"There is neither justice for the individual,
nor security for the community, unless authority tells the truth and acts upon it. Unfortunately, a large part of the American public seems not to understand that."
Laurie Mylroie, is the co-author of the 1991 best
seller "Saddam Hussein and the Crisis in the Gulf" and was an analyst
and consultant on the bombing case for ABC and Newsweek.
JUDGE GIVES HOPE TO MAN HELD FOR DEPORTATION
Iraq News, FEBRUARY 22, 1999
By Laurie Mylroie
The central focus of Iraq News is the tension between the considerable, proscribed WMD capabilities that Iraq is holding on to and its increasing stridency that it has complied with UNSCR 687 and it is time to lift sanctions. If you wish to receive Iraq News by email, a service which includes full-text of news reports not archived here, send your request to Laurie Mylroie .
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The Gov't charged on the basis of secret evidence--not revealed to
the accused or his lawyers--that a Palestinian was involved with a World
Trade Center bomber and should be deported as a threat to national
security.
The judge determined that I qualified as an expert witness, as I have
done a great deal of work on the WTC bombing, and I testified that there
was no credible evidence that Hany Khaireldin had anything to do with
the WTC bombing; knew any of those convicted for it; or represented a
threat to national security, as the NYT, Feb 18, reported.
Indeed, this case represents just one more, perhaps inevitable,
consequence of the Clinton administration's mishandling of terrorism,
starting with the two 1993 NYC bombing conspiracies--the Feb 26 WTC
bombing and a subsequent plot, actually an FBI undercover operation, to
bomb the UN; New York's Federal building; and two tunnels.
In dealing with the conspiracies, the Clinton administration separated
the national security question of state sponsorship/involvement from the
criminal question of the guilt or innocence of the individuals involved.
It dealt slyly with the issue of state sponsorship/involvement, while it
dealt very publicly with the criminal question, in trials [see "Iraq
News," Jan 27]. And that gave rise to the notion that there was a new
kind of terrorism, carried out by individuals, or "loose networks."
And that has led to a dangerous confusion. Among other things, the
Gov't, or some part of it, seems not to have a good understanding of the
likely source of terrorist threats. It spent its time and resources
pursuing the man whom I assisted, a person without political or
religious passions, but with an extremely vindictive ex-wife, while it
has left at large, in the US, an Iraqi-American, who actually was
associated with the WTC bombers. Moreover, the Iraqi-American has a
Ph.D. in microbiology--alarming, if one thinks about a possible Iraqi BW
terrorist attack.
Also, there are two people with US pilots licenses associated with
WTC bombing mastermind, Ramzi Yousef. The most lethal way to carry out
a BW terrorist attack would be for an airplane, flying upwind and
perpendicular to the wind, to release a BW cloud that would blow over a
city. This might be of special concern, given that Baghdad retains its
entire BW stockpile, even as it regularly issues angry threats regarding
various aspects of the system of post-Gulf war constraints, the latest
focusing on the no-fly zones.
And if the Clinton administration had dealt properly with the
terrorism that occurred on its watch, starting with the WTC bombing, we
would understand that the likely sources of such a terrible threat--the
BW terrorist threat--are small in number, basically states hostile to
the US, and not every Tom, Dick, and Harry with an angry chip on his
shoulder. But we believe the latter and are therefore vulnerable. There
is no deterrence before an attack, because almost anyone is thought
capable of carrying it out, and little prospect of pinning it on the
true author afterwards.
And there is a lesson. There is neither justice for the individual,
nor security for the community, unless authority tells the truth and
acts upon it. Unfortunately, a large part of the American public seems
not to understand that. |
