http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/11/obama-verdict-in-first-gitmo-terrorist-trial-ahmed-ghailani-cleared-of-all-but-one-of-280-charges-in.html
Obama Verdict in First Gitmo Terrorist Trial: Ahmed Ghailani Cleared of All but One of 280 Charges in U.S. Embassy Bombings
The verdict came down late today after chaotic deliberations in the first civilian trial of a GITMO prisoner. Ahmed Ghailani was found innocent of all but 1 of over 280 charges against him in the bombing of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Apparently the evidence charging him with 224 counts of murder could not be used in court because "coercive" techniques were used to get information from him.
The jury did found him guilty of "conspiracy to destroy government buildings" Huh? So the Muslim terrorist killed 224 people and he's guilty of ............... destruction of public property? Are we under attack from within or what?
This is a serious setback for the US - no one can make a case for civilian trials. Another breathtaking Obama failure, yet again putting Americans and national security at risk.
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Ahmed Ghailani was found not guilty on all but one charge Wednesday by a civilian jury in New York, in a case with ramifications for President Obama's policy toward Guantanamo and civilian trials for terror suspects. Ghailani was acquitted in federal court on more than 280 charges in connection with the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, including one murder count for each of the 224 people killed. He was found guilty for only one charge, conspiracy to destroy government buildings.
Ghailani faces a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a possible life sentence. He will remain in custody and sentencing will take place at a future date.
The acquittal is seen as a major blow to the U.S. government, as Ghailani was the first former Gitmo detainee to be tried in a civilian courtroom. The case had been viewed as a possible test case for President Barack Obama administration's aim of putting other terror detainees -- including self-professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- on trial on U.S. soil.
The anonymous federal jury deliberated over seven days, with a juror writing a note to the judge saying she felt threatened by other jurors.
Prosecutors had branded Ghailani a cold-blooded terrorist. The defense portrayed him as a clueless errand boy, exploited by senior Al Qaeda operatives and framed by evidence from contaminated crime scenes.
The judge had earlier decided that a star witness would not be allowed to testify because the witness was identified while Ghailani was held at a secret CIA camp that used harsh interrogation techniques. It is unknown what effect this witness would have had on the case.
Prosecutors had alleged Ghailani helped an Al Qaeda cell buy a truck and components for explosives used in a suicide bombing in his native Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998. The attack in Dar es Salaam and a nearly simultaneous bombing in Nairobi, Kenya, killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.
The day before the bombings, Ghailani boarded a one-way flight to Pakistan under an alias, prosecutors said. While on the run, he spent time in Afghanistan as a cook and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden and later as a document forger for Al Qaeda, authorities said.
[..] Other witnesses described how Ghailani bought gas tanks used in the truck bomb with cash supplied by the terror group, how the FBI found a blasting cap stashed in his room at a cell hideout and how he lied to family members about his escape, telling them he was going to Yemen to start a new life.
Read it all.
- via Feeddler RSS Reader
Sent from my iPhone
No comments:
Post a Comment