Administration halts prosecution of USS Cole bomber for "political reasons" WTF?

[Soul Crusher]

Administration halts prosecution of alleged USS Cole bomber

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 26, 2010; 8:47 PM

________________________ ______________________-



The Obama administration has shelved the planned prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged coordinator of the Oct. 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, according to a court filing.

The decision at least temporarily scuttles what was supposed to be the signature trial of a major al-Qaeda figure under a reformed system of military commissions. And it comes practically on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the attack, which killed 17 sailors and wounded dozens when a boat packed with explosives ripped a hole in the side of the warship in the port of Aden.

In a filing this week in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the Justice Department said that "no charges are either pending or contemplated with respect to al-Nashiri in the near future."

The statement, tucked into a motion to dismiss a petition by Nashiri's attorneys, suggests that the prospect of further military trials for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has all but ground to a halt, much as the administration's plan to try the accused plotters of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in federal court has stalled.

(Photos: Inside the prison camps at Guantanamo)

Only two cases are moving forward at Guantanamo Bay, and both were sworn and referred for trial by the time Obama took office. In January 2009, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates directed the Convening Authority for Military Commissions to stop referring cases for trial, an order that 20 months later has not been rescinded.

Military officials said a team of prosecutors in the Nashiri case has been ready go to trial for some time. And several months ago, military officials seemed confident that Nashiri would be arraigned this summer.

"It's politics at this point," said one military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss policy. He said he thinks the administration does not want to proceed against a high-value detainee without some prospect of civilian trials for other major figures at Guantanamo Bay.

A White House official disputed that.

"We are confident that the reformed military commissions are a lawful, fair and effective prosecutorial forum and that the Department of Defense will handle the referrals in an appropriate manner consistent with the interests of justice," said the official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.

(More: A graphic timeline of the USS Cole case)

The Defense Department issued a statement Thursday saying the case is not stalled. "Prosecutors in the Office of Military Commissions are actively investigating the case against Mr. al-Nashiri and are developing charges against him," the statement said.

With the 10th anniversary of the Cole bombing approaching on Oct. 12, relatives of those killed in the attack expressed deep frustration with the delay.

(Photos: Victims from the USS Cole among those remembered at Arlington Cemetery)

"After 10 years, it seems like nobody really cares," said Gloria Clodfelter, whose 21-year-old son, Kenneth, was killed on the Cole.

Military prosecutors allege that Nashiri, a Saudi national, was a senior al-Qaeda operative and close associate of Osama bin Laden, who orchestrated the suicide attack on the Cole. Nashiri was scheduled to be arraigned in February 2009 but the new administration instructed military prosecutors to suspend legal proceedings at Guantanamo Bay. The charges against Nashiri were withdrawn.

In November 2009, however, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. appeared to revive the case when he announced that the military would prosecute Nashiri, one of at least 36 detainees who could be tired in federal court or a military commission.

"With regard to the Cole bombing, that was an attack on a United States warship, and that, I think, is appropriately placed into the military commission setting," Holder said.

But critics of military commissions say the Nashiri case exemplifies the system's flaws, particularly the ability to introduce certain evidence such as hearsay statements that probably would not be admitted in federal court. The prosecution is expected to rely heavily on statements made to the FBI by two Yemenis who allegedly implicated Nashiri. Neither witness is expected at trial, but the FBI agents who interviewed them will testify, said Nashiri's military attorney, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Stephen C. Reyes. "Unlike in federal court, you don't have the right to confront the witnesses against you," he said.

Such indirect testimony could be critical to a conviction because any incriminating statements Nashiri might have made are probably inadmissible under the 2009 Military Commissions Act, which bars the use of evidence obtained through torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Nashiri, 45, was captured in the United Arab Emirates in November 2002, and immediately placed in CIA custody. He was among three detainees held by the agency who was water-boarded, and a report by the CIA's inspector general found that Nashiri was threatened with a gun and a power drill.

"I am very confident, based upon what I have heard, that there is more than sufficient evidence linking him to the attack on Cole directly, and that they do not need any of the information that may have come from black site interviews and interrogations," said Kirk S. Lippold, who was commander of the Cole when it was attacked.

Reyes said Nashiri's treatment at the hands of the CIA will be part of any proceeding and will be relevant to any sentence he receives if he is found guilty. The government is expected to seek the death penalty.

"I'm not admitting to guilty, but his treatment is absolutely relevant in a death case and can be used in mitigation to lessen the sentence," Reyes said.

Nashiri, who has been held at Camp 7 at Guantanamo Bay since September 2006, has never appeared in court. But according to the transcript of a 2007 Combatant Status Review Tribunal, he said that he had nothing to do with the Cole bombing and that his connections to those involved in the explosion, including the purchase of the suicide boat, were unwitting. "We were planning to be involved in a fishing project," he said.

More PostPolitics:

________________________ ___


"It's politics at this point," said one military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss policy. He said he thinks the administration does not want to proceed against a high-value detainee without some prospect of civilian trials for other major figures at Guantanamo Bay.

[Soul Crusher]

O's terror outrage
By ARTHUR HERMAN
www.nypost.com

Last Updated: 4:19 AM, August 30, 2010

Posted: 11:40 PM, August 29, 2010



Americans are learning there's one minority group President Obama is never afraid to offend: families of victims of Islamist terror.

First, Attorney General Eric Holder wanted to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the 9/11 attack, in lower Manhattan -- which nearly everyone, even Mayor Bloomberg (eventually), realized would be a standing insult to the memory of KSM's victims.

Then came Obama's "I was for it before I was against it" stance on the Ground Zero mosque -- another slap at 9/11 victims' families.

Now, last Friday, we learned that "no charges are either pending or contemplated" against one of the deadliest and most dangerous al Qaeda operatives, Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, mastermind of the October 12, 2000, bombing of USS Cole that killed 17 sailors and officers and wounded dozens more.

The hope of families that lost loved ones on that terrible day, that after a decade justice would finally be done, has faded to zero.

It's worth remembering how this outrage -- which I predicted in a column back in February 2009 -- came about.

In the wake of the Twin Towers attack and despite howls of protest from the civil liberties left, the Bush administration rounded up leading Islamist terrorists around the world and put them to CIA interrogation. One of them was al Nashiri, a Saudi national who set off the attack on the USS Cole in 2000 as the destroyer was moored peacefully in Aden harbor.

Under President George W. Bush's executive order establishing trials of terrorists by military commission, authorities painstakingly gathered evidence against al Nashiri -- even as groups like ACLU howled that such commissions would violate terrorists' rights and should be shut down.

The gathering of evidence dragged on for nearly six years, until in January 2009 Obama ordered Defense Secretary Gates to suspend all military commission proceedings, including against al Nashiri.

Cole's former skipper, Capt. Kirk Lippold, and the Cole victims' families fought hard to reopen the case against their sons' and daughters' killers -- who in the meantime had been found guilty of terrorism and sentenced to death in a court in Yemen. They even met with President Obama, who promised them he was only waiting for the "right judge" before reopening the case under new rules.

Now, on Friday, we learned the "right judge" meant no judge at all. A Defense Department spokesman insisted that the fact that no charges will be brought before a military commission doesn't mean the case is over. But it will be a long time before this mess is finally sorted out. Yet it's a mess of Obama's own making.

After 9/11 Bush and other Americans understood that we were in a war, not a "Law and Order" episode. They understood that such a war required more effective instruments than our civilian courts and the normal legal process. The time-tested, Supreme Court-approved system of military tribunals for trying enemy combatants was one such instrument.

Obama told his political allies on the left that as president he'd turn Bush's War on Terror upside down. The terrorists would now get constitutional protections; and those who fought against them would go to jail as "war criminals."

Now, Obama's popularity is in a tailspin. Late night comics joke about his being a one-term president. The civil liberties left is furious with him for failing to close Gitmo and to prosecute a single former Bush official -- not to mention for keeping US troops in Afghanistan. If he starts even one military trial of an alleged terrorist, even one who attacked a mili tary installation, he loses whatever shred of credibility he still has with his political base. (The two commissions under way both began under Bush.)

"It seems like nobody really cares," says Gloria Clodfelter, whose 21-year-old son died in the Cole bombing. Like the KSM trial and Obama's stance on the Ground Zero mosque, the decision to suspend the al Nashiri proceedings has nothing to do with justice and a lot to do with politics. The shame is that, once again, those who suffer are the families of those killed by terror, not the terrorists themselves.

Arthur Herman, author of "Gandhi and Churchill," is finish ing a book on the arsenal of de mocracy in World War II.

[Soul Crusher]

Bump. 

[loco]

It's okay!  The US did not prosecute Israel either for bombing The USS Liberty.    

[Soul Crusher]

It's okay!  The US did not prosecute Israel either for bombing The USS Liberty.    

Two wrongs don't make a right.  additionally, the quote from the military guy shows Obama's MO.  Obama is doing the same thing with illegals and amnesty.

Unless Obama gets full amnesty, he won't secure the borders or do anything to help out the border states in any meaningful way.   

[loco]

Two wrongs don't make a right.  additionally, the quote from the military guy shows Obama's MO.  Obama is doing the same thing with illegals and amnesty.

Unless Obama gets full amnesty, he won't secure the borders or do anything to help out the border states in any meaningful way.   

Did you see the article saying that illegal immigrants are now crossing over to the US by storming US beaches?  It says finding them is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

[Fury]

Administration halts prosecution of alleged USS Cole bomber

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 26, 2010; 8:47 PM

________________________ ______________________-



The Obama administration has shelved the planned prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged coordinator of the Oct. 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, according to a court filing.

The decision at least temporarily scuttles what was supposed to be the signature trial of a major al-Qaeda figure under a reformed system of military commissions. And it comes practically on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the attack, which killed 17 sailors and wounded dozens when a boat packed with explosives ripped a hole in the side of the warship in the port of Aden.

In a filing this week in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the Justice Department said that "no charges are either pending or contemplated with respect to al-Nashiri in the near future."

The statement, tucked into a motion to dismiss a petition by Nashiri's attorneys, suggests that the prospect of further military trials for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has all but ground to a halt, much as the administration's plan to try the accused plotters of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in federal court has stalled.

(Photos: Inside the prison camps at Guantanamo)

Only two cases are moving forward at Guantanamo Bay, and both were sworn and referred for trial by the time Obama took office. In January 2009, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates directed the Convening Authority for Military Commissions to stop referring cases for trial, an order that 20 months later has not been rescinded.

Military officials said a team of prosecutors in the Nashiri case has been ready go to trial for some time. And several months ago, military officials seemed confident that Nashiri would be arraigned this summer.

"It's politics at this point," said one military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss policy. He said he thinks the administration does not want to proceed against a high-value detainee without some prospect of civilian trials for other major figures at Guantanamo Bay.

A White House official disputed that.

"We are confident that the reformed military commissions are a lawful, fair and effective prosecutorial forum and that the Department of Defense will handle the referrals in an appropriate manner consistent with the interests of justice," said the official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.

(More: A graphic timeline of the USS Cole case)

The Defense Department issued a statement Thursday saying the case is not stalled. "Prosecutors in the Office of Military Commissions are actively investigating the case against Mr. al-Nashiri and are developing charges against him," the statement said.

With the 10th anniversary of the Cole bombing approaching on Oct. 12, relatives of those killed in the attack expressed deep frustration with the delay.

(Photos: Victims from the USS Cole among those remembered at Arlington Cemetery)

"After 10 years, it seems like nobody really cares," said Gloria Clodfelter, whose 21-year-old son, Kenneth, was killed on the Cole.

Military prosecutors allege that Nashiri, a Saudi national, was a senior al-Qaeda operative and close associate of Osama bin Laden, who orchestrated the suicide attack on the Cole. Nashiri was scheduled to be arraigned in February 2009 but the new administration instructed military prosecutors to suspend legal proceedings at Guantanamo Bay. The charges against Nashiri were withdrawn.

In November 2009, however, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. appeared to revive the case when he announced that the military would prosecute Nashiri, one of at least 36 detainees who could be tired in federal court or a military commission.

"With regard to the Cole bombing, that was an attack on a United States warship, and that, I think, is appropriately placed into the military commission setting," Holder said.

But critics of military commissions say the Nashiri case exemplifies the system's flaws, particularly the ability to introduce certain evidence such as hearsay statements that probably would not be admitted in federal court. The prosecution is expected to rely heavily on statements made to the FBI by two Yemenis who allegedly implicated Nashiri. Neither witness is expected at trial, but the FBI agents who interviewed them will testify, said Nashiri's military attorney, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Stephen C. Reyes. "Unlike in federal court, you don't have the right to confront the witnesses against you," he said.

Such indirect testimony could be critical to a conviction because any incriminating statements Nashiri might have made are probably inadmissible under the 2009 Military Commissions Act, which bars the use of evidence obtained through torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Nashiri, 45, was captured in the United Arab Emirates in November 2002, and immediately placed in CIA custody. He was among three detainees held by the agency who was water-boarded, and a report by the CIA's inspector general found that Nashiri was threatened with a gun and a power drill.

"I am very confident, based upon what I have heard, that there is more than sufficient evidence linking him to the attack on Cole directly, and that they do not need any of the information that may have come from black site interviews and interrogations," said Kirk S. Lippold, who was commander of the Cole when it was attacked.

Reyes said Nashiri's treatment at the hands of the CIA will be part of any proceeding and will be relevant to any sentence he receives if he is found guilty. The government is expected to seek the death penalty.

"I'm not admitting to guilty, but his treatment is absolutely relevant in a death case and can be used in mitigation to lessen the sentence," Reyes said.

Nashiri, who has been held at Camp 7 at Guantanamo Bay since September 2006, has never appeared in court. But according to the transcript of a 2007 Combatant Status Review Tribunal, he said that he had nothing to do with the Cole bombing and that his connections to those involved in the explosion, including the purchase of the suicide boat, were unwitting. "We were planning to be involved in a fishing project," he said.

More PostPolitics:

________________________ ___


"It's politics at this point," said one military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss policy. He said he thinks the administration does not want to proceed against a high-value detainee without some prospect of civilian trials for other major figures at Guantanamo Bay.

What else is new? If there's one thing Obama's good at, it's spitting in the face of American citizens and the families of those murder by Islamists.

Did you see the article saying that illegal immigrants are now crossing over to the US by storming US beaches?  It says finding them is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Looks like you and your pro-illegal immigration, anti-American citizen buddies are getting their way then.

[Soul Crusher]

Again - this moron has time to go golfing, partying, drinking, yet won't do a real press conference because he would get asked questions about stuff like this and there is simply no defense to it. 

[loco]

Looks like you and your pro-illegal immigration, anti-American citizen buddies are getting their way then.

I'm anti-illegal immigration.  I'm pro-American citizen.

[Soul Crusher]

Cole attack survivors angry at Obama
Politico ^ | 10/12/2010 | Josh Gerstein




The 10th anniversary of the bombing of the USS Cole on Tuesday conjured up painful memories for the families of the 17 Navy sailors who died in the terrorist attack, but it also revealed simmering anger at the Obama administration over the lack of concrete progress in bringing an alleged perpetrator to justice.

In February 2009, less than three weeks after his inauguration, President Barack Obama held an emotional meeting with family members of victims of the Cole bombing and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Families said the new president promised swift action yet pleaded for their patience so his aides and Congress could overhaul the military commission system – which federal courts twice invalidated during the Bush administration.

Yet 20 months later, there are few signs the case against Saudi-born Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri – the alleged mastermind of the Cole bombing who was captured in 2003 – has moved forward.

Last November, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the case would be sent for trial to a newly constituted military commission. Nearly a year has passed since then, with no new charges against Al-Nashiri and no official word when – or if – any might be forthcoming.

“Nothing has moved. There has been talk about the military commission…nothing appears to be happening because of politics, not because there are legal considerations holding it up within the court system,” said Kirk Lippold, who was commander of the Cole when suicide bombers in an explosive-laden boat struck it during a refueling stop in Yemen. “That frustrates people more than anything else.”

“At the time, we felt the president was being real positive about it,” John Clodfelter, who attended last February’s White House meeting, told POLITICO Tuesday. His son, Kenneth, 21, was among the sailors killed in the Cole attack a decade ago. “The president told us he wanted to figure out what was supposed to be done versus what was actually being done.”

In the months since, the elder Clodfelter’s good feeling toward Obama and his team has evaporated.

“I don’t know what the problem is,” said Clodfelter, who complained he has had difficulty getting the White House or Justice Department to update him on the case. “Things have not happened the way they gave the impression they’d happen…They were supposedly going to have an open door policy. I don’t know if that was a lot of B.S. or what.”

During a news briefing Tuesday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said various government agencies are still discussing Al-Nashiri’s case. “There's an inter-agency process that is being worked through, and certainly our hope is, now that we have a reformed commission system, that it's a process that can start soon,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs said he couldn’t offer any details on when the prosecution might begin, but the White House remains confident Al-Nashiri will stand trial.

“Obviously, our viewpoint is that somebody who did harm to American servicemen 10 years ago will be and should be brought to justice. That was our goal in reforming the military commission system, and I believe in this case we will see justice done,” Gibbs said.

Yet the state of Al-Nashiri’s case before the military commission seems to have been the subject of some confusion, even within the government. On Aug. 23, federal prosecutors filed a legal brief that suggested the potentially explosive case had been sidetracked indefinitely.

“No charges are either pending or contemplated with respect to Al-Nashiri in the near future,” the brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said.

Four days later, after the Washington Post reported the statement, the Justice Department filed an amended brief which changed that conclusion, saying: “No charges are currently pending against Al-Nashiri.”

Another Justice filing last month added a bit more. “Although prosecutors in the Office of Military Commissions are actively investigating the case and developing charges against Nashiri,” it reads, “no charges are currently lodged against him.”

Some family members of victims and former Cole crewmembers believe Al- Nashiri’s case has been swept up in deliberations over the politically charged plans to try five other Guantanamo prisoners suspected in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Last November, when Holder announced the Cole case would go back to a military commission, he also announced that the 9/11 suspects held in Guantanamo Bay would be tried in civilian court in New York – a plan that triggered a firestorm of criticism. The plan for the Sept. 11 suspects fell apart earlier this year as a result.

Obama is said to be still considering whether those men should stand trial in civilian court or before a military commission. Some observers believe the White House is reluctant to authorize a high-profile military commission trial – a system the president criticized on the campaign trail in 2008 – without a similarly high-profile counterpart on the civilian side. 

“I will never forget meeting with some of the families of the victims of this bombing in February 2009. I am deeply grateful to them for their sacrifice, and their efforts to keep the memory of this tragic event alive in our nation’s conscience,” Obama said in a written statement Tuesday that did not address the issue of prosecutions related to the attack. “We pay tribute on this day to the courage and sacrifice of those who lost their lives in this attack, and to their families.”

However, others point to factors that make the Al-Nashiri case more complex than other terrorism-related prosecutions.

Held in secret “black site” prisons overseas and later transferred to Guantanamo, Al-Nashiri is one of three men known to have been water-boarded – a harsh technique that simulates drowning – by the Central Intelligence Agency under the Bush administration’s enhanced interrogation program. Critics say the program was government-sanctioned torture; last week, a federal judge invalidated a key government witness in another major terror case because information about the witness was obtained through coercion.

But Al-Nashiri was subjected to even rougher tactics that pushed past the limits authorized by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel at the time.

While in CIA custody, government agents threatened him with a power drill and an unloaded gun. Last year, Holder authorized a special prosecutor to conduct a new inquiry to determine if similar unauthorized interrogation methods crossed the line into criminal conduct.

While Defense Department officials insist that they are moving on Al-Nashiri’s case with deliberate speed, they face a problematic scenario: a CIA officer or contractor who had contact with Nashiri could be indicted or even enmeshed in a serious criminal investigation. Because Al-Nashiri is entitled to a vigorous defense, his lawyers will probably demand everything the government knows about the abuse of their client – information that could compromise the prosecution's case and potentially even lead to the Cole suspect's acquittal.

At the same time, any witnesses to Al-Nashiri’s rough treatment are also likely to assert the Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination while the Justice probe continues. In theory, that could mean a military prosecution of Al-Nashiri could end up on a collision course with the Justice Department’s investigation.

White House defenders note that at least some of those problems stem from the Bush administration decision to change the rules on interrogations, at the expense of information that could be used in court. Others familiar with the case blame Obama’s predecessor for failing to bring the co-conspirators in the Cole attack to justice in the U.S. – particularly after some were tried in Yemen and sent to prison but either escaped or were released shortly afterward.

Some of the military prosecutors who are wrestling with the Al-Nashiri case attended a reunion for former Cole crew members over the weekend and a memorial service Tuesday at a naval base in Norfolk, Va., two sources told POLITICO. In a briefing for crew members, the prosecutors said they are continuing to sift through evidence and hope to move forward with it soon, but they did not explain the delays or specify when charges would be filed, the sources said.

During the memorial service Tuesday, a top Navy officer praised the courage of the Cole’s crew but also hinted at the anger and frustration of some survivors, who feel they have been forgotten in the wake of the massive Sept. 11 attack.

“At the worst of times, you showed us the best of our Navy. We will never forget what you did,” Admiral J.C. Harvey Jr. told them. “Our war on terror began on 12 October 2000 at 11:18 in the morning,” a year before 9/11, and half a world away.

Lippold, the former commander, said the sentiment that their fate has been overlooked – by the Obama Administration, the Bush Administration and the country as a whole – is widespread among the former crew.

“They feel like the Cole has always been treated as a forgotten or ignored attack, obviously overshadowed by 9/11,” Lippold said. “There is just a sense of discouragement mixed with frustration hinged with a bit of anger.”

“It seems like anything is more important than the attack on the Cole,” Clodfelter said.

[Soul Crusher]

Bump 

[kcballer]

Perhaps there are things going on behind the scenes we are not privy to.  An unnamed quote is all you have to go on.  Pretty weak 333.  It's not like he's walking free right now. 

[Soul Crusher]

Perhaps there are things going on behind the scenes we are not privy to.  An unnamed quote is all you have to go on.  Pretty weak 333.  It's not like he's walking free right now. 

Yeah - they are negotiating his release most likely.