Yes, America Can Win the War on Terrorists, or something like that
Atrios has his finger the bizarre pulse of the Bush bus tour.
No, America, we can't. Not at this rate, according to a report buried in today's Wall St. Journal.
Subscription required, so here are some of the highlights:
Headlined, "Terror Inquiries Are Clouded by Global Discord" and sub-headed, "Breakdown in Cooperation Threatens Years of Work; Case of Courts vs. Military," the article by Keith Johnson and David Crawford takes the Bush administration for their lack of cooperation with European terror investigations.
A breakdown in international cooperation on fighting terrorism threatens to further undermine years of investigation into radical Islamist cells in Europe, with Spanish investigators saying they may be forced to release more than a dozen men charged with aiding the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In the months after the attacks in the U.S., Spanish police rounded up more than a dozen suspected terrorists in Madrid with ties to al Qaeda operatives around the world. Last autumn they were indicted, along with al Qaeda terrorist group leader Osama bin Laden, on thousands of counts of murder for allegedly helping provide logistics to carry out the Sept. 11 attacks. The investigating magistrate handling the case, Baltasar Garzon, previously prosecuted former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet and terrorism by Basque separatists in Spain.
Now people close to the prosecution say that after nearly 10 years of investigation into these cells, starting well before the Sept. 11 attacks, the case is in danger of falling apart. The reason: a lack of international cooperation, especially with U.S. authorities engaged in their own fight against terrorism.
The obstacle, Spanish investigators say, is a question that also has come before the Sept. 11 Commission in Washington: Does the ultimate responsibility for fighting terrorism belong to law-enforcement officials or to the military?
Spanish authorities, like their counterparts in other European countries, see courtrooms as the primary antiterrorism venue; the Basque group ETA, as well as European groups like the Red Brigades and Baader Meinhof, were largely defeated by detective work and prosecutors. But American authorities, say Spanish and other European investigators, favor military operations with military intelligence. Information gleaned from interrogations isn't often made available for European courtrooms, and is even kept from civilian U.S. terrorism investigators.
"From the U.S. point of view, everything is an intelligence affair, not a judicial matter," says a Spanish official close to the investigation. "That is what is undermining the whole process."
Finding a way to balance intelligence and law-enforcement needs is one of the biggest challenges in the fight against terrorism, says Magnus Ranstorp, director of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Courts need to address ways to handle testimony by intelligence officials, introduce wiretaps and use information taken from military interrogations.
Without that, cases are foundering. At stake is more than the fate of the Spanish suspects linked to the Sept. 11 attacks. A new generation of Islamist radicals have expanded their concept of jihad, or holy war, to target not just U.S. interests or Middle Eastern governments, but most of the world. Since the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, Western Europe has become a battlefront as well. But doctrinal differences between the U.S. and Europe have investigators at loggerheads.
Those differences led to the release and pending retrial last month in Germany of the only person so far convicted in connection with Sept. 11: Mounir el-Motassadeq. Earlier this year, a Hamburg court acquitted another man of providing logistical support for the cell that converged around Mohamed Atta, the lead suicide hijacker in the U.S. attacks. In both cases, the U.S. refused to allow testimony in court by Ramzi Binalshibh, a top al Qaeda operative arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and now held in an undisclosed location. Defense lawyers argued that Mr. Binalshibh could have testified that their clients weren't part of the Sept. 11 conspiracy.
The same issue threatens to derail the prosecution in the U.S. of alleged Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. Mr. Moussaoui's lawyers maintain that Mr. Binalshibh could tell the court their client wasn't involved in the plot for which he is charged. U.S. prosecutors argue that national security would be harmed if details were revealed about the interrogations. An appeals court is deciding motions in that case.
Now Spanish investigators say U.S. refusal to make available information from suspects in custody is hamstringing their efforts. "We could clearly prove the Spanish role in Sept. 11 if we had real cooperation. There are literally two or three elements missing to close the case, but as it is now, all of the suspects will go free," says the Spanish official.
"We have worked closely with the Spanish government on terrorism investigations in Spain, and we will continue to do so in the future, consistent with our law and national-security interests. Likewise, Spain has provided valuable information regarding terrorist attacks in the United States," U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a statement. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment further."
[...]
Another key stumbling block, Spanish authorities say, is that U.S. officials have refused to provide information on the identity of Saudi Arabian investors in Spanish construction companies owned by a Syrian businessman, Mohammed Galeb Kalaje Zouaydi, who is currently in jail in Spain.
Spanish court documents and last year's indictment accuse Mr. Galeb of being a principal fund-raiser for terrorists in Europe. The indictment alleges that he used money invested by Saudis, as well as some Syrians and Spaniards, in his construction and real-estate firms to create a set of phony books. From 1996 to 2001, hundreds of thousands of dollars were channeled to Islamic charities under U.S. investigation as well as individuals linked to al Qaeda, according to the indictment. Mr. Galeb's lawyers say that police have vastly overstated his charitable contributions, which are obligatory for pious Muslims.
The report concludes that Spanish courts have at times been equally remiss (though quick to respond to US inquiries as to the trip Atta made to Spain in 2001). But the implication is clear. The Bush administration is fighting phantom terrorists by looking at this solely as solely a military problem abroad and an investigative problem only at home. The 9-11 terrorists came to this country from Germany and traveled frequently to Spain. It is only by working closely with European terror investigators that we are going to be able to track down the cells that are hatching and providing logistical support to these vermin. [And, please note, "vermin," in this instance, refers to Islamist terrorists, not the Bush administration. Just wanted to be clear.]
Feeling safer under Dear Leader's protective shadow?
No, America, we can't. Not at this rate, according to a report buried in today's Wall St. Journal.
Subscription required, so here are some of the highlights:
Headlined, "Terror Inquiries Are Clouded by Global Discord" and sub-headed, "Breakdown in Cooperation Threatens Years of Work; Case of Courts vs. Military," the article by Keith Johnson and David Crawford takes the Bush administration for their lack of cooperation with European terror investigations.
A breakdown in international cooperation on fighting terrorism threatens to further undermine years of investigation into radical Islamist cells in Europe, with Spanish investigators saying they may be forced to release more than a dozen men charged with aiding the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In the months after the attacks in the U.S., Spanish police rounded up more than a dozen suspected terrorists in Madrid with ties to al Qaeda operatives around the world. Last autumn they were indicted, along with al Qaeda terrorist group leader Osama bin Laden, on thousands of counts of murder for allegedly helping provide logistics to carry out the Sept. 11 attacks. The investigating magistrate handling the case, Baltasar Garzon, previously prosecuted former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet and terrorism by Basque separatists in Spain.
Now people close to the prosecution say that after nearly 10 years of investigation into these cells, starting well before the Sept. 11 attacks, the case is in danger of falling apart. The reason: a lack of international cooperation, especially with U.S. authorities engaged in their own fight against terrorism.
The obstacle, Spanish investigators say, is a question that also has come before the Sept. 11 Commission in Washington: Does the ultimate responsibility for fighting terrorism belong to law-enforcement officials or to the military?
Spanish authorities, like their counterparts in other European countries, see courtrooms as the primary antiterrorism venue; the Basque group ETA, as well as European groups like the Red Brigades and Baader Meinhof, were largely defeated by detective work and prosecutors. But American authorities, say Spanish and other European investigators, favor military operations with military intelligence. Information gleaned from interrogations isn't often made available for European courtrooms, and is even kept from civilian U.S. terrorism investigators.
"From the U.S. point of view, everything is an intelligence affair, not a judicial matter," says a Spanish official close to the investigation. "That is what is undermining the whole process."
Finding a way to balance intelligence and law-enforcement needs is one of the biggest challenges in the fight against terrorism, says Magnus Ranstorp, director of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Courts need to address ways to handle testimony by intelligence officials, introduce wiretaps and use information taken from military interrogations.
Without that, cases are foundering. At stake is more than the fate of the Spanish suspects linked to the Sept. 11 attacks. A new generation of Islamist radicals have expanded their concept of jihad, or holy war, to target not just U.S. interests or Middle Eastern governments, but most of the world. Since the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, Western Europe has become a battlefront as well. But doctrinal differences between the U.S. and Europe have investigators at loggerheads.
Those differences led to the release and pending retrial last month in Germany of the only person so far convicted in connection with Sept. 11: Mounir el-Motassadeq. Earlier this year, a Hamburg court acquitted another man of providing logistical support for the cell that converged around Mohamed Atta, the lead suicide hijacker in the U.S. attacks. In both cases, the U.S. refused to allow testimony in court by Ramzi Binalshibh, a top al Qaeda operative arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and now held in an undisclosed location. Defense lawyers argued that Mr. Binalshibh could have testified that their clients weren't part of the Sept. 11 conspiracy.
The same issue threatens to derail the prosecution in the U.S. of alleged Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. Mr. Moussaoui's lawyers maintain that Mr. Binalshibh could tell the court their client wasn't involved in the plot for which he is charged. U.S. prosecutors argue that national security would be harmed if details were revealed about the interrogations. An appeals court is deciding motions in that case.
Now Spanish investigators say U.S. refusal to make available information from suspects in custody is hamstringing their efforts. "We could clearly prove the Spanish role in Sept. 11 if we had real cooperation. There are literally two or three elements missing to close the case, but as it is now, all of the suspects will go free," says the Spanish official.
"We have worked closely with the Spanish government on terrorism investigations in Spain, and we will continue to do so in the future, consistent with our law and national-security interests. Likewise, Spain has provided valuable information regarding terrorist attacks in the United States," U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a statement. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment further."
[...]
Another key stumbling block, Spanish authorities say, is that U.S. officials have refused to provide information on the identity of Saudi Arabian investors in Spanish construction companies owned by a Syrian businessman, Mohammed Galeb Kalaje Zouaydi, who is currently in jail in Spain.
Spanish court documents and last year's indictment accuse Mr. Galeb of being a principal fund-raiser for terrorists in Europe. The indictment alleges that he used money invested by Saudis, as well as some Syrians and Spaniards, in his construction and real-estate firms to create a set of phony books. From 1996 to 2001, hundreds of thousands of dollars were channeled to Islamic charities under U.S. investigation as well as individuals linked to al Qaeda, according to the indictment. Mr. Galeb's lawyers say that police have vastly overstated his charitable contributions, which are obligatory for pious Muslims.
The report concludes that Spanish courts have at times been equally remiss (though quick to respond to US inquiries as to the trip Atta made to Spain in 2001). But the implication is clear. The Bush administration is fighting phantom terrorists by looking at this solely as solely a military problem abroad and an investigative problem only at home. The 9-11 terrorists came to this country from Germany and traveled frequently to Spain. It is only by working closely with European terror investigators that we are going to be able to track down the cells that are hatching and providing logistical support to these vermin. [And, please note, "vermin," in this instance, refers to Islamist terrorists, not the Bush administration. Just wanted to be clear.]
Feeling safer under Dear Leader's protective shadow?
posted by John at 4:56 PM
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