakistani son of a local Islamic party leader; and a treasure trove of handwritten and electronic al-Qaeda data. Khalid was caught napping.
Lucky for him, since he hasn't had a chance to get caught up lately.
The man who led US and Pakistani operatives [to him] was an Egyptian nabbed on February 13 in the harsh southwest city of Quetta. US officials believe the Egyptian Muhamad Asad Abdel Rahman, is the son of blind cleric Omar Abdul Rahman, who was convicted of plotting to blow up the UN's in 1995. Khalid was one step ahead of the raiders when they stormed the Egyptians' hideout. Email correspondence and satellite phone calls from Khalid to Rahman helped CIA and FBI communications experts trace him to somewhere in the Islamabad-Rawalpindi region. Another phone call by Khalid on his satellite phone helped pinpoint him to leafy Westridge.

Khalid was shifted between three separate safe houses in Rawalpindi during three days of interrogation in Pakistan before being flown to Bagram. A senior intelligence official confirmed Bagram as the destination, although Bagram spokesman Colonel Roger King would only say: "I can tell you that ... people will come to this location before going somewhere else."

Link

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