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Pentagon files death penalty case against five accused 9/11 plotters
Military officials notified the families of Sept. 11 victims of the looming charges a day earlier — as Americans commemorated Memorial Day
By CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@miamiherald.com
Guantánamo war court prosecutors filed fresh death penalty charges against five men for allegedly plotting the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, accusing the former CIA captives of murder, conspiracy and terrorism, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
Relatives of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks were notified of the pending charges on Monday, Memorial Day, said Army Lt. Col. Tanya Bradsher, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
The new charge sheet reflected a political setback for the Obama administration, which not only came in to office pledging to close the prison camps in southeast Cuba that today hold 171 foreign men as war prisoners but also decided after study to have a civilian judge and jury hear the 9/11 trial in New York.
Politicians and some 9/11 families protested the scheme, fearing that a trial would make Manhattan an even greater al Qaeda target and that the accused may draw on greater due process in a federal court.
The 90-page charge sheet spells out the roles each of the five men allegedly had in preparing for four simultaneous hijackings of American passenger planes that crashed in New York, at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., and in a field Shanksville, Penn. The charge sheets also includes the names of all 2,976 people who were killed that day.
They allege that in the 1990s Osama bin Laden approved the conspiracy — called “The Planes Operation” — and describes how one alleged plotter cased American aircraft in Asia to learn U.S. security practices and how another used a computer flight simulator to learn how to fly planes in Karachi, Pakistan.
Charged are:
• Khalid Sheik Mohammed, 46, the Pakistani former al Qaeda operations chief who in 2007 bragged to a military panel at the U.S. Navy base that he ran the 9/11 operation “from A to Z.” According to the charge sheets, he allegedly had some of the hijackers train for the mission by slaughtering “sheep, goats and camels” to simulate “how to slit passengers’ throats.”
• Walid bin Attash, 32, also Yemeni, described as a former jihadist who lost a leg to combat. According to the charge sheets, he allegedly ran a 45-day hand-to-hand combat class at an al Qaeda training camp in Logan, Afghanistan to help select candidates for the hijacking.
• Ammar al Baluchi, 33, also a Pakistani, Mohammed’s nephew, who once described himself to a military officer as a Microsoft-trained computer engineer.
• Ramzi bin al Shibh, 39, a Yemeni who blurted out at an earlier hearing that he sought to be the 20th Hijacker in the 9/11 attacks, but failed in efforts to obtain a U.S. visa while living in Germany.
• Mustafa al Hawsawi, 42, Saudi, who allegedly functioned as a financier for some of the Sept. 11 hijackers.
All five men spent years in CIA custody at a so-called black site, overseas prisons at still-secret locations, where they were interrogated on al Qaeda terror plots until former President George W. Bush ordered their transfer to U.S. military custody in September 2006 to ready them for military trials.
Critics of the war court that the Bush administration created and the Obama administration reformed were likewise critical of the decision to return the death penalty case to a Guantánamo court.
“The military commission system is not about seeking justice as much as it is about obtaining convictions,” said Jim E. Lavine, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, which advocated civilian trials with civilian courts and jurors. “Federal prosecutors have the tools for prosecuting persons believed to be terrorists, including over 40 specific terrorism statutes and nearly 100 other federal laws.”
The real scandal hidden by gags is what goes on in family courts
The walls of secrecy surrounding snatched children are creating a one-sided justice system, argues Christopher Booker.
In all the fuss about the secrecy of our courts – after MP John Hemming named a footballer in the Commons – the point where the issue began has been almost entirely lost. Mr Hemming’s concern stems from his longstanding campaign to expose the secrecy surrounding our family courts, where one of the most shocking scandals in Britain today is flourishing, out of public view. This is the increasing number of children who are seized by social workers from loving, responsible parents, thanks to a system which often defies basic principles of justice, humanity and common sense. For example, last week, a woman was warned by a judge that if she raised her case with John Hemming or with a local MP, she would be imprisoned – contrary to one of the most ancient rights of a citizen.
It is hard to convey just how one-sided this system has become, behind its wall of secrecy. Another case I have been following concerns a devoted mother who lost her daughter, some years back, after complaining to social workers that the father was abusing their child. Astonishingly, although the couple had parted, the courts gave the father custody of the girl.
Two weeks ago, when the mother yet again told social workers that the father was abusing their daughter, they did nothing – but, independently, the police were called and the father was arrested. Social workers asked the mother to sign a document giving her child into foster care. She refused, asking for the girl to be returned to her, and was told to attend court at three o’clock last Monday to hear the council’s application for an emergency care order.
She arrived to find the council officials had not turned up, and was told to return at 10 o’clock on Tuesday. Again the officials did not show. Then the mother was told that the order had been given over the telephone the previous evening, by a magistrate at home, which appeared to break all the rules laid down for the granting of an emergency care order. This was apparently confirmed by a judge on Thursday – who nevertheless granted an order according to the proper procedures (the mother not being allowed to speak) and called them all back on Friday to hear an application for an interim care order. Thanks to the complications of the case, he then ruled that the council’s application should be heard in the High Court next month.
The mother’s only wish is to be reunited with her child – who apparently says her only wish is to be with her mother. But the implacable system, having made its error, seems determined to stand between them. Thus, hidden from public view, another unhappy family drama unfolds.
Saudi Arabia: Mystery disease kills 300 sheep within an hour
Sat, 28 May 2011 11:47 CDT
The farm said he checked the sheep an hour earlier and they were all alive in their barn at his far in the western town of Qunfudha.
The unnamed farmer had owned the sheep for years and they were his sole source of living for his family of 16.
“Inspectors at the ministry of agriculture said they had taken samples from the dead sheep to determine the cause of their death,” the Arabic language daily Sabq said.
EPA and Army Corps of Engineers Plan to Seize Control of All Water
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 09:20
‘A full scale attack by EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers to take control of all water from any source whatsoever is under way. What these agencies are attempting is an end run around water and land rights. These agencies are constructing regulations and fictional jurisdictional control.
We cannot depend on our courts or the federal government to reign in and control these agencies as they are both privately owned corporations that masquerade as public service agencies. While congress may express their concerns about the police state actions being constructed, they have no authority or power to dictate what these agencies do under private contract law.’
Read more: EPA and Army Corps of Engineers Plan to Seize Control of All Water
Online craze over looming “comet doomsday”
A misreported April Fool’s joke sparked panic on the internet over a comet discovered by a Russian astronomer. Conspiracy theorists believe that the Elenin comet is an alien spaceship and demand that the scientist discloses data hushed up by NASA.
The web uproar focuses on the comet C/2010 X1, which was first discovered on December 10, 2010. Alien enthusiasts believe that it has a cluster of alien-made objects, most likely spacecraft, hiding in its tail. They fear that when the comet gets closer to Earth, the aliens will show themselves, and the first contact is likely to be a disaster. They expect doomsday on September 10.
The panic-sparking claims originate from Argentinean astronomer Sergio Toscano, whose report on the alien theory was cited by a number of Latin American media outlets. The scientist said the data came from the Chinese national space agency.
But the true origin of the story comes from a British newspaper, which published it as an April Fool’s joke. The astronomer may have been misguided by the fact that the Latin American counterpart for April Fool’s Day, Feast of the Holy Innocents, is celebrated on December 28.
Nevertheless, the internet rumor mill was quick to spread the story, which mutated into an alien invasion scare. Some even matched the comet with the infamous Nibiru planet.
“Non-existent” scientist’s misadventure
And the person arguably affected most by the scare is the Russian scientist who discovered the comet in the first place. Leonid Elenin from the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics in Moscow became the first target for the enquiries, demands and threats of all the worried souls.
“It was somewhat funny at first, and I even surfed the internet to see what they say, but now I’m scared to do it. I’m really irritated. I’m really disappointed that this nonsense appeared in the Russian segment of the web,” the astronomer told RIA Novosti news agency.
According to Elenin, conspiracy theorists go as far as claiming that he is a front firm for NASA or other government agencies, who try to put a lid on the information about the alleged upcoming disaster.
“I’ve seen discussions about what Leonid Elenin actually means. ‘Ele’ is ‘extinction level event’ and ‘nin’ is Nibiru in November,” the scientist said.
The astronomer did his best to explain that there is nothing special about the comet he detected, apart from the fact that it was the first comet discovered by a Russian astronomer in two decades.
He believes the hysteria has been fueled by the photo of the comet made by a tracking camera, which resulted in two nearby stars leaving stretched markings.
“There’s the comet flying and there are tracks from the two stars. I read an article claiming those two ‘cylinders’ are the spacecraft,” Elenin explained.
The Elenin comet is to flyby Earth at an estimated distance of 35,000,000 kilometers in mid-October. You would need good binoculars or a telescope to see it harmlessly pass and go away.
Here we go … demonise organic food as a stepping stone to banning it
Monday, 30 May 2011 11:25
Eat genetically-modified chemically poisoned and radiated food, it’s much better for you. Monsanto says.
‘Spanish vegetables suspected of contamination with a potentially deadly bacteria are being recalled from stores in Austria and the Czech Republic to prevent the spread of an outbreak that has killed at least 10 people and sickened hundreds across Europe, officials said Sunday.
Czech authorities said 120 organic Spanish cucumbers were being pulled off shelves while their counterparts in neighboring Austria announced that “small amounts” of cucumbers, as well as tomatoes and eggplants, were being removed from 33 stores.’
Read more: Here we go … demonise organic food as a stepping stone to banning it
Former Head Of CIA Bin Laden Unit: ‘Main Recruitment Sergeant For Al Qaida Is Barack Obama’
‘Ex CIA intelligence officer turned whistleblower and activist, Michael Scheuer, has launched a blistering attack on the political establishment, over its handing of the so called war on terror, asserting that the entire rationale behind it is based on outright lies and deception.
Mr Scheuer, who was speaking at the popular Hay Festival in the UK said that the politicians including the US President and the British Prime Minister have “not a clue about what’s going down in the western world”.
”We are being attacked in the west and we will continue to be attacked in the west as long as we are in Afghanistan, as long as we support the Israelis, as long as we protect the Saudi police state.” Scheuer said.’
Police Spy on UK Students by CCTVs
‘British police have installed CCTV surveillance cameras inside university and college campuses to spy on student protesters as young as 16, it has been disclosed.
University authorities said they have demanded an independent probe to be carried out into the “over zealous” use of surveillance techniques against students during the policing of protests against fee rises and public spending cuts, British media reported.
The University and College Union’s (UCU) conference will table a motion this weekend, which condemns attempts to “criminalize protest” through “state surveillance of higher education and further education institutions for eliciting intelligence regarding protest activities”.’
Believe nothing 