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December 02, 2009
Terrorist Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani Asks Judge to Dismiss Case
Terrorism Suspect Asks Judge to Dismiss Case
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani contends that he was denied his constitutional right to a speedy trial.
Lawyers for a terrorism suspect once held at Guantánamo Bay who is now facing prosecution in Manhattan asked a judge on Tuesday to dismiss his case on the ground that his nearly five years in detention denied him his constitutional right to a speedy trial.
The terrorism suspect, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, was captured in Pakistan in 2004, held for two years in secret prisons run by the C.I.A., and then moved in 2006 to the naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. During his detention, he says, he was subjected to cruel interrogation techniques and denied a lawyer.
Although Ghailani faces charges stemming from a terrorist act that predated the Sept. 11 attacks, his speedy trial motion could foreshadow issues that could arise in the prosecution of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the professed organizer of the 9/11 plot, and four other Guantánamo detainees who were recently ordered sent to New York for trial.
“We respectfully submit that this case presents possibly the most unique and egregious example of a speedy trial violation in American jurisprudence to date,” Mr. Ghailani’s lawyers said in a motion that was heavily censored because of its reliance on classified information.
The motion was originally filed several weeks ago with Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, but it was kept almost entirely under seal pending a review by the government. The new version, with many pages blacked out, was made public on Tuesday.
“This motion asks one primary question,” the lawyers, Peter E. Quijano, Michael K. Bachrach and Gregory Cooper, wrote. “Can national security trump an indicted defendant’s constitutional Right to a Speedy Trial? We respectfully submit that the answer is emphatically and without qualification, ‘No.’ ”
Mr. Ghailani, a Tanzanian who is believed to be in his mid-30s, has pleaded not guilty. He has been charged with conspiring to help carry out Al Qaeda’s 1998 bombings of the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, attacks that killed 224 people. The military has also said that he later served as a cook and a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden.
A spokeswoman for the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan had no comment on the filing.
Wild Thing's comment........
But now that Obama has opened this can of worms, the same will most likely apply to all terrorists held since President Bush including KSM in New York City.
Constitutional rights are for CITIZENS.
These trials and the one in New York for 9-11 are all Obama and his agenda to undermine the security of the United States, give information to weaken our intelligence gathering efforts and put Bush / Cheney on trial for all the liberals to despise and pump up his base. This is an orchestrated mess to make Bush look bad so the liberals don’t concentrate on what Obama is doing. Just keep their hatred up for Bush.
It has NOTHING to do with justice. Justice would be putting this guy in a burning building with no way out as he did to so many Americans in that embassy.
Posted by Wild Thing at December 2, 2009 05:47 AM
Comments
Ha, now it starts. Our violating our Constitution to Terrorists. By bringing them here and granting them Rights otherwise reserved to our citizens, we have opened a real can of muzlim worms.
I wonder how many of these cases will be thrown out on those grounds ?
At best these pukes are Non-uniform combatants ergo, spies and should be shot.
Posted by: Mark at December 2, 2009 11:25 AM
He is from Pakistan, or maybe ShitCanOstan. He has no Constitional Rights. Shoot his @$$.
Posted by: SSgt. Steve, USMC at December 2, 2009 03:27 PM
And it is my Constitutional right to drag this piece of crap behind the shed and beat him to a pulp.
Posted by: Eddie (Enemy of the State) at December 2, 2009 04:19 PM
This is so scary, if they all do this. if they
all get off somehow. Oh my gosh, just thinking
about it and how weak our country will be and
appear to the enemy ISLAM. There will be no
turning back if that happens.
Posted by: Wild Thing at December 2, 2009 07:36 PM
