9/11 GTMO Suspects to be tried in NY

Death Penalty to be Sought

Washington (CNN) -- Five Guantanamo Bay detainees with alleged ties to the 9/11 conspiracy, including accused mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be transferred to New York to go on trial in civilian court, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday.
Mohammed, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi will all be transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York -- a short distance from the World Trade Center towers that were destroyed in the September 11 attacks.
"After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for the attacks of September 11th will finally face justice," Holder said.
He said he expected prosecutors to seek the death penalty.
Holder also announced that five other detainees held at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be sent to military commissions for trial. They were identified as Omar Khadr, Mohammed Kamin, Ibrahim al Qosi, Noor Uthman Muhammed and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.
Al-Nashiri is an accused mastermind of the deadly 2000 bombing of the USS Cole; Khadr is a Canadian charged with the 2002 murder of a U.S. military officer in Afghanistan. Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured in July 2002.

Mohammed "will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice," President Obama said Friday in Japan.

"The American people insist on it, and my administration will insist on it," Obama told reporters at a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
Mohammed is the confessed organizer of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon. But his confession could be called into question during trial. A 2005 Justice Department memo -- released by the Obama administration -- revealed he had been waterboarded 183 times in March 2003.
Obama has called the technique, which simulates drowning, torture.
The alleged 9/11 conspirators are among 215 men held by the U.S. military at the Guantanamo prison camp. The Obama administration has vowed to close the detention facility but acknowledges it is unlikely to happen by its self-imposed January 22, 2010, deadline.
Bringing some of the world's top terror suspects to be tried in New York has already sparked outrage, as well as security concerns.
"Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the most wanted terrorist in the world. Everyone in the world is going to know precisely where he is at precisely one time," CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said. "The Foley courthouse could become the focus of a great deal of interest from terrorists. That's going to take a tremendous security effort."

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, issued a statement Friday denouncing the decision to try the 9/11 suspects as "common criminals."
"The attacks of September 11th were an act of war," Cornyn said. "Reverting to a pre-9/11 approach to fighting terrorism and bringing these dangerous individuals onto U.S. soil needlessly compromises the safety of all Americans. Putting political ideology ahead of the safety of the American people just to fulfill an ill-conceived campaign promise is irresponsible."
But Kristen Breitweiser, whose husband was killed on 9/11, said she welcomed the trial.
"Some would say New York would now be a target by allowing his [Mohammed's] trial to take place in New York, but I disagree," she told CNN. Breitweiser still lives in the New York area. "It would give many of us access to attend the hearings."
She also said that for some who lost loved ones on 9/11, "this will be our opportunity to see justice served and have our day in court.
"Our ability to prosecute terrorists successfully in open courtrooms has less to do with the our judicial process and more to do with Bush's policy on torture that will make these prosecutions more difficult," she said.

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I do intensely hope that Bush's [torture] policies don't interfere with these terrorists getting their just due. I doubt it, however. Having the trial in New York, with juries made up of New Yorkers, will most likely end with a "guilty" verdict, and hopefully with an execution recommendation.

DC Sniper Exectuted Tonight

The DC Sniper is set to be executed tonight at 9pm in Virginia (6pm PST).

I'm not completely okay with capital punishment. But one exception I'm okay with is terrorists, mass murderers, and serial killers.

John Allen Mohammed meets all three categories.

Washington (CNN) -- John Allen Muhammad, the mastermind of the 2002 sniper attacks that terrorized the suburbs of the nation's capital, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening at a state prison near Jarratt, Virginia.
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine denied a clemency request from Muhammad's lawyers, closing off what is likely to be his last avenue of appeal.
"Having carefully reviewed the petition for clemency and judicial opinions regarding this case, I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury and then imposed and affirmed by the courts," Kaine said in a statement.
The Supreme Court denied Muhammad's appeal on Monday. He is all but certain to be executed at Greensville Correctional Center at 9 p.m. ET.
Muhammad, 48, has chosen his final meal but has requested that it not be made public, said Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections.
Muhammad continued to profess his innocence during two lengthy trials -- including one featuring testimony from young accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo -- and in several years of legal appeals.
He repeated his assertion that he was an innocent victim of racial bias in a letter to the federal court released last week by his attorneys. Muhammad charged that police and prosecutors "lied to the American people" about his case and withheld evidence that could clear him.
Read Muhammad's letter to the judge
If Muhammad enters the death chamber without acknowledging his crimes, he will be known as the leader of one of the most enigmatic mass murder teams in history: Muhammad -- a Gulf War veteran who was described as a "gentle man" by acquaintances; and Malvo, a young Jamaican and "A" student on a desperate search for a father figure.
Prosecutors say Muhammad, fueled by grudges against the Army and his ex-wife, plotted the cross-country shooting rampage, culminating in a killing spree in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs surrounding Washington, D.C..
During three weeks in October 2002, Muhammad and Malvo killed 10 people and wounded three, while taunting police with written messages and phoned-in threats and demands.
It could have been much worse. During Muhammad's second trial in Maryland, Malvo testified that Muhammad originally planned to kill up to six people each day for 30 days.

Shootings
Indeed, after killing five people during the first 24 hours, the sniper team began the second day scouting for locations for another barrage of shootings. But, concerned about possible witnesses and the lack of escape routes, they slowed their deadly pace.
Prosecutors say Muhammad intended the killings to provide a smokescreen to cover up his real goal; he hoped to kill his wife Mildred and gain custody of his three children.
Defense attorneys and some supporters say Muhammad is mentally ill, and suffered post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during his service in the first Gulf War.
Defense attorneys released a scan of Muhammad's brain which they say shows signs of brain damage to both the front and rear of his brain, consistent with schizophrenia and other brain dysfunction.
Though Muhammad worked with explosives in the Army, his weapon of choice for the killing spree was a Bushmaster XM-15 rifle and .223 ammunition, usually fired from close range from the trunk of an old Chevy Caprice. Muhammad cut a hole in the back of the car, and removed a wall between the trunk and the back seat, turning the car into a sniper's nest.
But several of the shots were fired outside the vehicle, including the shot that wounded 13-year-old student Iran Brown, the youngest of the victims, and bus driver Conrad Johnson, 35, the last victim.
The investigation was marked by a high-level of involvement from local, state and federal law enforcement. But it was also marked by missed opportunities.
An early focus on white box trucks -- one was seen speeding near the scene of one shooting -- meant reports of a Chevy Caprice were ignored or discounted.
Another missed opportunity came when investigators found a note in a baggie tacked to the tree of a shooting site. The note instructed police to answer a nearby phone at a certain time. But by the time police processed the baggie for fingerprints and DNA, the appointed time had passed.
In notes left at shooting scenes, the snipers demanded $10 million to stop the shootings.
The big break in the investigation came when an Army friend of Muhammad's called authorities to voice his suspicions.
Muhammad and Malvo were captured at a Maryland rest stop, but were transferred to Virginia because of the state's aggressive use of the death penalty.
Ultimately, Muhammad was convicted of capital murder and terrorism charges for killing Dean Harold Meyers, a Vietnam veteran cut down by a single bullet that hit him in the head October 9, 2002, as he filled his tank at a Manassas, Virginia, service station.
Muhammad also stood trial in Maryland, and was convicted of six murders there.
Malvo was tried in Virginia for the October 14, 2002 murder of FBI analyst Linda Franklin, 47, outside a Home Depot in Fairfax County, Virginia. A jury sentenced Malvo to life in prison after defense attorneys said Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the murders, was brainwashed by Muhammad.
Malvo testified against Muhammad at Muhammad's Maryland trial, calling him a "coward."
"You took me in your house and you made me a monster," Malvo testified. Malvo, now 24, is serving time in a Virginia prison.
Malvo said the Washington killings were "phase one" of a three-phase plan. In subsequent phases, Malvo said, Muhammad planned to use $10 million to create a utopian community for homeless people in Canada, at which young people would be trained to go launch additional attacks in the United States.
But whether that was Muhammad's real intent is still a matter of conjecture.
Some acquaintances believe that after Muhammad recovered his children, he planned on killing the one witness who could provide the most threatening testimony against him -- Lee Boyd Malvo.

Terrorist released by "compassionate" Scottish government

Here's the ridiculous news item of the day:

CNN: The man convicted of murdering 270 people by blowing Pan Am flight 103 out of the sky above the Scottish town of Lockerbie two decades ago was heading home on Thursday after authorities set him free.

Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, 57, landed in Tripoli, Libya, about 2045 local time (1845 GMT), according to local media reports.He is suffering terminal prostate cancer and has three months to live, Scottish authorities said.

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill ordered al Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds, saying he will be "going home to die."

"Our justice system demands that judgment be imposed but compassion available," MacAskill said. "Our beliefs dictate that justice be served but mercy be shown."

The White House, which has urged Britain to keep al Megrahi behind bars, said it "deeply regrets" the decision.

President Barack Obama said: "We thought it was a mistake... We've also obviously been in contact with the families of the Pan Am victims and indicated to them that we don't think this was appropriate."

MacAskill said he accepted al Megrahi's 2001 conviction for the Lockerbie bombing, the worst terrorist atrocity ever committed on UK soil. He also said he supported a severe sentence.
But he said al Megrahi's lack of compassion for his 270 victims should not be a reason for Scotland to deny compassion to him.

Al Megrahi left prison Thursday, shortly after MacAskill's announcement and boarded a plane shortly afterwards.

Pan Am flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie four days before Christmas in 1988, killing all 259 of those aboard the plane and 11 Scots on the ground.

Many of those on board the flight were Americans, and the U.S. government responded immediately to word of al Megrahi's release, saying it "deeply regrets" the decision.

"As we have expressed repeatedly to officials of the government of the United Kingdom and to Scottish authorities, we continue to believe that Megrahi should serve out his sentence in Scotland," the White House said in a statement.

The Scottish justice secretary said he decided not to transfer al Megrahi to a Libyan prison, even though a prisoner transfer agreement exists between the United Kingdom and Libya, but instead chose to set him free on compassionate grounds.

MacAskill said he believed the United States government and American families of the victims were led to expect before trial that whoever was convicted would serve out their entire sentence in Scotland.

"They did so on the basis of agreements they said had been made prior to trial regarding the place of imprisonment of anyone convicted," MacAskill said.

The U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder, was in fact deputy attorney general to Janet Reno at the time of the pre-trial negotiations. He was adamant that assurances had been given to the U.S. government that any person convicted would serve his sentence in Scotland."

The United Kingdom declined to back up those claims, leading MacAskill to side with the American position, he said.

Families of the Lockerbie victims have been sharply divided whether al Megrahi should be ever be released.

Susan Cohen, who lost her 20-year-old daughter, was adamant about her position, calling al Megrahi a "mass murderer" and his release "appalling."

"Are we so devastatingly weak now, have we lost all our moral fiber that you can say that Megrahi can be released from prison for a compassionate release? Where was his compassion for my daughter? Where was his compassion for all those people?" Cohen told American Morning.
Bert Ammerman, whose brother died in the bombing, called al Megrahi's release "ludicrous."

"First of all, he got his compassionate release when he got life imprisonment and not capital punishment, which Scotland doesn't have," Ammerman told CNN. He should have remained in prison, then after his death, his body could have been returned to Libya, he said.

"Two, he's going to be going back, even if he has terminal cancer, as a hero and he's going to be received as a hero in Libya," Ammerman said.
...
Al Megrahi was convicted in 2001 after the prosecution argued he had placed the bomb, hidden in a suitcase, on a flight from Malta to Frankfurt, Germany. There, prosecutors said, the bomb was transferred onto the Pan Am plane that went first to London's Heathrow Airport and then took off for New York.
...
Libya has formally accepted responsibility for the bombing and has compensated the families, though Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi later denied any culpability.

Al Megrahi was diagnosed in September 2008 with terminal prostate cancer, and medical officials have said his condition is rapidly deteriorating, MacAskill said. He said he declined an option to free al Megrahi and allow him to live in Scotland after senior police officers cited the severe security implications

Scotland will forever remember the crime that has been perpetrated against our people and those from many other lands," MacAskill said. "The pain and suffering will remain forever. Some hurt can never heal. Some scars can never fade."

He added, "However, Mr. al Megrahi now faces a sentence imposed by a higher power. It is one that no court, in any jurisdiction, in any land, could revoke or overrule. It is terminal, final and irrevocable. He is going to die."
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Anyone else find this ridiculous?

Suspect in Military shooting pleads not guilty...

Thanks to Bluepitbull for first blogging about this...update from CNN:

For those that don't know, Abdulhakim Bledsoe shot up a military recruitment center yesterday, killing one soldier and wounding another.

Bledsoe faces 1 count of first degree murder and 16 counts of engaging in a terrorist act.

He is going to plead "not guilty." Not sure how he sees this one going...

Before the not guilty plea, authorities said Bledsoe waived his Miranda rights Monday and gave a video statement indicating that there were "political and religious" motives in the shooting.

He "stated that he was a practicing Muslim, that he was mad at the U.S. military because of what it had done to Muslims in the past," homicide detective Tommy Hudson said in a police report.

Police recovered three guns from the vehicle: an SKS semi-automatic rifle, a .22-caliber rifle and a .380-caliber automatic pistol, Thomas said. No explosives were found.

The victims were shot with an SKS rifle, according to the police report.

I have to agree with Bluepitbull on this: The recruiters should be armed. Maybe they could have defended themselves, especially if this starts occuring on a regular basis.