Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TideGlider who wrote (75757)	12/2/2009 8:07:31 AM
From: lorne	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224750

U.S. may not get German help with 9/11 trials Key evidence may be blocked for trial in civilian cour November 30, 2009 © 2009 WorldNetDaily wnd.com The United States could have trouble getting – or using – all of the evidence it needs for the civilian trials for the five defendants in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, and the source of the problem may be Germany, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. The German government has been asked to provide vital evidence for the prosecution as the U.S. prepares for the trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attack, Ramzi Binalshibh and three other alleged conspirators. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced he's moving the trials from a military court to a civilian court, where his former law firm Covington and Burling could benefit financially. The move also gives the alleged terrorists the rights of Americans citizens in a U.S. court. Covington and Burling could reap millions of dollars in representing the alleged terrorists, as it has done in representing other alleged terrorists, including 17 Yemenis currently in custody at the U.S. Guantanamo prison facility in Cuba. But Holder will rely heavily for his prosecution on information supplied by the German government, which previously has cooperated. The difference now is that Holder has announced he will seek the death penalty for the alleged 9/11 conspirators if they are found guilty. This position has caused the German government to balk, since German law prohibits capital punishment. And the mutual legal-assistance agreement between the U.S. and German investigators allows the German government to demand that any of its information used to impose the death penalty be considered inadmissible in court. Yet, the evidence the German government could provide may be vital, since the original hijackers lived and planned the attack in Hamburg, Germany. The Germans have evidence Binalshibh, who lived in Hamburg with the 9/11 hijackers, had collected information about flight-training schools in the U.S. and transferred large sums of money to the future hijackers. With German information cast aside, any evidence the U.S. gathered from Binalshibh while subjecting him to waterboarding also could be held inadmissible in court. There also is concern the German government may want to withhold any evidence that could cast an unfavorable spotlight on German intelligence activities and what it may have known about the activities of the hijackers prior to 9/11. German evidence also could reveal what CIA operatives knew about relationships reported back to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. A G2B investigation points to a high-level Syrian intelligence and German counterintelligence link that suggests the German intelligence service knew of the al-Qaida network in Hamburg. German counterintelligence officials had been watching elements of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood living in Hamburg. The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood members also were associated with the 9/11 hijackers and had frequently visited with them at their apartment in Hamburg.