al Qaeda

9/11, al Qaeda, Barack Obama, detainees, Flight 253, Gitmo, Guantanamo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Moussaoui, September 11, Thomson, Yemen

News and Views 1/05/10: 9/11 trials, Moussaoui, Gitmo, Thomson prison, NWA Fight 253, Yemen

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Moussaoui Conviction Upheld; In the next case … the defendants will be smart enough not to plead guilty

The Fourth Circuit also reminds us that the trial judge initially struck the death penalty from the case because the government refused to give Moussaoui access to the al Qaeda prisoner witnesses. The Fourth Circuit reversed the judge at the time, but on the condition that it would be open to revisiting that conclusion if the government failed to provide Moussaoui with all the classified exculpatory information to which he was entitled. At that critical moment, Moussaoui decided to plead guilty. That is, we never found out what would have happened if Moussaoui had insisted on a trial at which he’d have access to all these witnesses and other national-defense information. The guilty-plea is deemed to have waived any claim by Moussaoui that he was denied the information to which he was entitled.
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In the next case — like, say, KSM’s civilian trial — the defendants will be smart enough not to plead guilty. — They will insist on getting every piece of intelligence they’re entitled to. And the prosecutors will look at this ruling on Moussaoui’s appeal and realize they’d better give it to them or risk having the case thrown out. That’s what the law-enforcement approach buys you.

Thomson media alert for Wednesday

Editor — Watch Fox & Friends at 6:15 am Eastern time, Wednesday, January 6 for a segment on Thomson prison becoming Gitmo North. If you miss it, both Fox News and KeepAmericaSafe.com will have the video up soon afterward.

Taking Chances on Yemen

Given the ostensible ties between former Gitmo detainees and previous attacks and plots against the embassies in Yemen, it is natural to ask: What role are former Gitmo detainees playing in the current threats?

Moreover, both of these examples highlight the mistakes made during the Bush administration with respect to detainee transfers. Let us remember that the Bush administration itself wanted to close Gitmo and in an effort to do so agreed to a large number of suspect transfer decisions.

Yet, the Obama administration is apparently determined to make more suspect transfer decisions. Just this morning, John Brennan, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, told CNN that the Obama administration is still committed to transferring Yemeni detainees to the cesspool that is Yemen. In December, for example, the Obama administration transferred Ayman Batarfi from Gitmo to Yemen. Batarfi is a known al Qaeda doctor who attended to wounded jihadists during the battle of Tora Bora, met with bin Laden at Tora Bora, and has admitted ties to al Qaeda’s anthrax program. Despite all of this and more, Batarfi, who has been a committed jihadist for decades, was deemed one of the most transfer-worthy detainees by the Obama administration.

Obama owes New York: Feds must pay every security penny for foolish terror trial

Obama and Holder have said they are out to show that the U.S. can grant full legal rights to worst-of-the-worst terrorists in civilian courts without jeopardizing the war on terror or public safety. Can they really do that? No way. No how.

The Police Department’s $200 million-a-year plan represents nothing so much as an effort to buy down an extremely high risk with heroic measures. But no amount of money will purchase freedom from all threat when danger is so substantial.

Stunningly, Holder did not consult, or forewarn, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly before ordering that Mohammed should be shipped to lower Manhattan. Since no formal action has yet been taken, Obama still has the chance to countermand the order. Failing such a step, the President must pay the full freight.

A new (or old?) halt to Gitmo-Yemen transfers (What halt?)

It’s also curious that the fact that no more detainees would be sent to Yemen was being touted to reporters as a finding or result of the post-Christmas bombing intelligence review, if indeed such repatriations were halted “quietly several weeks ago.”

On the other hand, in the pre-Christmas bombing environment, being candid about a decision not to send more prisoners to Yemen, would have 1) been offensive to the Yemeni government and 2) underscored the instability of the country to which we just sent six former Gitmo prisoners. So the earlier reticence was understandable even if the spin seems a bit whiplash inducing in retrospect.

UPDATE: On Sunday’s television talk shows, White House counterterrorism and homeland security adviser John Brennan said there will be future releases to Yemen, and he denied that the process had been halted, but he did not mention any plans to move any inmates there in the immediate future.

The career path from Gitmo to Yemen gets bigger

How effective has the Yemeni rehab program for Gitmo detainees been? The Times of London reports that it has done almost no good at all. At least a dozen repatriated Yemenis have rejoined al-Qaeda while the Obama administration plans to release almost a hundred more in the country … Keep in mind that these numbers reflect those released early from Gitmo. Those detainees were considered to be a lower risk than those remaining in the center. If the recidivism among the lower-risk detainees has been this bad, it means that either the ones we release now will be so hard-core that we can expect most or all of them to return to AQ or our screening process for release in the Bush administration was decidedly poor — or both.

Abdulmutallab, al Qaeda, CIA, Flight 253, Gitmo, Guantanamo, Moazzam Begg

NWA Flight 253 bomber associated with jihadists and former Gitmo detainee in England

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Tom Joscelyn of The Weekly Standard writes of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s tenure as president of the Islamic Society at the University College of London:

From January 29, to February 2, 2007, the Islamic Society hosted “a series of lectures” as part of its “War on Terror Week.” One of the lectures, according to the Times (UK), was entitled “Jihad v. Terrorism” and billed as “a lecture on the Islamic position with respect to jihad.”

The lecture was given by Asim Qureshi, who is a “senior researcher” at [former Gitmo detainee] Begg’s organization, Cage Prisoners. Qureshi’s own words make his real purpose plain to see as he is, at times, an overt jihadist. During one particularly troublesome episode, Qureshi was captured in an online video ranting at a rally hosted by Hizb ut Tahrir, an organization that the BBC has found “promotes racism and anti-Semitic hatred, calls suicide bombers martyrs and urges Muslims to kill Jewish people.” Indeed, the video shows Qureshi praising his “brothers and sisters fighting in Chechnya, Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, [and] Afghanistan.” Qureshi tells the crowd: “We know that it is incumbent upon all of us to support the jihad of our brothers and sisters in these countries when they are facing the oppression of the West.” Qureshi and the crowd then break into a chant of “Allah Akhbar.”

This is the Begg associate that Abdulmutallab invited to speak about jihad during his 2007 “War on Terror Week.”

Note: video posted on YouTube on August 19, 2006

Joscelyn continued:

With respect to jihad, Abdulmutallab and his cronies are all for it. As the Times (UK) informed readers earlier this week: Abdulmutallab “is the fourth president of a London student Islamic society to face terrorist charges in three years. One is facing a retrial on charges that he was involved in the 2006 liquid bomb plot to blow up airliners. [emphasis added mine] Two others have been convicted of terrorist offences since 2007.”

Another of the speakers invited to give a presentation during “War on Terror Week” was Moazzam Begg himself. According to the Daily Mail (UK), “A poster advertising the week carried the name Umar Farook and includes events featuring former British Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg entitled Bring Our Boys Home.” The “Umar Farook” in question is the same student-turned-bomber who almost got away with mass murder on December 25. Copies of the poster (which also lists Qureshi as a speaker) can be found online.

Joscelyn’s report shows Abdulmutallab openly associated with a former Guantanamo detainee and headed a student organization that promoted violent jihad as far back at 2007. It is difficult to believe that the CIA would not open a file on Abdulmutallab back then from such open source material. And one wonders why the CIA did not routinely collect information on Abdulmutallab after Britain denied him a visa and placed him on their watch list in May 2009.