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Ear to the Ground

Life Sentence for Embassy Bomber

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Posted on Jan 25, 2011
AP / Geo TV

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani as he appeared in a photo shown on television in Pakistan in 2004.

He is the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be tried in America’s civilian courts, and on Tuesday a U.S. district judge sentenced 36-year-old Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani to life in prison without parole for plotting attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa.  —KA

The New York Times:

The nearly simultaneous attacks in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people and wounded thousands.

Mr. Ghailani, 36, was convicted on Nov. 17 of a single count of conspiracy to destroy government buildings and property, while being acquitted of more than 280 charges of murder and conspiracy.

But the many acquittals seemed to carry little weight with the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan of United States District Court, who, before imposing the sentence, said that “Mr. Ghailani knew and intended that people would be killed as a result of his own actions and the conspiracy he joined.”

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PatrickHenry's avatar

By PatrickHenry, January 25, 2011 at 7:46 pm Link to this comment

Three hots and a cot look pretty good to these third world criminals.

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fearnotruth's avatar

By fearnotruth, January 25, 2011 at 6:25 pm Link to this comment

from the article 1:
Mr. Ghailani, in the six years that the government says that he was a fugitive after the attacks, trained in Afghanistan with Al Qaeda, and later became a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. He was captured in 2004 after a 14-hour gun battle with Pakistani authorities.

    reality check 1:
[...]  The myth of “al Qaida” is built on an expansive foundation of many half-truths and hidden facts.  It is a CIA creation.  It was shaped by the agency to serve as a substitute “enemy” for America, replacing the Soviets whom the Islamist forces had driven from Afghanistan.   [...]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7787


from the article 2:
The Ghailani case had been seen as test of the Obama administration’s stated goal of trying Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other detainees in federal court, a plan that was stalled in the face of strong local and Congressional opposition. The jury’s verdict seemed only to intensify that debate, with critics pointing to acquittals as evidence of the risks involved in trying such detainees in the civilian system.</i>

    reality check 2:
[...]  Nine other suspected terrorists were captured, and two were killed. A woman FBI official examined the bodies, and, as reported by an ISI official, suddenly exclaimed, “You have killed Khalid Shaikh Mohammad.” The woman then instructed that a finger be cut off the body, which she took away, presumably for a DNA test.   [...]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EC06Df04.html

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By ezeques, January 25, 2011 at 4:49 pm Link to this comment

So who really won?

How much money and other resources did this
prosecution cost?

The terrorists have an infinite supply of this cannon
fodder. And they are cheap.

Like Ho Che Minh said, “You can kill 10 of us or
every one of you we kill and we still win”.

But this is not their real battle anyway. This is
only their recruitment effort that we are cooperating
with by out stupidity. Their real battle is to
infiltrate us using our liberalism as weapons against
us. It’s working.

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By diamond, January 25, 2011 at 4:13 pm Link to this comment

All of it, FRTothus. All of it.

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By gerard, January 25, 2011 at 3:39 pm Link to this comment

“...Lewis A. Kaplan of United States District Court, who, before imposing the (life) sentence, said that “Mr. Ghailani knew and intended that people would be killed as a result of his own actions and the conspiracy he joined.”
  Why couldn’t the U.S. war against Afghanistan be equally regarded as a “conspiracy”? Why can’t it be said that Bush/Obama/we “knew and intended that people would be killed as a result of our actions there?”
  Question:  How can we avoid an unspoken “life sentence” of guilt and responsibility there?  And why should we?
  PS—I don’t enjoy asking questions like this, folks, but somebody’s got to do it. Otherwise, law becomes nothing more than a lop-sided farce.
  “I hold this truth to be self-evident”:  Violence leads to more violence leads to more and more violence—unless it is prevented—which means that somebody—or bodies—have to prevent it by getting together beforehand and agreeing not to use it but to find other ways to solve problems together.  Hopeless?  Only if you think so.

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By FRTothus, January 25, 2011 at 3:38 pm Link to this comment

How much of the evidence in this kangaroo trial was obtained by torture?

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