U.S. Won't Seek Death Penalty for Suspect in Embassy Blasts

Mr. Ghailani faces federal charges of conspiring in the 1998 bombings of the United States Embassies in Kenya

Anti-Obama Sarcasm Torpedo ARMED. FIRE!!

Obama again proves his ability to make the tough choices.

Arguments for severity:

1) People killed

2) Bombing in Kenya

Arguments for mercy:

What the hell, it was only the United States embassy.

Recommendation: a plea bargain, sentenced to time served, if only the accused will agree to serve as a witness against Bush and Cheney in the upcoming CIA trials.

Case closed!

JUNE 12, 2004 : (PAKISTAN : MUSAAD ARUCHI IS ARRESTED; HIS ARREST LEADS TO THE CAPTURE OF TANZANIAN A K GHAILANI, 1998 US EMBASSIES BOMBINGS CONSPIRATOR) Pakistani officials said [Musaad] Aruchi's capture had led to other important arrests, including the raid last week in the city of Gujrat that netted Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.--------Al Qaeda Arrest In June Opened Valuable Leads WashingtonPost ^ | 08/03/04 | Kamran Khan

JULY 25, 2004 : (PAKISTAN : TANZANIAN A K GHAILANI AND TWO OTHER TERROR SUSPECTS ARE CAPTURED AFTER GUNBATTLE IN IN GUJRAT; GHAILANI WAS CAUGHT WHILE WAITING FOR "IMPORTANT NEWS FROM THE UNITED STATES" ; PLANS ARE FOUND FOR NEW ATTACKS AGAINST THE US AND UK ) Aug. 2. Pakistani intelligence agents found plans for new attacks against the United States and Britain on a computer seized during the arrest of a top Al-Qaida suspect wanted for the 1998 twin US embassy bombings in East Africa, the information minister said.The plans were found in e-mails on the computer of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian arrested on 25 July after a 12-hour gunbattle in the eastern city of Gujrat, information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said today. “We got a few e-mails from Ghailani’s computer about (plans for) attacks in the USA and UK,” he said, adding that the information has been shared with Pakistan’s allies — a reference to the USA. ... Interior minister Mr Faisal Saleh Hayyat confirmed that Ghailani was sharing “vital” information, but would not comment on what it was.
An intelligence official said on condition of anonymity that the information about a US attack appeared to be centred on New York.
The Home Office in London, which is responsible for policing and security in Britain, said it didn’t believe the computer seizure revealed a “specific threat” or that the British public needed to take any special action as a result.
The department said the threat from terrorism is “real and serious” and its position was unchanged.
-------------Pak seizes terror plans (More details on Foopie's arrest) , Associated Press VIA The Statesman ^ | July3 2004 | NA ISLAMABAD
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The officials said that two other suspects arrested with Ghailani, earlier thought to be insignificant, had provided information showing that Ghailani was expecting important news from the United States. Pakistani and U.S. officials are still trying to establish the nationalities of the two suspects.
An al Qaeda operative captured several weeks ago by Pakistani security forces, Abu Talaha, was described as one of the key sources of the documentary information on surveillance in the United States, according to a senior American intelligence official. Talaha remains in Pakistani custody, the official said.
-----------------?Al Qaeda Arrest In June Opened Valuable Leads," WashingtonPost ^ | 08/03/04 | Kamran Khan ?

JULY 25, 2004 : (PAKISTAN : GHAILANI IS CAPTURED WITH HIS WIFE & TWO SOUTH AFRICANS) Ghailani was captured along with his Uzbek wife and two South Africans after his driver led police to his hide-out, the intelligence source said. Among those found in the house were three women and five children. Ghailani had brought two other foreign comrades to his safe house after the group became nervous that security forces were closing in on the hotel in Gujarat where they had been staying, the intelligence source said. Security forces were now searching for the Pakistani who rented the house for Ghailani. ....Ghailani and his companions had spent time in Afghanistan fighting with the Taliban and were preparing to flee Pakistan along with their families, using fake travel papers, when the authorities caught up with them, a ministry official said. ---- Top Al Qaeda Men Resists Pakistani Interrogators(Not for long!) Reuters ^ | Jul 30, 2004 | Zeeshan Haider Posted on 07/30/2004 3:29:25 AM PDT by Dog

Speaking of South Africans...
...the South African surgeon who was caught with him. I wonder if the surgeon did plastic surgery. 7 posted on 07/30/2004 3:41:10 AM PDT by Dog
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Hmm could be a plastic surgeon. I got your ping, thanks. I wondered if there were some other big players that they were being quiet about. It is a strange coincidence that these South Africans were arrested the same week a South African woman was arrested in the US on terrorism charges. 9 posted on 07/30/2004 3:48:38 AM PDT by Straight Vermonter | To 7
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Another find in this raid were MAPS.....be interesting to see what they are all about. 19 posted on 07/30/2004 5:05:13 AM PDT by Dog | To 17
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I wonder how long before the press really makes this alQaeda / S. African connection? Sounds like we've been watching them for a while. Hopefully, the airports' Customs agents have too. Of course, that does nothing about the ones who may be coming thru Mexico.

"Tuesday, the South African government issued a warning that Al-Qaida militants and other terrorists traveling through Europe had obtained South African passports,..." http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1180328/posts

1999 : (MONROVIA, LIBERIA : GHAINLANI & F A MOHAMMED MEET WITH CHARLES TAYLOR OF LIBERIA {see JESSIE JACKSON}---- See DIAMONDS ) The following year [1999], Ghailani and [Comoros native Fazul Abdullah] Mohammed met [Liberian leader Charles] Taylor at his private home in Monrovia. Abdullah later ordered Ghailani and Mohammed to do al-Qaida's diamond-buying, "because they were of African descent and would not arouse any suspicion," the dossier quotes one of its main sources as saying.
The report also cites a "highly credible source" as placing former al-Qaida No. 2 Atef and Ghailani in Monrovia, at times meeting with diamond-dealing rebels, in 1999 and 2000. --------------Al-Qaeda bought diamonds ahead of Sept. 11 attacks, UN investigators told myTELUS ^ | August 07 2004 | The Canadian Press Posted on 08/07/2004 11:52:02 AM PDT by knighthawk

1990s late : (JESSE JACKSON, CHARLES TAYLOR, LIBERIA & SIERRA LEONE) Timmerman also describes the blood on Jackson’s hands from his forays into the bloodbaths of Liberia and Sierra Leone in the late 1990s. Betraying startling naiveté, Jackson befriended Liberian strongman Charles Taylor, who provoked a civil war that claimed more than 200,000 lives and who encouraged his armed thugs to murder and mutilate at random.
Foday Sankoh, unspeakable butcher and friend of Taylor, benefited from Jackson’s brazen interference in Sierra Leone—that country’s finance minister accused Jackson of "kidnapping" President Kabbah to force him to negotiate with Sankoh—and became head of Sierra Leone’s lucrative diamond industry. Taylor and Sankoh were soon killing again—their victims included U.N. peacekeepers—and reaping nine-figure diamond windfalls. Assessing Jackson’s record in West Africa, African journalist Tom Kamara wrote that "Jackson is considered a civil rights leader in America, but in Africa he is a killers’ rights leader." Predictably, Jackson only feigned accepting responsibility for his errors and faced little U.S. criticism for his part in another African tale of woe.------- "Jesse Jackson Exposed," By Chris Arabia, FrontPageMagazine.com, December 9, 2002

FEBRUARY 11, 1998 : (MONROVIA, LIBERIA : JESSE JACKSON MEETS WITH LIBERIAN PRESIDENT CHARLES TAYLOR) [Jesse] Jackson first met [Charles] Taylor in Monrovia [Liberia] on Feb. 11, 1998, thanks to the intercession of an old friend, a Liberian named Romeo Horton who had become a close aide to Taylor. Taylor had just been elected president of Liberia after a campaign riddled with intimidation in which he sent his infamous "Small Boys Units" throughout the countryside, waving their machetes at anyone who refused to vote for their man. But instead of hectoring Taylor on human rights and democracy - after all, that was Jackson's brief - Jackson embraced the Liberian strongman, as shown in a State Department after-action memo obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
"During his 24 hours in Liberia, the Rev. Jackson met several times privately with President Taylor and appeared to establish a strong personal bond with him," the April 29, 1998, memo from the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia reads. "After Jesse Jackson's visit, President Taylor went out of his way to stress that Liberia is America's best friend in Africa, and that it was time to improve the bilateral relationship - a 180-degree change in direction from the public posture of the Taylor government before the Jackson visit."
In neighboring Sierra Leone, Sankoh and his Revolutionary United Front (RUF) militia had massacred tens of thousands of civilians and, teamed with disgruntled military officers, had driven elected president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah into exile. Jackson said in an interview that he considered Sankoh and Taylor to be like the gang leaders in Chicago, who could be "redeemed" by his careful ministrations. Rather than confront them, Jackson befriended them, over the howls of the State Department professionals.
"Secretary [of State Madeleine] Albright delegated Africa policy to [U.S. Rep. Donald] Payne [of NJ] and the Congressional Black Caucus," Sierra Leone's outspoken ambassador to Washington, John Ernest Leigh, told this reporter. A House International Affairs Committee staffer who followed Jackson's meetings with Taylor put it more bluntly: "The whole effort under Clinton was to mainstream Charles Taylor, and Jesse Jackson had a lot to do with it."-------- "Jesse, Liberia and Blood Diamonds," By Kenneth R. Timmerman, Insight Magazine , July 25, 2003

MARCH 1998 : (CLINTON TRIP TO AFRICA INCLUDES WILSON, WILLIAM "COLDCASH" JEFFERSON OF LOUISIANA & BETTIE CURIE) To: Howlin "I want to know where Wilson got the money for that crap [ his $14,000 Rolex watch, then he bragged to Victor about several things (possessions and trips to Aspen, etc.), like his expensive car (I think it was a Mercedes)] BEFORE he wrote his book." Have you forgotten that it was Joseph Wilson who was the "Advance Person" for Bill & Hill's 200 million dollar vacation to Africa. Wilson handled the contracts, because he knew lots of people in Africa. We all know there is no corruption in Africa and the idea that Joe Wilson might have gotten kick backs from 200 Million Dollars worth of Contracts is something this honest man Joe Wilson would never do < /sarcasm > 26 posted on 07/17/2005 9:11:28 PM PDT by MJY1288 | To 24
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[* my note: wouldn't it be a riot if Clinton had stayed in Qadeer Khan's hotel?]
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MARCH 1998 : (JESSE JACKSON SPEARHEADS CLINTON'S AFRICA TRIP - [SEE JOE WILSON/PLAME/NIGERFLAP]) As special envoy for democracy and human rights in Africa, starting in October 1997, Jackson was President Bill Clinton's point man for Africa. It was Jackson who spearheaded Clinton's 10-day African safari in March 1998, at a cost to taxpayers of $42.8 million. And it was Jackson who legitimated Liberian strongman Charles Taylor and his protégé, the machete-wielding militia leader in neighboring Sierra Leone, Cpl. Foday Sankoh. Without Jackson's active intervention, both leaders were headed toward international isolation and sanction. Thanks to Jackson, both retained power to murder another day. At Jackson's prompting, Clinton made an unprecedented phone call to Taylor from Air Force One while flying over Africa. Until then the United States had shunned Taylor because of his grisly past. Among Taylor's many "accomplishments" were the murder of American Catholic nuns in Liberia and the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia.
The mainstream media has resolutely ignored Jackson's involvement in the diamond wars of Liberia and Sierra Leone, and he never has been hauled before a congressional committee to account for this behavior [see Kenneth R. Timmerman's New York Times best seller, Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson (Regnery Publishing, March 2002)]. -----"Jesse, Liberia and Blood Diamonds," By Kenneth R. Timmerman, Insight Magazine | July 25, 2003

APRIL 1998 : (CHICAGO, IL : OPERATION PUSH HQ : JESSIE JACKSON HOSTS A "RECONCILIATION CONFERENCE" - see LIBERIA) Just two months after his first meeting with [Liberian President Charles] Taylor [in Feb 11, 1998?], Jackson played host to a "reconciliation conference" at his Operation PUSH headquarters in Chicago. It was meant to drum up support for [Liberia leader Charles] Taylor in the United States and to portray him as a modern democratic leader. Taylor appeared on a huge video screen that dominated the stage, while Jackson chirped, "It's morning time in Liberia."------- "Jesse, Liberia and Blood Diamonds," By Kenneth R. Timmerman, Insight Magazine , July 25, 2003
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Harry A. Greaves, a Taylor opponent who helped found the Liberia Action Party, called Jackson's conference "a PR exercise by Charles Taylor. The general perception in the Liberian community was that Jackson was a paid lobbyist for Charles Taylor." Jackson insisted to me that he "got absolutely no money from the government of Liberia" to play host to the conference. But Jackson had tried to exclude the opposition from the conference entirely, until Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Howard Jeter telephoned Jackson and insisted otherwise.
"If there are any adversaries who are not ready to reconcile, please leave the room," Jackson told the auditorium. He then demanded that Liberians stop using the Internet to publish information on Taylor's atrocities. "The international community frequents the Internet and takes note of whatever information is disseminated on the information superhighway," he said. "So, please stay off the Net."----- "Jesse, Liberia and Blood Diamonds," By Kenneth R. Timmerman, Insight Magazine , July 25, 2003

APRIL 29, 1998 : (US EMBASSY DIPLOMAT IN MONROVIA, LIBERIA PENS MEMO ON JESSE JACKSON'S FEB 11, 1998 VISIT TO LIBERIA) "During his 24 hours in Liberia, the Rev. Jackson met several times privately with President Taylor and appeared to establish a strong personal bond with him," the April 29, 1998, memo from the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia reads. "After Jesse Jackson's visit, President Taylor went out of his way to stress that Liberia is America's best friend in Africa, and that it was time to improve the bilateral relationship - a 180-degree change in direction from the public posture of the Taylor government before the Jackson visit."------- "Jesse, Liberia and Blood Diamonds," By Kenneth R. Timmerman, Insight Magazine , July 25, 2003

JUNE 17, 1998 : (AFTER DIVORCING CLINTON'S AFRICA TOUR PLANNER, THE FORMER AMBASSADOR JOSEPH WILSON, JAQUELINE C WILSON BECOMES A REGISTERED AGENT FOR GABON; HE SOON GOES ON TO MARRY ALLEGED CIA "SPY" VALERIE PLAME) JACQUELINE C WILSON was a registered agent for Gabon. She registered as an agent of Gabon on June 17, 1998 (not long after their divorce) and had received $100,000 prior to the registration. Summary of payments by year: 1998 ($280,0000), 1999 ($250,000); 2000 ($75,000 ); 2001 ($39,000); and 2002 ($8,000). She was not listed as an agent in 2003. ------182 posted on 11/03/2005 5:05:52 PM PST by kabar | To 69

AUGUST 7, 1998 : (US EMBASSIES ARE BOMBED IN KENYA & TANZANIA) Terrorists Bomb U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania

SEPTEMBER 1998 : (LIBERIA : CHARLES TAYLOR'S SSS GOES AFTER RIVAL ROOSEVELT JOHNSON AND ASSASSINATES HIM IN THE ENTRYWAY OF THE US EMBASSY WHERE HE HAD SOUGHT REFUGE - See GEMSTONE TRADE/CONFLICT DIAMONDS, JESSE JACKSON) In September, just five months after the "reconciliation" Jackson hosted in Chicago, Taylor's Special Security Service went on a killing rampage in an effort to track down and eliminate rival warlord Roosevelt Johnson, an ethnic Krahn whom Taylor accused of plotting a coup. When Johnson sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy, Taylor's men gunned him down in the entryway, wounding two embassy employees. The State Department was not amused, and asked Jackson to reprimand Taylor by phone. No record of what Jackson actually said was released but, in November 1998, during another visit to the region, Jesse again treated Taylor as a statesman.----- "Jesse, Liberia and Blood Diamonds," By Kenneth R. Timmerman, Insight Magazine , July 25, 2003

SEPTEMBER 1998 : (MONROVIA, LIBERIA : CHARLES TAYLOR MEETS WITH US EMBASSIES BOMBINGS PLOTTER ABDULLAH AHMED ABDULLAH) Accounts in the report include an alleged September 1998 get-together at Taylor's executive mansion where middlemen introduced him to Abdullah [Egyptian Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, wanted in the 1998 attackson US embassies in E Africa].
The Liberian leader subsequently directed the al-Qaida figure to rebels controlling the mining of fine gems in neighbouring, diamond-rich Sierra Leone, the investigators quote sources as saying. ------Al-Qaeda bought diamonds ahead of Sept. 11 attacks, UN investigators told myTELUS ^ | August 07 2004 | The Canadian Press