osama bin laden

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Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Will Never Ever Be Set Free in the United States

Of all the talking points emerging from the conservative side about the 9/11 trials, the prospect of attack architect Khalid Shaikh Mohammed getting set free in the U.S. is perhaps the most far-fetched, at least until the next round of trials are announced. I didn’t take it seriously enough to debunk, but The American Prospect’s [...]


Is al-Qaeda Drifting Away From the Quetta-Shura Taliban?

I don’t know if this is wishful thinking or solid intelligence work. But Josh Partlow at The Washington Post has a spectacular story today from Kabul about possible fissures between al-Qaeda in Pakistan and elements of the Afghan Taliban coalition. Partlow’s sources indicate that the relationships are undergoing a transition:
[O]fficials and observers here differ over [...]


Government Won’t Appeal Gitmo Detainee’s Habeas Case — but Military Commission Charges Still Pending

Fouad al Rabiah, a Kuwaiti Airways engineer accused of being an aide to Osama bin Laden who recently won his habeas corpus case in federal court, is a step closer to going home. McClatchy newspapers reports that the 50-year-old father of four was moved to the part of the Guantanamo detention center reserved for detainees [...]


Al-Qaeda Assistant Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison

Depending on who you ask, the sentencing yesterday of Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri to eight years in prison is either evidence that the civilian federal judicial system can successfully handle terror cases, or evidence that it’s a dismal failure.
Yesterday, Jonathan Hafetz, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who represented Al-Marri in his challenge to military [...]


Obama Legacy: A Parallel Justice System?

President Obama confirmed Wednesday that he plans to keep the controversial military commissions alive.


How’d My Oil Get Under Your Sand?

T. Boone Pickens, today:
“They’re opening them (oil fields) up to other companies all over the world … We’re entitled to it,” Pickens said of Iraq’s oil. “Heck, we even lost 5,000 of our people, 65,000 injured and a trillion, five hundred billion dollars.”
Osama bin Laden, 2007:


Imminent Pakistan Offensive Poses Risks for Obama

The insurgents could respond by targeting the Pakistani army in Waziristan or sending fighters across the porous border into Afghanistan.


DOJ Loses Gitmo Case, But DOD Could Try Again

Last month, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered the federal government to arrange for the release of Fouad Mahmoud Al Rabiah from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. The evidence against the 50-year-old Kuwaiti engineer, she wrote in her declassified decision, is “surprisingly bare,” noting that all of his “confessions” appear to have been coerced by threats [...]


Federal Judge: Evidence Against Detainee Is ‘Surprisingly Bare’

Last week, a federal judge ruled that the government had failed to justify the detention for the last seven years of a 50-year-old Kuwaiti engineer who worked for Kuwait Airlines and had gone to Afghanistan to do charitable work. He was seized by the Northern Alliance, turned over to U.S. authorities, and shipped to Guantanamo [...]


Obama Administration Wins Another Delay in Military Commission Case

Ahmed al Darbi, the brother-in-law of one of the 9/11 hijackers, supposedly plotted a never-realized 2001-2002 attack on an unnamed ship in the Strait of Hormuz. He also allegedly met Osama bin Laden and trained at an al-Qaeda camp. And he’s been imprisoned by the U.S. military since 2003 waiting to be tried on [...]