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Recent Appearances... Rantburg
Zacarias Moussaoui Zacarias Moussaoui al-Qaeda Home Front WoT Moroccan In Jug Cannon Fodder 20031210  
    So-called "20th hijacker." Moussaoui pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to taking part in a broad al-Qaida conspiracy leading up to Sept. 11, but denied he was supposed to be one of the hijackers that day, saying instead that he was to fly a plane into the White House at a later date.
  Zacarias Moussaoui al-Qaeda Home Front 20040122  
  Zacarias Moussaoui al-Qaeda in North America Home Front 20031212  
  Zacarias Moussaoui Finsbury Park Mosque Britain 20040603 Link

Britain
New imam of a large mosque in Birmingham, England had previously suggested that the U.S. deserved the 9/11
2024-06-04
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

The mosque has been linked to Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabis, while the imam during a previous assignment at the Brixton mosque appeared in our archives associated with Zacarias Moussaoui
Related:
Green Lane mosque: 2007-01-08 Islamic extremism at number of Britain`s leading mosques
Related:
Abdul Haqq Baker 04/24/2006 Al-Qaeda saw Moussaoui as expendable
Abdul Haqq Baker 04/18/2006 Expert: Moussaoui is mentally ill !

Link


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
...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.
Related:
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed: 2013-02-17 After 15 years in solitary, convicted terrorist pleads for contact with others
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed: 2012-05-02 9/11 Mastermind Says He Wants to Die
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed: 2011-04-27 WikiLeaks: KSM beheaded U.S. reporter despite warnings
Related:
Ramzi Bin al-Shibh: 2021-09-08 Pre-trial hearings for five 9/11 suspects delayed for 18 months by COVID resume at Guantanamo Bay
Ramzi Bin al-Shibh: 2011-01-07 Al Qaeda Seeking Revenge against Morocco — Anti Terrorism Expert
Ramzi Bin al-Shibh: 2005-04-23 For those who missed it, Moussaoui pleads guilty
Related:
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: 2022-02-06 US panel recommends release of Guantanamo detainee suspected in 9/11 attacks
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: 2021-09-18 Guantanamo trial of 9/11 mastermind suspended amid COVID scare
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: 2021-09-08 Pre-trial hearings for five 9/11 suspects delayed for 18 months by COVID resume at Guantanamo Bay
Related:
Ali Abdul Aziz Ali: 2021-09-08 Pre-trial hearings for five 9/11 suspects delayed for 18 months by COVID resume at Guantanamo Bay
Ali Abdul Aziz Ali: 2015-11-15 FBI Has Nearly 1,000 Active Islamic State Probes Inside U.S.
Ali Abdul Aziz Ali: 2011-06-02 US files new charges against Sept. 11 accused
Related:
Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi: 2021-09-08 Pre-trial hearings for five 9/11 suspects delayed for 18 months by COVID resume at Guantanamo Bay
Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi: 2015-11-15 FBI Has Nearly 1,000 Active Islamic State Probes Inside U.S.
Related:
Ammar al-Balochi: 2012-04-11 Five 9/11 accused get May 5 Guantanamo court date
Ammar al-Balochi: 2007-01-01 Freed jihadis put Pakistan's war on terror 'back to square one', say senior officers
Link


Home Front: WoT
Pentagon says Guantanamo detainee known as '20th Hijacker' will be sent back to Saudi Arabia
2022-03-08
[WashingtonExaminer] A Saudi man who has been a Guantanamo Bay detainee for 20 years for allegedly conspiring to take part in the Sept. 11 hijacking plot will soon be transferred back to his home country, the Pentagon announced Monday.

Mohammad Mani Ahmad al Qahtani,
...those endless Arab names with their many alternate spellings! In his case, the popular Arabian name Mohammed al-Qahtani in the Rantburg archives also appears as Mohammed al-Kahtani and Mohamed al-Kahtani. He made it to Orlando, Florida, before being deported a month before 9/11...
who is known as the "20th Hijacker,"
... yes, dear Reader, you do remember correctly: Zacarias Moussaoui is also known as the 20th Hijacker. Some people, brilliant as they are in other ways, just cannot count beyond their fingers and toes...
is being returned on the condition that he will be subject to security and humane treatment, according to the Defense Department statement.
Link


-Lurid Crime Tales-
The FBI is very good at woke politics, not so good at catching killers
2021-04-02
[NYPost] If you watch TV crime shows, you would think the Federal Bureau of Investigation works tirelessly to protect us from terrorists and criminals. But the real FBI is a much less impressive organization.

After the horrendous Colorado shooting last week, we learned that the alleged shooter, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, had a record of violence and arrests. His brother described him as mentally ill, paranoid and "very anti-social." He was also on the FBI’s radar because of someone with whom he associated.

In this, Alissa joins a long list of "known-wolf" killers, including Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter; the Tsarnaev brothers, who conducted the Boston Marathon bombing; Omar Mateen, the Pulse nightclub shooter in Florida; and some of the 9/11 hijackers.

The FBI’s failure to catch that last set of perpetrators is especially enraging — and shows the agency has been atrophying for a long time. "For two and a half weeks before the attacks," as Slate noted, "the US government knew the names of two hijackers. It knew they were al-Qaeda killers and that they were already in the United States."

The two, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, lived under their real names, loud and proud. Per Slate: "They used those names for financial transactions, flight school, to earn frequent flier miles and to procure a California identity card." Nevertheless, the FBI failed to nab the pair until, on Sept. 11, 2001, they slammed an airliner into the Pentagon.

The bureau’s performance disappointed FBI agents themselves. Agents trying to get a warrant to search the laptop of 9/11’s "20th hijacker," Zacarias Moussaoui, joked that Osama bin Laden must have had a "mole" in the FBI’s DC headquarters because they were meeting with so much interference.

And as the Boston Herald’s Howie Carr reminds us: "Remember serial killer Gary Sampson? Before he murdered three innocent men in 2001, he called the FBI office in Boston from a pay phone in Abington and offered to turn himself in on some unsolved bank robberies." But the FBI apparently keeps banker’s hours, and the call came on a Friday afternoon; the bureau ignored the call. "The following day, Sampson started his two-state carjacking murder spree."

So what’s the FBI good for? The answer is, the kinds of things that wouldn’t make for flattering TV.

Some of it is humorous, as when the bureau sent no fewer than 15 agents to investigate a "noose" in race driver Bubba Wallace’s garage that turned out to be an innocent pull cord.

Most of it isn’t so funny.

Agents in the FBI’s Boston office, for example, protected notorious mobster James "Whitey" Bulger from law enforcement, while simultaneously accepting gifts from him. They may even have helped him in his efforts. Carr also notes that the bureau’s Boston office was guilty of "railroading four Boston men onto death row for a 1965 murder they did not commit, allowing them to rot in prison for 35 years while corrupt FBI agents protected the real murderers from justice."
Fire everyone G-12 and above
Related:
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa: 2021-03-26 Boulder Shooting Suspect's Lawyer Cites 'Mental Illness' in First Court Appearance
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa: 2021-03-25 Day 3: Feds raid Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa’s family home in Colorado after Boulder massacre
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa: 2021-03-25 Ilhan Omar ripped for tweet about Boulder shooting suspect's race
Related:
Khalid al-Mihdhar: 2011-05-21 New Evidence Suggests Radical Cleric Anwar al-Awlaki Was an Overlooked Key Player in 9/11 Plot
Khalid al-Mihdhar: 2010-04-14 Awlaki lied to qualify for U.S.-funded college scholarship
Khalid al-Mihdhar: 2008-12-11 Malaysia: 9/11 terror suspect freed in north
Related:
Nawaf al-Hazmi: 2019-01-28 The Illegal CIA Operation That Brought Us 9/11
Nawaf al-Hazmi: 2016-07-16 9/11 report's classified '28 pages' about potential Saudi Arabia ties released
Nawaf al-Hazmi: 2016-04-21 Movement pursues the 'real story' of '28 pages' and Saudi 9/11 involvement
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...

Related: Delayed by Obama, Trial of 9/11 Plotters Finally Set for 2021
Link


Home Front: WoT
Federalist Update: Jihadist Beheader In Oklahoma Cleared For Execution
2019-01-07
[The Federalist] This fall, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially cemented the execution of America’s least known Islamic terrorist. Jihadist convert Alton Nolen
...known at his mosque, Greater Islamic Society of Oklahoma City, as Jahkeem Yisrael and sometimes Jah-Keem Yisrael for reasons that are unclear. That mosque has a bit of a history, having been founded by Mufid Abdulqader, convicted money man of the Holy Land Foundation and half-brother of Hamas big turban Khaled Mashal, while a former imam, Suhaib Webb, was a dear friend of al-Qaeda in Arabia big turban Anwar al-Awlaki. Zacarias Moussaoui was only one of the interesting members of the congregation. Naturally, the Obama administration approved of the place...
is now set to be put to death in Oklahoma, likely by nitrogen gas inhalation.

The Supreme Court’s October 1, 2018 rejection of Nolen’s final death penalty appeal went unremarked upon by news media so, partly as a result, I missed it. But the Nolen case is very much worth remembering, along with all terror attacks that occur on U.S. soil, if not just for the victims and their survivors but for lessons that can and must be learned.

The September 24, 2014 attack in Oklahoma is somewhat notable in the annals of many officially uncalled terrorist strikes in that Nolen emulated a favorite ISIS death tactic no doubt learned online: he fully beheaded a co-worker‐the beloved wife, mother, and grandmother Colleen Hufford‐inside the Moore, Oklahoma food processing plant where they both worked. Shouting "Alluah Akbar" throughout the attack, Nolen used the same oversized butcher knife on the neck of a second co-worker, Tracy Johnson, when the company’s chief operations officer, a reserve law enforcement officer named Mark Vaughn, burst in with an AR-15 rifle. He shot and wounded Nolen as Nolen disengaged from his second victim and charged at him with the bloody knife.

Such an attack must generate a particular horror in its witnesses and, when Nolen is finally put to death, one should keep in mind what Hufford must have experienced in her last moments.
Link


Arabia
The Ugly Terror Truth About Jamal Khashoggi
2018-10-22
[Sultan Knish] In high school, Jamal Khashoggi had a good friend. His name was Osama bin Laden.

"We were hoping to establish an Islamic state anywhere," Khashoggi reminisced about their time together in the Muslim Brotherhood. "We believed that the first one would lead to another, and that would have a domino effect which could reverse the history of mankind."

The friendship endured with Jamal Khashoggi following Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan. Khashoggi credited Adel Batterjee, listed at one time as one of "the world’s foremost terrorist financiers" by the Treasury Department, with bringing him to Afghanistan to report on the fighting.

The media calls Khashoggi a journalist, but his writings from 80s Afghanistan read as Jihadist propaganda with titles like, "Arab Mujahadeen in Afghanistan II: Exemplifies the Unity of Islamic Ummah".

And when Osama bin Laden set up Al Qaeda, he called Khashoggi with the details.

After Afghanistan, Jamal Khashoggi went to work as a media adviser for former Saudi intel boss, Prince Turki bin Faisal, alleged to have links to Al Qaeda. Those allegations came from, among others, Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged twentieth hijacker.

When the other 19 hijackers perpetrated the attacks of September 11, Khashoggi wrote that the Saudis would not "give in" to American "demands" for "unconditional condemnation" and "total cooperation".

"Saudis tend to link the ugliness of what happened in New York and Washington with what has happened and continues to happen in Palestine. It is time that the United States comes to understand the effect of its foreign policy and the consequences of that policy," he declared.
Link


Home Front: WoT
9/11 report's classified '28 pages' about potential Saudi Arabia ties released
2016-07-16
BLUF: [Guardian] Perhaps most intriguingly, the 28 pages reveal that Osama Basnan, whom the documents describe as a supporter of two of the 9/11 hijackers in California, received a cheque from Prince Bandar, the former Saudi ambassador to the US.

"On at least one occasion, Bassnan received a check directly from Prince Bandar’s account," it says. "According to the FBI, on May 14, 1998, Bassnan cashed a check from Bandar in the amount of $15,000. Bassnan’s wife also received at least one check directly from Bandar."

Basnan lived across the street from two of the hijackers ‐ Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi ‐ in San Diego and told an FBI asset that he had helped them, according to the document. Basnan was allegedly a supporter of al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden and spoke of him "as if he were a god".

Article fails to mention the Zacarias Moussaoui connection, nor does it mention Bandar's connection to the Saudi Intelligence Community.....or BAE.

Appears Mr. Bassnan (an import/export used car dealer in D.C.) was a bit confused about his contacts and knowledge of Messrs. al Midhar and al Hazmi.
Anguper Hupomosing9418 thoghtfully posted a downloadable PDF of the thing, which I moved here at 12:35 p.m. ET for ease of finding.
PDF: "28 pages" of formerly classified pages on Saudi 9/11 links
Link


Home Front: WoT
Last UK Detainee at Guantanamo Is Released
2015-10-30
[ABC] A Saudi who emerged as a defiant leader among prisoners during nearly 14 years of confinement on the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba has been released to join his family in Britain.

The release of Shaker Aamer comes after a publicity campaign and at the request of Prime Minister David Cameron, who had urged President Barack Obama to resolve the case of the last prisoner at Guantanamo with significant ties to Britain.

"He needs, first, to be in a hospital, and then to be with his family," said Clive Stafford Smith, one of his lawyers.

His release, the 15th from Guantanamo this year, brings the detainee population there to 112, and comes as part of a renewed push by Obama to close the facility opened by his predecessor after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

Aamer, 48, had told his lawyers that he would seek a medical examination in Britain because of concerns about his health stemming in part from repeated hunger strikes while at Guantanamo.

He has received more media attention over the years than any other prisoners except the five who face trial by military commission for their alleged roles planning and providing support to 9/11 attacks.

Aamer was born in Saudi Arabia and remains a citizen, but wanted to return to London where he has four children, including a son he has never seen and a wife, who is the daughter of a prominent retired imam. Aamer worked as a translator for a law firm in London from 1994 to 2001.

He has said that he went to Afghanistan to help run a school for girls, and fled during the chaos following the U.S. invasion. He was captured by the Northern Alliance and turned over to the U.S. for a bounty. He was taken to Guantanamo in February 2002.

The U.S. Defense Department has disclosed that he was accused of significant links to terrorism. They said he shared an apartment in the late 1990s with Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted of taking part in the Sept. 11 conspiracy; had met with Richard Reid, who tried to blow up a U.S. passenger jet with explosives in his shoes; had undergone al-Qaida training in the use of explosives and missiles, and received a stipend from Osama bin Laden.

Those allegations and more were later found in a November 2007 detainee assessment obtained and published by Wikileaks that described him as a member of al-Qaida and a "close associate" of bin Laden.
Link


Home Front: WoT
Saudi Arabia denies claims its agents helped in 9/11 attacks
2015-04-13
[IsraelTimes] Families of victims say new evidence shows Riyadh 'directly and knowingly' helped hijackers

Attorneys for Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
say a judge should reject claims by families of victims of the September 11 attacks that new evidence -- including an interview with the man who became known as the "20th hijacker" -- shows agents of the kingdom "directly and knowingly" helped the hijackers.

In papers filed in Manhattan federal court late Friday, the lawyers said there is no evidence Saudi Arabia supported or caused the attacks.

They urged a judge to dismiss the claims against Saudi Arabia, saying the lawyers "have had enough chances to make their case."

Saudi Arabia was among the countries, companies and organizations sued in 2002 and afterward by families who claimed they aided al-Qaeda, the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse...
and other terrorist groups. The lawsuits sought billions of dollars in damages.

Lawyers for Saudi Arabia also urged the judge considering the merits of the civil litigation to disregard claims by al-Qaeda member Zacarias Moussaoui, who is serving a life prison sentence after pleading guilty in April 2005 to conspiring with the hijackers to kill Americans.

They called his comments to plaintiffs' lawyers last year "colorful but immaterial hearsay statements" from a convicted, mentally ill terrorist. Before jurors spared Moussaoui's life, a psychologist testified for the defense at death penalty proceedings that he had paranoid schizophrenia.

Moussaoui says it was a lie that Saudi Arabia cut ties with al-Qaeda and bin Laden in 1994.

Lawyers for 9/11 families cited Moussaoui's claims in saying they've unearthed "compelling" evidence that the Saudi government assisted the hijackers.

In papers filed Friday, the plaintiffs' lawyers said the efforts by Saudi Arabia to be dismissed from the litigation "rest on grave distortions of the record, implausible interpretations of the allegations, facts and evidence, and a refusal to afford plaintiffs the obvious inferences to which they are entitled."

Saudi Arabia was dismissed as a defendant in the case once before by a judge who said it was protected by sovereign immunity, but a federal appeals court in December 2013 reinstated it, saying a legal exception existed and the circumstances were extraordinary.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say they have developed substantial new evidence against Saudi Arabia since the Sept. 11 Commission said in a report a decade ago that it found no evidence that the Saudi government or senior Saudi officials individually funded al-Qaeda.

Lawyers for Saudi Arabia say the families are relying on the submission of "thousands of pages of inadmissible and irrelevant materials."

They wrote: "If they had a single piece of evidence that would stand up in court, they would highlight it in their papers. Instead, they focus heavily on witnesses manifestly lacking personal knowledge, and on newspaper articles, blog posts, and similar multiple hearsay. They thus reveal that they have nothing better."
Link


Home Front: WoT
U.S. Court Denies Request to Move Boston Bombings Trial
2015-03-01
[AnNahar] A U.S. court Friday denied a request by alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for his trial to be moved out of the city, just days ahead of opening statements.
"Plaaaaaaayyyyyy baaaaaalllllll!"
A three-judge panel came down in a two-to-one split decision against the move.

According to the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit panel, Tsarnaev had "not met the well-established standards for such relief."

His lawyers, who have made multiple attempts to move the proceedings, claimed that pretrial publicity had so prejudiced potential jurors that a fair and impartial jury could not be formed in Boston, where the April 15, 2013, marathon attacks killed three people and maimed 264.
Move the trial to Amarillo. Or Knoxville. Or Provo. Or Tuscaloosa. Be careful what you wish for...
But, according to the two concurring judges, "any high-profile case will receive significant media attention."

"Knowledge, however, does not equate to disqualifying prejudice," Chief Judge Sandra Lynch and Circuit Judge Jeffrey Howard said, citing other high-profile trials that went forward in the communities where the events in question took place. These included trials for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and that of Zacarias Moussaoui, known as the "20th hijacker" in the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Tsarnaev, 21, faces the death penalty if convicted over the Boston attacks -- the worst such incident in the United States since 9/11.

In his dissenting opinion, Circuit Judge Juan Torruella said that "given the impact of the bombing and subsequent press coverage on the entire city, it is absurd to suggest that Tsarnaev will receive a fair and impartial trial in the Eastern Division of the District of Massachusetts."

A court official has said a sufficient number of qualified jurors have been identified and anticipated that formal seating of the jury and opening statements will begin Wednesday.

The marathon attacks plunged Boston into mourning and revived fears of terrorism in the United States more than a decade after 9/11.
Link


Terror Networks
Scandal Rocks Fox News Over Saudi Terror Link
2015-02-09
[CounterjihadReport] Fox News Correspondent James Rosen reported on Wednesday night that a “major investor in the parent company” of Fox News has been implicated in financing the terrorist group al-Qaeda. Rosen made the embarrassing disclosure in a story on the channel’s “Special Report” show hosted by Bret Baier.

Rosen, a hard-charging investigative reporter, really had no alternative but to cover the damaging disclosures. The allegations were made by Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker of 9/11, and provided in the form of a sworn statement to attorneys for families of 9/11 victims for their lawsuit against Saudi Arabia. He is serving a life sentence at a supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

To its credit, the Fox News website is now running a follow-up story noting that the new charges are prompting calls for the declassification and release of 28 classified pages of the full report on 9/11. The role of Saudi Arabia in the attacks is said to be a major topic covered in the 28 pages.
Link



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