Padilla and Moussaoui: Gov't. Seeks to Block Access to Witnesses
A federal judge ordered the Government to make three al Qaida witnesses, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, who are being held overseas in secret prisons where they likely have been tortured, available to Zacarias Moussaoui for interviews because they might have evidence that would show he was not part of the 9/11 attacks and might have evidence favorable to him on the issue of whether, if convicted, he should receive a sentence of life imprisonment or death. The Judge felt so strongly about this issue, that she ordered the Government be precluded from seeking death or introducing 9/11 evidence at his trial unless the Government made the three al Qaida members available for personal interviews.
The Government appealed and the Fourth Circuit agreed, but said written questions could take the place of live interviews. Moussaoui appealed to the Supreme Court which ultimately agreed that the witnesses should have been made available, but ruled the striking of the death penalty was too harsh a remedy.
Moussaoui then pleaded guilty to being a member of al Qaeda and providing material support to it, while denying he conspired to commit the 9/11 attacks and reserving the right to argue for life versus death at sentencing. The sentencing phase of the trial is set for January.
It's the same old song with Jose Padilla.
Government sources told the New York Times that the reason it did not charge Jose Padilla with the more serious offenses of planning to make a dirty bomb or attack targets within the U.S. is that it does not want to make two al Qaida witnesses, Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah (another detainee the Government is holding in a secret overseas prison) available to the defense.
In other words, these men have been tortured, their stories are suspect and the U.S. wants to prevent defense lawyers from having access to them.
The Christian Science Monitor has more:
The anonymous sources quoted by the Times say that the Bush administration decided not to include the more serious charges because the two top Al Qaeda men could "never be used as witnesses," and their testimony was the only thing linking Padilla to the bombing plots. Officials were concerned that "it could open up charges from defense lawyers that their earlier statements resulted from torture."
The Guardian reported Thursday that the Bush administration was also worried that if the men were questioned, they could expose classified information about the CIA's secret prison system, located in other countries around the world, which was recently uncovered by human rights groups.
The Miami Herald has a similar report on Padilla, adding that Bush feared an adverse ruling by the Supreme Court on its enemy combatant policy.
The Toronton Star says Bush is "skirting close to the line" on torture.
Arthur has lots more. Here too.
At this point, I simply have no words left to describe these horrors adequately and in terms that are sufficiently damning. Bush and his gang have very significantly damaged the United States and its reputation around the world for generations to come. God can forgive them if He chooses. The rest of us should not. Indeed, if we are ever to recover from this catastrophe, we must not.
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