(NY Daily News) The first civilian trial of a Guantanamo detainee ended Wednesday with an alleged Al Qaeda operative being cleared on all counts but one in the bombing of two U.S embassies.
A federal jury in Manhattan convicted Ahmed Ghailani of conspiring to destroy U.S. buildings and property in the 1998 truck bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.
Ghailani, 36, was acquitted on more than 280 other counts, including the top charges of murder and murder conspiracy.
The charge he was convicted of carries a mandatory 20-year to life sentence because people were killed. Ghailani, who appeared relieved at being cleared on the other counts, is due back in court for sentencing on Jan. 25.
The case was considered a test-run for the Obama administration’s politically-charged effort to try Guantanamo Bay detainees — such as Al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed — in civilian court.
Rep. Pete King (R-LI), who has been a staunch opponent of civilian trials for terrorism suspects, called the mixed verdict “a disgraceful miscarriage of justice.”
“It shows how totally wrong the Obama administration is to bring a case like this to civilian court,” he said. “He was acquitted of 224 counts of murder.”
“If this had been before a military tribunal, evidence that was blocked in this case would have been admissable,” King said.
Tag Archive for al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda terrorist acquitted of all but one charge in embassy bombing trial
Britain’s top soldier: Al-Qaeda cannot be defeated
(The Telegraph) He said defeating Islamist militancy was “unnecessary and would never be achieved”.However, he argued that it could be “contained” to allow Britons to lead secure lives.
Gen Richards, 58, said the threat posed by “al-Qaeda and its affiliates” meant Britain’s national security would be at risk for at least 30 years.
Well I guess we should just give up and surrender huh…
U.S.-bound bomb could have exploded, downed plane
(Washington Times) t least one of the mail bombs shipped to the United States could have detonated and downed a cargo plane if undiscovered, a British official said Saturday as investigators hunted for terrorists in Yemen.
The results of Britain’s preliminary investigation escalated the seriousness of a plot that investigators said bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda.
Both bombs contained the industrial explosive PETN, the same chemical used in the failed Christmas bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner. Al Qaeda’s Yemen branch took responsibility for that attack.
Yemen arrests woman in mail bomb terror attack
(Washington Times) Yemeni authorities on Saturday arrested a woman suspected of sending two mail bombs found on cargo planes and are searching for more suspects believed linked to al Qaeda, Yemeni security officials said.The officials said the woman was detained as part of the manhunt as authorities search for a number of suspects believed to have used forged documents and ID cards that played a role in the plot that was thwarted Friday.
U.S. investigators have said the mail bombs were headed to two synagogues in Chicago, raising fears of a new al Qaeda campaign against Western targets. The Yemeni officials said the suspects were believed linked to the terror network’s faction in Yemen.
I have been warning about Yemen…
…and this is why.
In terms of an Al-Qaeda base, <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/10/29/al.qaeda.arabian.peninsula/index.html?hpt=C1″>Yemen is like a hybrid between a pre-9/11 Afghanistan and a post-9/11 Pakistan.</a> Not good.
One question comes to mind: Why are we even allowing any shipments from Yemen in the first place!?
It’s a clear security risk.
Al-Qaeda leader dined at Pentagon as part of Muslim outreach effort
(FoxNews.com) Anwar Al-Awlaki may be the first American on the CIA’s kill or capture list, but he was also a lunch guest of military brass at the Pentagon within months of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Fox News has learned.
Documents exclusively obtained by Fox News, including an FBI interview conducted after the Fort Hood shooting in November 2009, state that Awlaki was taken to the Pentagon as part of the military’s outreach to the Muslim community in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.
According to the documents, obtained as part of an ongoing investigation by the specials unit “Fox News Reporting,” there was a push within the Defense Department to reach out to the Muslim community.
“At that period in time, the secretary of the Army (redacted) was eager to have a presentation from a moderate Muslim.”
In addition, Awlaki “was considered to be an ‘up and coming’ member of the Islamic community. After her vetting, Aulaqi (Awlaki) was invited to and attended a luncheon at the Pentagon in the secretary of the Army’s Office of Government Counsel.”
Awlaki, a Yemeni-American who was born in Las Cruces, N.M., was interviewed at least four times by the FBI in the first week after the attacks because of his ties to the three hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Hani Hanjour. The three hijackers were all onboard Flight 77 that slammed into the Pentagon.
Al-Qaeda returning to Afghanistan for new attacks
Al-Qaida militants are moving back into Afghanistan to plot new attacks here, highlighting the terror group’s resilience despite nearly a decade of U.S.-led efforts to prevent its return to the country.
Several dozen al-Qaida operatives have left their bases in Pakistan and taken up new positions in eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar and Nuristan provinces, remote regions which lie along the porous border between the two countries, according to senior officials with the International Security Assistance Force here.
The influx of al-Qaida fighters into Afghanistan, which hasn’t previously been reported, could trigger fresh attacks on coalition and Afghan targets and hamper the intensifying push to strike peace deals with moderate elements of the Taliban.
An ISAF official here estimated in an interview that up to 50 al-Qaida fighters had returned to Afghanistan and were “actively planning” fresh attacks inside the country. U.S. officials have long estimated that al-Qaida had just a few hundred operatives left inside Afghanistan, so a movement of that many fighters would represent a fairly significant boost to the armed group’s depleted ranks.
“There are emerging cells of card-carrying al-Qaida members moving up into the Kunar and Nuristan areas,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of ongoing counterterrorism operations against the militants. “We’re concerned that they will use the mountainous terrain out there to build new training camps for their operatives.”
American-born al-Qaeda member Adam Gadahn captured by Pakistanis
This is breaking news so there aren’t a lot of details publicly available yet.
The American-born spokesman for al-Qaida has been arrested by Pakistani intelligence officers in the southern city of Karachi, two officers and a government official said Sunday as video emerged of him urging U.S. Muslims to attack their own country.
He was arrested in the sprawling southern metropolis of Karachi in recent days, two officers who took part in the operation said. A senior government official also confirmed the arrest, but said it happened Sunday. The discrepancy could not immediately be resolved.
The intelligence officials said Gadahn was being interrogated by Pakistani officials. Pakistani agents and those from the CIA work closely on some operations in Pakistan, but it was not clear if any Americans were involved in the operation or questioning.
It’s unclear to me how significant Gadahn’s capture is from an operational standpoint, considering he was essentially nothing more than a propagandist for al-Qaeda. But from a symbolic standpoint this might be an important capture. Only time will tell. It certainly demonstrates an apparent increase in Pakistani cooperation–finally.
UPDATE: So, Gadahn might not have been captured after all. There are now conflicting reports about whether he has been captured. The Pakistanis are saying that he has been captured but American officials say they haven’t seen any evidence validate the capture claim.
I should have known better than to blindly trust a claim by the Pakistanis. I’ll continue to watch how this plays out.
Political correctness to blame (again) for attempted terrorist attack of passenger jet bound for Detroit
As with the terrorist attack at Ft. Hood, political correctness and the fear of being branded as anti-Muslim or discriminatory is one of the reasons passengers on a jet headed for Detroit almost died in a preventable terrorist attack attempt.
Let me state that again. This attempted attack by al-Qaeda could have been prevented had it not been for political correctness. How so? Well, we have now learned that U.S. authorities were aware of the terrorist’s ties to terrorist groups, plus his father–his own father–alerted the U.S. Embassy in Yemen to his son’s increasing extremist behavior.
What did U.S. authorities do? Nothing. And I’ll tell you right now that U.S. inaction was due to a fear of being accused of profiling or discrimination–the tools of political correctness.
Political correctness has to be stopped. It is getting Americans killed.
Al-Qaeda May Have Infiltrated British Secret Service
By Josh Price
This is a report that appeared on FoxNews.com over the weekend. If this is true, not only should it scare the bejeezus out of the British People, but it also serves as another example of the disarray England has fallen into:
>MI5 is facing allegations that it mistakenly recruited Al Qaeda sympathizers who were trying to infiltrate the British secret service.
Patrick Mercer, a Conservative member of Parliament, is demanding a probe into claims six Muslims were thrown out of MI5 because of concerns about their past.
Two of the six allegedly attended Al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan while the others had unexplained gaps of up to three months in their resumes.
Yikes.
