Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Mustafa al-Hawsawi

al-Qaeda

Home Front

20030909

Home Front: WoT

9/11 terrorists to be spared death penalty after judge shoots down Pentagon''s bid to nix plea deals

2025-01-01

[NYPOST] Plea deals for three murderous Moslems behind the 9/11 attacks are back in play after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin lost his bid to nix the disturbing agreements that would spare them the death penalty

A military appeals court on Monday night ruled against Austin's order this summer nullifying plea deals reached with Khalid Sheikh Mohammad

...Mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. He was captured in Faisalabad, Pakistain in 2002 and interned at Guantanamo...
, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.

The terrorists' defense attorneys argued that the secretary did not have the authority to overturn the agreements after they were already approved by the top authority of the Guantanamo Bay courts in July.

They further claimed that Austin's order was unlawful interference in the case.

The move clears the way for Mohammad, the criminal mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and his co-conspirators to plead guilty in a hearing next week.

However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
Austin retains the ability to appeal the decision. Reps for the Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors offered the deal to bring about an end to the pretrial court proceedings that have dragged on for more than a decade.

The decision comes after a lower court in November ruled that Austin's order came too late — and that the act was beyond his scope of authority.

''We agree with the military judge that the secretary did not have authority to revoke respondents' existing PTAs because the respondents had started performance of the PTAs,'' the three-judge panel said.

The agreements were originally signed by Pentagon official Susan K. Escallier, whom Austin appointed to be in charge of military commissions.

While the initial blow of the plea deals shook many 9/11 victims' loved ones and survivors, some have told The Post that the on-off nature of their status has put them through an emotional roller coaster.

Courtesy of badanov, Regnum adds:

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

According to the publication, on December 30, the military appeals court overturned the order of US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who in August canceled a pre-trial deal between the prosecution and three terrorists - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi - to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence.

The case of conspiracy with the hijackers has been in the pre-trial stage since 2012.

The defendants are suspected of helping the terrorists who carried out the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001.

As reported by the Regnum news agency, the two towers of the World Trade Center collapsed after terrorists flew two hijacked passenger planes into them. As a result, over 2.6 thousand people died.

A previously unknown video of the destruction of the World Trade Center towers on September 11 has emerged. The footage was published by Japanese photographer Kei Sugimoto.

In September 2023, two more victims of the terrorist attacks were identified. The total number of identified victims of the terrorist attacks is 1,649 people. Another 1,104 victims remain unidentified. The names of the identified victims, a man and a woman, are kept secret at the request of their relatives. The victims were identified through DNA analysis of their remains.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Navy SEAL who killed Osama Bin Laden issues stern warning to Biden and his successor after Israel eliminated Hamas leader

2024-10-18

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A Navy SEAL involved in the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden claims Israel is 'showing us how to win wars' by taking out Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Retired Senior Chief Petty Officer Rob O'Neill said Israel's strategy of targeting leaders of the terrorist group was the right one.

Israel said Sinwar was killed on Thursday when he was cornered in a building in Gaza by Israeli soldiers who spotted Hamas soldiers inside. After an exchange of fire, a tank shell was said to have hit the structure and collapsed it.

Graphic images then circulated online purporting to show the body of the Hamas leader with Israeli soldiers surrounding it.

'What Israel is doing right now is they're showing us how to win a war. They're taking out the top leaders. They're going to keep doing it,' O'Neill told Newsmax.

'And they're proving to everyone, including like, even right now, our president will say, 'Well, now he's dead, we can work on a cease-fire.

'You don't don't let someone start a war and then whine about a cease-fire... Israel 'did a great job, and I couldn't be more proud.'

O'Neill said killing Sinwar 'takes away a lot of [Hamas'] abilities' and was a big morale boost for Israel a year after the terrorist group's massacre on October 7, 2023.

'This is huge for them. And I love that they were able to do it with soldiers. So the last thing that Yahya saw was probably the Israeli flag,' he said.

O'Neill said Iran was still the biggest enemy, but that 'our supposed ally in Qatar' needed to round up the Hamas leaders hiding on its soil and give them to Israel.

The former special forces operative felt the same way about the 9/11 plotters, telling DailyMail.com in August they should have been executed years ago. O'Neill added he would have carried out the death penalty himself and criticized the plea deal that spared their lives.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - the architect of the 2001 plot that killed almost 3,000 people - and two accomplices Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi accepted life sentences to avoid a lengthy criminal trial and the death penalty.

O'Neill said the agreement was a slap in the face for the families of the 2,657 American victims who waited 23 years for justice. Family members of the victims reacted with fury as news of the plea deal emerged, on a day when more evidence of Saudi Arabia's complicity in 9/11 was revealed in a New York courtroom.

Montana native O'Neill and members of SEAL Team Six stormed Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011, and cornered him. He claims he shot the most wanted man in the world in the head, ending a global manhunt that had consumed the West for years. He came forward in 2014 and named himself as the man who fired the kill shots.

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

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

Home Front: WoT

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

2019-09-01

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The other men also charged include: Walid bin Attash,

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

Ramzi bin al-Shibh,

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

Ammar al-Baluchi

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

and Mustafa al-Hawsawi

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

Link

-Short Attention Span Theater-

Lawyer: 'Sodomized' Guantanamo captive recovering after surgery. Prison: No comment

2016-10-16

An alleged accomplice in the Sept. 11 terror attacks underwent reconstructive surgery for decade-old damage from his "sodomy" in CIA custody and was to be returned to his clandestine prison to recuperate, his attorney said Saturday.
Why do these guys get doctor's appointments right away when our veterans are stuck with the VA?
"All they said is there was minimal bleeding and he is recovering," attorney Walter Ruiz, a Navy Reserve commander, said Saturday morning.

His client, Mustafa al Hawsawi,

...his file in the Rantburg archives can be perused here...

48, was scheduled to begin surgery at 9 p.m. Friday and Ruiz said he was informed that it was over by 10:45 p.m.
And now his rectum is attached to his mouth as it should be.
Hawsawi, a Saudi, and four other men are awaiting a death-penalty trial for allegedly orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. He voluntarily missed Friday's hearing to rest up for the procedure.

An unclassified portion of the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation of the CIA's Black Site program showed allegations that Hawsawi was subjected to rectal exams with "excessive force" before his 2006 transfer to Guantanamo and that at one point he had a "medical emergency" that the agency considered having treated in a foreign hospital.
Nahhhh! Just messin' with yah, dude!
On Saturday, the military was mum on the outcome of Hawsawi's Guantanamo surgery. Ruiz said he received few other details, aside from the fact that, once the anesthesia wore off, the Saudi was to be returned to Camp 7, Guantanamo's secret lock-up for former CIA Black Site captives -- including Hawsawi and five others awaiting death-penalty trials.

The detention center spokesman, Navy Capt. John Filostrat, had no information to provide Saturday morning about the medical procedure carried out at the Navy base hospital, a 5- to 10-minute prison ambulance or prison van drive from the Detention Center Zone.
Hopefully they used a buckboard.
He said by email, it was prison policy "not to discuss detainee medical issues."
Sorry, we don't comment on a$$holes.
Nor would Filostrat say whether a colorectal specialist was brought to this remote base to do the surgery, and whether, if so, others among the up-to 6,000 base inhabitants were able to benefit from the surgeon's presence. The base is run by the Navy, which has sailors and their families, about 2,000 Jamaician and Filipino Pentagon contract workers as well as an approximate 2,000-strong military and civilian staff at the prison of 61 war-on-terror captives.

Detention Center commanders have for years briefed reporters that their captives get commensurate medical care to soldiers and sailors; and that the Navy routinely brings in specialists to carry out some procedures.

Hawsawi was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in March 2003 with the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and was held by the CIA until his delivery to Guantanamo in September 2006. He is alleged to have helped the hijackers with money, Western clothing, travelers' checks and credit cards.

Hawsawi's lawyers had been litigating over conditions at the remote prison and, sought medical intervention to treat a rectal prolapse that has caused Hawsawi to bleed for more than a decade.
Too bad it couldn't have been a lifelong condition. Now he'll be in shape to go back out on the battlefield after 0bean pardons him.
He has sat gingerly on a pillow at the war court since his first appearance in 2008. But the reason was not publicly known until release of a portion of the so-called Senate Torture Report on the CIA program in December 2014, which described agents using quasi-medical techniques called "rectal rehydration" and "rectal re-feeding."
Heh. Re-feeding. Good one! I'll bet they didn't have many problems with hunger strikes after that.
"Mr. Hawsawi was tortured in the black sites. He was sodomized," Ruiz told reporters earlier in the week, advising them to "shy away from terms like rectal penetration or rectal rehydration because the reality is it was sodomy," he said. Since then, he said, he has had "to manually reinsert parts of his anal cavity" to defecate.
We could have made it so he didn't need to . . . .
"When he has a bowel movement, he has to reinsert parts of his anus back into his anal cavity," Ruiz said, which "causes him to bleed, causes him excruciating pain."
His victims certainly don't have to worry about this.
Families of eight people killed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks were on base at the time of the surgery, brought by the Pentagon to watch four days of pretrial hearings. One expressed disgust that a hearing was on "minutiae." Successive groups have told reporters they are eager to get on with the trial, and criticized the pretrial focus on torture.

Earlier in the week, Army Lt. Gen. Jennifer Williams, one of Hawsawi's attorneys, asked the trial judge, Army Col. James L. Pohl, to order the prosecution or CIA to give them the Saudi's complete medical records from across more than three years of spy agency custody.
"Here are before and after pics of his a$$hole."
Williams noted that CIA cables released under the Freedom of Information Act show that, in one instance in April 2003, Hawsawi was interrogated with "continuous sessions of water dousing, walling, attention grasps, facial holds, cramped confinement, and psychological pressures for 14 nonstop hours."
He got sleep breaks?
But defense teams preparing for trial have no medical records from that period, noting that Hawsawi also suffers cervical damage that may be linked to "walling" -- a CIA technique that rammed a captive's head into a wall to break him for interrogation.
I hope the wall is OK.
Water dousing is described in the Senate Report as similar to water-boarding, a near-drowning torture technique.

The judge at one point questioned whether such medical records exist.

"What we know from open-source material is that medical physicians at times were in place when these techniques were being done and when the torture was being committed," Hawsawi's Army lawyer replied.
"Don't forget to re-feed him his vitamins. Gotta keep him healthy, you know."

Link

Home Front: WoT

US Charges 9/11 Mastermind And Four Others

2012-04-05

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

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

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

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

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

Link

Home Front: WoT

9/11 Mastermind Set To Face US Military Court

2012-03-12

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Link

Home Front: WoT

US files new charges against Sept. 11 accused

2011-06-02

[Dawn] US military prosecutors filed new conspiracy and murder charges on Tuesday against five men accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 and asked that they be executed if convicted in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals.

Self-described 9/11 criminal mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators were charged with conspiring with al Qaeda to carry out the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.

All are being held in a high-security prison at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

All five faced similar charges at Guantanamo during President George W. Bush's administration. The charges were dropped while President Barack B.O. Obama's administration tried to move the trials into federal civilian court in New York, near the site of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the attacks by hijacked aircraft.

Obama yielded to political opposition and announced in April the prosecutions would be moved back to Guantanamo.

Human rights activists have criticized Obama for failing to make good on his order to shut the Guantanamo detention camp.

But his approval ratings on national security issues have risen since he authorized the military raid that killed al Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden
... who has left the building...
in Pakistain in early May.

The official overseeing the Guantanamo tribunals, retired Vice Admiral Bruce MacDonald, must decide whether the case will proceed to trial and whether the death penalty should apply.

Hearings could begin around the time of the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

In addition to Mohammed, an al Qaeda leader captured in Pakistain in 2003, the defendants include his nephew Ali Abdul Aziz Ali as well as Walid bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh and Mustafa al Hawsawi.

They are charged with 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, hijacking aircraft and terrorism.

"The prosecutors have recommended that the charges against all five of the accused be referred as capital," the Pentagon said in a news release, referring to plans to seek the death penalty.

During a pretrial hearing at Guantanamo in 2008, all five said they wanted to plead guilty. The charges were dropped before the military judge could determine whether they were all mentally competent to make that decision and whether the murky tribunal rules allowed them to be executed without a jury verdict on their guilt.

Link

Home Front: Culture Wars

Navy Spokesman alleges abuse by Miami reporter

2009-07-27

Tensions between journalists and military officials are nothing new. But a bitter series of clashes between a top Navy spokesman and a Miami Herald military reporter reached a new, eye-opening level this week. In a letter to the paper's editor, Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon accused Carol Rosenberg of "multiple incidents of abusive and degrading comments of an explicitly sexual nature." Gordon, who deals primarily with the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison, said in the letter that this was a "formal sexual harassment complaint" and asked the Herald for a "thorough investigation."

"Her behavior has been so atrocious over the years," Gordon said in an interview. "I've been abused worse than the detainees have been abused."

Herald Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal said Friday that "obviously we're trying to sort this out. We're not going to talk about a personnel matter like this until we figure out what it's all about." Rosenberg, who declined to comment Friday, is described by other journalists as a seasoned reporter who pushes hard for access and answers.

The extraordinary complaint shines a light on the sometimes bruising battles between journalists, who sometimes must scratch and claw for information, and government officials, who attempt just as tenaciously to control information provided to news organizations. This cultural clash can be especially stark on military matters.

Gordon, 41, detailed a number of "vile and repulsive comments" he attributed to Rosenberg, stretching back to last summer. In the July 22 letter, Gordon alleges that:

-- While watching Sept. 11, 2001, co-defendant Mustafa al-Hawsawi seated on a pillow in court last year, Rosenberg told Gordon: "Have you ever had a red hot poker shoved up your [butt]? Have you ever had a broomstick shoved up your [butt]? . . . How would you know how it feels if it never happened to you? Admit it, you liked it."

-- When Gordon emerged from a shower facility in shorts and a towel last year, Rosenberg said to him and more than a dozen journalists and soldiers nearby: "Seeing him topless in tent city was the most repulsive sight I've ever seen in my life. I wanted to vomit."

-- After dealing with a Gordon intern whom she described as "your little chick with the hot pants," Rosenberg told Gordon, earlier this month, in the presence of others: "I know you're hot for your interns and bring them down as your 'companions,' but seriously, if I'm going to do their work anyway, what purpose do they serve? (Carol knows my intern last year was a male, therefore another inference that I was gay.)"

In addition, the letter alleged, Rosenberg "routinely labeled my colleagues in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Justice Department, as well as her peers in the press, as 'bitches,' 'stupid,' 'lazy,' 'incompetent,' 'Nazis,' 'Saddam Hussein-like,' etc." Gordon works for Defense Secretary Robert Gates and said he consulted department lawyers in drafting the letter.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Ali al-Marri pleads guilty in U.S. court

2009-05-01

PEORIA, Illinois (Reuters) - An accused sleeper agent for al Qaeda labeled an "enemy combatant" and held in isolation in a U.S. Navy brig for six years pleaded guilty in court on Thursday to a terrorist conspiracy charge.

Ali al-Marri, a 43-year-old with dual citizenship in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, could face up to 15 years in prison depending on whether U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mihm gives him credit for time served at sentencing on July 30. Marri pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to al Qaeda. A second charge of providing material support for terrorism will be dropped based on a plea agreement that was finalized only minutes before Thursday's hearing, Marri's attorney said.

So he could be out in about nine years, minus time for 'good behavior'. It's positively European.

"The government would liked to have taken this to trial but I believe it was the right move for all," Marri's attorney Andrew Savage told reporters.

"Without a doubt, this case is a grim reminder of the seriousness of the threat we as a nation still face," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "But it also reflects what we can achieve when we have faith in our criminal justice system."

U.S. authorities said Marri had his first contacts with al Qaeda in 1998 and learned terror "tradecraft" through 2001 at the group's military training camps in Pakistan. There he met Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the September 11 terror attacks, who directed him to meet with Mustafa al-Hawsawi, the suspected paymaster for the September 11 attackers. Hawsawi gave Marri $10,000, they said.

The Justice Department said Marri communicated by email in code with Mohammed, whom he referred to as "Muk" while calling himself "Abdo," and provided progress reports on his efforts to enter the United States.

Marri arrived with his family on a student visa on September 10, 2001, and went to Peoria, where he had previously been a student at Bradley University. Prosecutors said he did not attend classes and instead used his new laptop computer to do research on cyanide compounds and sulfuric acid with the goal of creating a lethal gas.

Marri collected information about how to hack into protected computer systems, and obtained stolen credit card numbers and driver's licenses, prosecutors said. They said he also collected information about U.S. dams and tunnels, using a computer program that permits the user to anonymously search websites.

Savage said Marri would "state unequivocally that he would never engage in any violent actions that would harm an innocent person."

Except that infidels aren't innocent ...

Authorities said Marri plotted to follow up the September 11 attacks with chemical or biological assaults and cyber-attacks on the U.S. financial system.

"Ali al-Marri was an al Qaeda 'sleeper' operative working on U.S. soil and directed by the chief planner of the 9/11 attacks," said Arthur Cummings of the FBI's National Security Branch. "Al-Marri researched the use of chemical weapons, potential targets and maximum casualties."

He was originally arrested in Peoria in December 2001 as a material witness in a New York investigation of the September 11 attacks. Marri was then returned to Peoria and charged with credit card fraud and lying to the FBI. But the charges were dropped in 2003 and then-President George W. Bush declared him an "enemy combatant" and sent him to the Consolidated Naval Brig in South Carolina. He was held in the military prison without charge and in extreme isolation for nearly six years.

Following a review ordered by President Barack Obama, Marri's case was transferred to the U.S. court system, and he was indicted in Illinois in February on terrorism charges.

Some legal experts have said Marri's case offered a preview of how the administration plans to deal with more than 200 inmates of the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, if it is closed as planned. Holder was in Europe earlier this week, seeking help in relocating Guantanamo detainees.

Link

Terror Networks

Human Rights Watch's list of "ghost prisoners"

2005-12-02

Take a good, long look at the people on this list and you can decide for yourself whether or not you have any problems with this. I sure don't.
1. Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi
Reportedly arrested on November 11, 2001, Pakistan.
Libyan, suspected commander at al-Qaeda training camp.

2. Abu Faisal
Reportedly arrested on December 12, 2001

3. Abdul Aziz
Reportedly arrested on December 14, 2001
Nationality unknown. In early January 2002, Kenton Keith, a spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, produced a chart with the names of senior al-Qaeda members listed as killed in action, detained, or on the run. Faisal and Aziz were listed as detained on Dec. 12 and 14, 2001.

4. Abu Zubaydah (also known as Zain al-Abidin Muhahhad Husain)
Reportedly arrested in March 2002, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Palestinian (born in Saudi Arabia), suspected senior al-Qaeda operational planner.

5. Abdul Rahim al-Sharqawi (aka Riyadh the facilitator)
Reportedly arrested in January 2002
Possibly Yemeni, suspected al-Qaeda member (possibly transferred to Guantanamo).

6. Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi
Reportedly arrested in January 2002
Nationality unknown, presumably Iraqi, suspected commander of al-Qaeda training camp. U.S. officials told Associated Press on January 8, 2002 and March 30, 2002, of al-Iraqi's capture.
This is a different Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi who was placed in command of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan yesterday (who had previously been in command of Brigade 055 rather than a training camp), for those keeping score.
7. Muhammed al-Darbi
Reportedly arrested in August 2002
Yemeni, suspected al-Qaeda member. The Washington Post reported on October 18, 2002: "U.S. officials learned from interviews with Muhammad Darbi, an al Qaeda member captured in Yemen in August, that a Yemen cell was planning an attack on a Western oil tanker, sources said." On December 26, 2002, citing "U.S. intelligence and national security officials," the Washington Post reports that al-Darbi, as well as Ramzi Binalshibh [see below], Omar al-Faruq [reportedly escaped from U.S. custody in July 2005], and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri [see below] all "remain under CIA control."

8. Ramzi bin al-Shibh
Reportedly arrested on September 13, 2002
Yemeni, suspected al-Qaeda conspirator in Sept. 11 attacks (former roommate of one of the hijackers).

9. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri (or Abdulrahim Mohammad Abda al-Nasheri, aka Abu Bilal al-Makki or Mullah Ahmad Belal)
Reportedly arrested in November 2002, United Arab Emirates.
Saudi or Yemeni, suspected al-Qaeda chief of operations in the Persian Gulf, and suspected planner of the USS Cole bombing, and attack on the French oil tanker, Limburg.

10. Mohammed Omar Abdel-Rahman (aka Asadullah)
Reportedly arrested in February 2003, Quetta, Pakistan.
Egyptian, son of the Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted in the United States of involvement in terrorist plots in New York. See Agence France Presse, March 4, 2003: "Pakistani and US agents captured the son of blind Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rahman. . . a US official said Tuesday. Muhamad Abdel Rahman was arrested in Quetta, Pakistan, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity." David Johnston, New York Times, March 4, 2003: "On Feb. 13, when Pakistani authorities raided an apartment in Quetta, they got the break they needed. They had hoped to find Mr. [Khalid Sheikh] Mohammed, but he had fled the apartment, eluding the authorities, as he had on numerous occasions. Instead, they found and arrested Muhammad Abdel Rahman, a son of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric. . ."

11. Mustafa al-Hawsawi (aka al-Hisawi)
Reportedly arrested on March 1, 2003 (together with Khalid Sheikh Mohammad), Pakistan.
Saudi, suspected al-Qaeda financier.

12. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Reportedly arrested on March 1, 2003, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Kuwaiti (Pakistani parents), suspected al-Qaeda, alleged to have "masterminded" Sept. 11 attacks, killing of Daniel Pearl, and USS Cole attack in 2000.

13. Majid Khan
Reportedly arrested on March-April 2003, Pakistan.
Pakistani, alleged link to Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, alleged involvement in plot to blow up gas stations in the United States. Details about Khan's arrest were revealed in several media reports, especially in Newsweek: Evan Thomas, "Al Qaeda in America: The Enemy Within," Newsweek, June 23, 2003. U.S. prosecutors provided evidence that Majid Khan was in U.S. custody during the trial of 24-year-old Uzair Paracha, who was convicted in November 2005 of conspiracy charges, and of providing material support to terrorist organizations.

14. Yassir al-Jazeeri (aka al-Jaziri)
Reportedly arrested on March 15, 2003, Pakistan.
Possibly Moroccan, Algerian, or Palestinian, suspected al-Qaeda member, linked to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

15. Ali Abdul Aziz Ali (aka Ammar al Baluchi)
Reportedly arrested on April 29, 2003, Karachi, Pakistan.
A Pakistani, he is alleged to have funneled money to September 11 hijackers, and alleged to have been involved with the Jakarta Marriot bombing and in handling Jose Padilla's travel to the United States.
U.S. Judge Sidney Stein ruled that defense attorneys for Uzair Paracha could introduce statements Baluchi made to U.S. interrogators, proving that he was in U.S. custody. Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey also mentioned Baluchi during remarks to the media about the case of Jose Padilla on June 1, 2004

16. Waleed Mohammed bin Attash (aka Tawfiq bin Attash or Tawfiq Attash Khallad)
Reportedly arrested on April 29, 2003, Karachi, Pakistan.
Saudi (of Yemeni descent), suspected of involvement in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, and the Sept. 11 attacks. See Afzal Nadeem, "Pakistan Arrests Six Terror Suspects, including Planner of Sept. 11 and USS Cole Bombing," Associated Press, April 30, 2003. His brother, Hassan Bin Attash, is currently held in Guantanamo.

17. Adil al-Jazeeri
Reportedly arrested on June 17, 2003 outside Peshawar, Pakistan.
Algerian, suspected al-Qaeda and longtime resident of Afghanistan, alleged "leading member" and "longtime aide to bin Laden." (Possibly transferred to Guantanamo.)

18. Hambali (aka Riduan Isamuddin)
Reportedly arrested on August 11, 2003, Thailand.
Indonesian, involved in Jemaah Islamiyah and al-Qaeda, alleged involvement in organizing and financing the Bali nightclub bombings, the Jakarta Marriot Hotel bombing, and preparations for the September 11 attacks.

19. Mohamad Nazir bin Lep (aka Lillie, or Li-Li)
Reportedly arrested in August 2003, Bangkok, Thailand.
Malaysian, alleged link to Hambali.

20. Mohamad Farik Amin (aka Zubair)
Reportedly arrested in June 2003, Thailand.
Malaysian, alleged link to Hambali.

21. Tariq Mahmood
Reportedly arrested in October 2003, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Dual British and Pakistani nationality, alleged to have ties to al-Qaeda.

22. Hassan Ghul
Reportedly arrested on January 23, 2004, in Kurdish highlands, Iraq.
Pakistani, alleged to be Zarqawi's courier to bin Laden; alleged ties to Khalid Sheikh Mohammad.

23. Musaad Aruchi (aka Musab al-Baluchi, al-Balochi, al-Baloshi)
Reportedly arrested in Karachi on June 12, 2004, in a "CIA-supervised operation."
Presumably Pakistani. Pakistani intelligence officials told journalists Aruchi was held by Pakistani authorities at an airbase for three days, before being handed over to the U.S., and then flown in an unmarked CIA plane to an undisclosed location.

24. Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan (aka Abu Talaha)
Reportedly arrested on July 13, 2004, Pakistan.
Pakistani, computer engineer, was held by Pakistani authorities, and likely transferred to U.S. custody. (Possibly in joint U.S.-Pakistani custody.)

25. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
Reportedly arrested on July 24, 2004, Pakistan
Tanzanian, reportedly indicted in the United States for 1998 embassy bombings. U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials told UPI that Ghailani was transferred to "CIA custody" in early August.

26. Abu Faraj al-Libi
Reportedly arrested on May 4, 2005, North Western Frontier Province, Pakistan.
Libyan, suspected al-Qaeda leader of operations, alleged mastermind of two assassination attempts on Musharraf. Col. James Yonts, a U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, "said in an email to The Associated Press that al-Libbi was taken directly from Pakistan to the U.S. and was not brought to Afghanistan."

Link

Home Front: WoT

NYT: Gitmo Produced Only Trickle of Intelligence With Current Value

2004-06-21

From The New York Times
... The New York Times has found that government and military officials have repeatedly exaggerated both the danger the detainees posed and the intelligence they have provided. In interviews, dozens of high-level military, intelligence and law-enforcement officials in the United States, Europe and the Middle East said that contrary to the repeated assertions of senior administration officials, none of the detainees at the United States Naval Base at GuantÃ¡namo Bay ranked as leaders or senior operatives of Al Qaeda. They said only a relative handful â some put the number at about a dozen, others more than two dozen â were sworn Qaeda members or other militants able to elucidate the organizationâs inner workings.

The rest are innocents who were lost, looking for a ride home from church. So they flagged down these Americans, an'...

While some GuantÃ¡namo intelligence has aided terrorism investigations, none of of it has enabled intelligence or law-enforcement services to foil imminent attacks, the officials said.

I think most of them have been there for three years or so. They could probably provide information on what they had for breakfast...

Compared with the higher-profile Qaeda operatives held elsewhere by the C.I.A., the GuantÃ¡namo detainees have provided only a trickle of intelligence with current value, the officials said. Because nearly all of that intelligence is classified, most of the officials would discuss it only on the condition of anonymity.

Ummmm... All that intelligence is classified. That's why they call it "intelligence," instead of "news."

"When you have the overall mosaic of all the intelligence picked up all over the world, GuantÃ¡namo provided a very small piece of that mosaic," said a senior American official who has reviewed the intelligence in detail. "Itâs been helpful and valuable in certain areas. Was it the mother lode of intelligence? No." ....

Y'see, there are various kinds of intelligence. There's tactical — "They're gonna boom the Eiffel Tower tomorrow at 8 a.m.!" You normally don't get that from guys you've held for three years. Among the other types is theater — how the Bad Guys intend to take down, say, Indonesia or Pakland, f'rinstance. Then there's strategic, which concerns the organization's overall goals — such as planting the Flag of Islam™ over the White House, controlling the world's oil supply, and establishing a caliphate from Mindanao to Rabat, ruled by a fat guy in a jewelled turban with a Grand Vizier and dancing girls. Intel falling into the latter two categories involves tactics, training, order of battle, doctrine, all sorts of stuff that's much too boring for New York Times writers to concern themselves with. Intel's also usually not the entire sheet of paper, but a corner here, a few lines there, and something that was scribbled on the back of the sheet in crayon. Putting the pieces together is a long drawn-out process and usually you don't get the entire picture.

In interviews, officials at GuantÃ¡namo and in the Pentagon defended the intelligence-gathering effort and said it continued to produce useful information. "Every single day we get some piece of information thatâs relevant to now," said Steve Rodriguez, who oversees the interrogation teams at the base. Officials said the intelligence had allowed them to piece together a more detailed picture of Al Qaeda before Sept. 11, 2001, including how young jihadis were recruited and screened, how the organization moved funds and how it related to other militant groups. They said some were important Qaeda operatives, including financiers, a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden and â a recent discovery â a militant who they say helped recruit 9/11 hijackers.

No tactical intel, but lotsa order of battle, tactics, and such...

Yet even as he argued the importance of that information, the commander of the task force that runs the GuantÃ¡namo prison, Brig. Gen. Jay W. Hood, acknowledged disappointment among some senior officials in Washington. "The expectations, I think, may have been too high at the outset," he said. "There are those who expected a flow of intelligence that would help us break the most sophisticated terror organization in a matter of months. But that hasnât happened." ....

We probably started with a minor flood of information that dropped off. After three years we're feeding these goobers and not getting much out of them that's new. That's life in the intel biz. Guantanamo also keeps them out of circulation, so none of them have cut anybody's head off lately.

While refusing to discuss specifics, Pentagon officials called the interrogation methods used at GuantÃ¡namo humane and said they had applied more severe methods only sparingly. In at least one of those cases, they said, the techniques prompted an important Qaeda member to give up vital information. But new details of that case, which involved a 26-year-old Saudi man who apparently tried unsuccessfully to enter the United States as the 20th hijacker in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, call some of those assertions into question. Several officials familiar with the case said that for months, no one at GuantÃ¡namo even knew who the detainee, Mohamed al-Kahtani, was and that he was identified only after the Federal Bureau of Investigation stepped in. The officials also said that the harsher interrogation methods used against him were largely unsuccessful, that he had little sense of other Qaeda plots, and that he had been most forthcoming under more subtle persuasion. ...

So he's not top level, but he was willing to hijack a plane and kill people. What's the beef?

Even now, officials acknowledge that they have been unable to get any information from at least 60 detainees â including in some cases their identities. Those uncertainties, the officials said, leave open the possibility that more serious terrorists may be among GuantÃ¡namoâs detainees. ... A former secretary of the Army, Thomas E. White, who supervised a team of senior Pentagon officers at GuantÃ¡namo, said he was told by a senior military official at the base on an early visit that only a third to a half of the detainees appeared to be of some value and that sorting through them would be a considerable problem. ...

Most are battlefield captures, I believe. I've no doubt that only a third to half have overt intel value. Capturing a random sample of snuffies, gunnies, and other hard boyz isn't going to get you the top echelon — which isn't put up at Guantanamo.

Many younger Army interrogators had never questioned a real prisoner before.

That might have something to do with the fact that we were at peace when we were attacked. I'd never spoken to a Viet Bad Guy when I arrived in country. After I'd been at it for awhile I was pretty good at it. By the time I switched languages I was very good at it.

As in Afghanistan, interrogators at GuantÃ¡namo asked the same basic questions again and again, many former detainees recalled. "They asked me, `Do you know the Taliban? Do you know Mullah Muhammad Omar? Do you know bin Laden?â " said Jan Muhammad, 37, a farmer from Helmand Province who said he had been forcibly conscripted into the Taliban. "I said, `I have never seen bin Laden; I have not even seen bin Ladenâs car driving past.â " ...

Again, it's the random sample syndrome. And eventually you can think of more interesting questions to ask: who was your unit commander? What units were associated with yours? Who paid you? Where did your supplies come from? Who was responsible for supply? When was payday? The questions are repeated to check them for consistency...

One of the few American intelligence sectors to show any early interest in the detainees was an obscure defense intelligence unit that traced weapons around the world, one interrogator said. As a result, interrogators were required to question detainees about the serial numbers on rifles they had used and the markings on their bullets. "Of course, they had no idea," the interrogator said. .... But senior defense officials grew frustrated with the shortage of compelling information. "At the beginning, the process was broken everywhere," said Lt. Col. Anthony Christino III, a recently retired Army intelligence officer who specialized in counterterrorism and was familiar the GuantÃ¡namo intelligence. "The quality of the screening, the quality of the interrogations and the quality of the analysis were all very poor. Efforts were made to improve things, but after decades of neglect of human intelligence skills, it canât be fixed in a few years." ...

We weren't capturing a lot of Soviets and subjecting them to extensive interrogation, were we? In fact, such as we did get weren't interrogated at all; they were "debriefed." And the Soviet Union had been dead for nine years when this war started, with no major military actions in between.

Around the same time, faced with continuing resistance from many detainees, some military intelligence officers urged that they be allowed to take advantage of the suspension of Geneva Conventions to try more coercive methods â a step that led to bitter conflicts between military intelligence members and military criminal investigators assigned to prepare cases for the tribunals. ....

There are different techniques that are appropriate to different prisoners. And all the Amnesia International hangers-on in the world are looking over our shoulder, just waiting for something to point the finger at. Those are called "constraints."

For interrogators at GuantÃ¡namo looking to score a high-profile intelligence victory, Mr. Kahtani, the Saudi who was the so-called 20th hijacker, appeared to be their man. In the end, though, his case instead came to illustrate some of the problems they faced in determining who they were holding and what they knew. .... In July 2002, a routine check by F.B.I. agents matched his fingerprints to a thumbprint from a man who had been turned back by an immigration official after flying into Orlando International Airport in Florida from London on Aug. 3, 2001, without a return ticket or hotel reservation. ... On that same day in August 2001, they noted, toll records showed calls from a pay phone at the Orlando airport to Mustafa al-Hawsawi, a Qaeda member in the United Arab Emirates who served as a logistical coordinator for the attacks, the officials said. Checking surveillance camera recordings for that day, the agents found that a rental car used by the hijackersâ leader, Mohamed Atta, entered an airport parking lot shortly before Mr. Kahtaniâs Virgin Atlantic flight arrived from London, officials said. ....

That's good term intel work. You don't put all that together in an afternoon, at least not in a free country...

The bureau [FBI] sent a longtime counterterrorism specialist who is fluent in Arabic and worked extensively on investigations of Al Qaeda. .... Over a series of interrogations that extended into the fall of 2002, the agent slowly built a rapport with Mr. Kahtani, approaching him with respect and restraint ... Mr. Kahtani began to open up, officials said. He disclosed that he attended an important Qaeda planning meeting with two of the Sept. 11 hijackers in Malaysia, in January 2000. Mr. Kahtani also said he had a relative he thought might be living near Chicago. The relative, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, is believed by officials to have been planted in the United States as a Qaeda "sleeper" agent. He was taken into custody as a material witness shortly after arriving in the country on Sept. 10, 2001, and was later confined to a Naval brig in Charleston, S.C., with two American citizens charged as "enemy combatants," Jose Padilla and Yaser Hamdi. One official said that Mr. Kahtani had admitted that he had intended to join the hijackers but that he had given up little or nothing about other Qaeda plans.

It's doubtful he knew anything about them...

To some F.B.I. experts, officials said, his ignorance seemed credible: he had been recruited to be what the plotters called a "muscle" hijacker, someone to subdue passengers rather than pilot a plane. Officials said such lower-level operatives were generally only minimally informed even as to the details of attacks in which they would take part. But military intelligence officials were skeptical, believing that new approaches to Mr. Kahtani might well reveal plans for attacks that were to follow the hijackings or that might have involved Mr. Marri. In late November 2002, Pentagon officials informed the F.B.I. that they would take over interrogations of Mr. Kahtani, an official said. A list of 17 new interrogation techniques ... was approved by Mr. Rumsfeld in early December. Ten of the techniques were used on Mr. Kahtani before complaints from some military officials prompted Mr. Rumsfeld to retract his approval for the more extreme methods, military officials said. ...

No word on whether or not they struck pay dirt. I'd guess not, but if they did they shouldn't be telling...

Last month, a senior Bush administration official told The Times that Mr. Kahtani had provided information to interrogators "about a planned attack and about financial networks to fund terrorist operations." But several other officials disputed that characterization, saying he had not given any new information about plots by Al Qaeda. ...

So he did or he didn't. My valuable intel might not be your valuable intel. Or he might have given something but it didn't fit with anything else anybody had. Very few things happen in a vacuum, and if there aren't any intersects with anything else the guy's probably lying...

In interviews, Mr. Rodriguez, the head of GuantÃ¡namoâs intelligence-gathering effort, and two interrogators said valuable information continued to be produced. ....

Link

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