Charges dropped against suspect in USS Cole bombing

[BeatleBoot]

Source: CNN

CNN) -- The U.S. government has dropped charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole, according to a Pentagon spokesman.

The charges were dropped "without prejudice" by Susan Crawford, convening authority at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon.

In removing the charges without prejudice, prosecutors can resubmit charges at a later date while at the same time complying with President Barack Obama's order to the military to hold off on cases for four months.

With this move, all cases at Guantanamo are now in line with the president's order to halt court proceedings at the detention center, according to Gordon.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/05/uss.cole.bombing/index.html

[Ex Lurker]

1. shut it down. let them go n/t

[conturnedpro09]

6. All of them? I don't think so.

Those who deliberatley slaughtered innocents need to be punished. Obama thinks so. Release the guys we picked up on the streets in Iraq for "acting suspicious." Not the killers.

[merh]

11. do you know which ones were responsible for said slaughter?

is there any evidence? Where are their files? Were their confessions freely and voluntarily given or were they the result of torture - you know they said what the torturer wanted them to say so that the torture would stop?

[UTUSN]

2. K&R #4 ONLY for the sailors who died n/t

[jwirr]

3. Thanks to *ss and his chain we are not ever going to get any of these

guys convicted because evidence obtained under torture is suspicious at the least. What fools they were.

[gratuitous]

4. I'm sure the torture was worth it

No sense bringing the guilty to justice when Bush and his minions can get their jollies setting dogs on some guy. Their hands are clean, because there are always willing minions to do the dirty work.

I'm sure the families of the dead appreciate the finer points of this, so it's all good.

[bluesmail]

5. That happened quicker than I ever imagined. n/t good news for him

[conturnedpro09]

7. and bad news for us. n/t

[stillcool]

8. How is that bad news?

He was captured in 2002, and was in CIA custody until 2006, when he was transferred to Gitmo. He was charged in 2008. Now those charges have been removed, and he will be charged again when new evidence can be compiled that is not based on torture.

In removing the charges without prejudice, prosecutors can resubmit charges at a later date while at the same time complying with President Barack Obama's order to the military to hold off on cases for four months.

With this move, all cases at Guantanamo are now in line with the president's order to halt court proceedings at the detention center, according to Gordon.

Al-Nashiri was scheduled to go to trial on Monday. Prosecutors had asked for a continuance in the trial but Judge James Pohl had denied the request.


Pohl found the government's "argument for continuances were unpersuasive," according to a copy of his opinion. Pohl noted there had been no previous requests for a delay, and that the public's interest in a speedy trial would be harmed by further delay

[conturnedpro09]

9. It highlights how sloppy our justice system has become.

When we have to balance undoing the illegal shit of the last administration with punishing the illegal shit (you know, killings) of terrorists. It's just embarassing.

[stillcool]

10. It was more embarrassing before..

I don't know if anyone will be charged with war crimes in a world court, but our country is already guilty. The troops that we have stationed all over the world are what concerns me. But..we have no one to blame but ourselves.

[BadGimp]

12. The Freepers will go Apoplectic over this for sure

[truthisfreedom]

13. I hope their heads explode for good this time.

Who needs 'em?

[bottomtheweaver]

14. Charges dropped in Guantanamo terror trial

Source: AP

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon's senior judge overseeing terror trials at Guantanamo Bay dropped charges Thursday against an al-Qaida suspect in the 2000 USS Cole bombing, upholding President Barack Obama's order to freeze military tribunals there.

The charges against suspected al-Qaida bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri marked the last active Guantanamo war crimes case.

The legal move by Susan J. Crawford, the top legal authority for military trials at Guantanamo, brings all cases into compliance with Obama's Jan. 22 executive order to halt terrorist court proceedings at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Crawford withdrew the charges against al-Nashiri. However, new charges can be brought again later, and al-Nashiri will remain in prison for the time being.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090206/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/obama_guantanamo

---

So when it gets down to brass tacks, we never had any cases against these guys. Who would have guessed it?

[EFerrari]

15. You and me and The Wall?

[bottomtheweaver]

16. So what if he was tortured in a secret CIA prison? He confessed!

The Pentagon last summer charged al-Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian, with "organizing and directing" the bombing and planned to seek the death penalty in the case. . . . Last year, al-Nashiri said during a Guantanamo hearing that he confessed to helping plot the Cole bombing only because he was tortured by U.S. interrogators. The CIA has admitted he was among terrorist suspects subjected to waterboarding, which simulates drowning, in 2002 and 2003 while being interrogated in secret CIA prisons.

Meanwhile the commanding office of the Cole pulls the propganada ripcord:

"Justice delayed is justice denied. We must allow the military commission process to go forward."

Well, he's half right.

[bottomtheweaver]

17. Photo of al-Nashiri

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a suspect in the USS Cole bombing who is being held at Guantanamo naval base, is pictured in this 2002 photograph. U.S. The judge overseeing U.S. war crimes court at Guantanamo on Thursday dismissed the charges against al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who was accused of plotting the bombing of the Navy warship USS Cole that killed 17 U.S. sailors in the Yemeni port of Aden in 2000, the Pentagon said on February 5, 2009.
........

He looks pretty guilty to me.

[No Elephants]

18. As far as I know, Obama did not ask this judge to

drop the charges, only to delay the rest of the trial. This judge seems to have her own agenda.

[alcibiades_mystery]

21. No, you're wrong

The judge refused to delay the trial (that's the personal agenda, or really Bushie agenda). So, because the judge would not delay the trial, the admin had to drop the charges until they can make a determination about criminal charges in a proper forum. If the judge now wants to invoke habeas, then the Bushbot judge can release this prisoner.

[No Elephants]

22. Right. I read about Obama's order after I posted, but was not sufficiently motivated

to find my post and change it. Thanks for the correction and the explanation. (BTW, my son is a great admirer of your namesake, Alcibiades. Or maybe I should say of the stories about Alcibiades.

[alcibiades_mystery]

20. They dropped the charge because the judge wouldn't delay the tribunal

They will refile when the admin determines what to do with the Gitmo people.

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. Excellent move...let the judge release this guy if he really cares about habeas

Put it right back in the Bushbots court.