BuffaloJack
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1637
Location: Buffalo, New York
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 Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 2:14 pm Post subject: Judge Gets in Swipe at Bush Administration |
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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050728/D8BKE0R80.html
| Quote: | Judge Gets in Swipe at Bush Administration
SEATTLE (AP) - The sentence itself was fairly straightforward: An Algerian man received 22 years for plotting to bomb the Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium. It was what the judge said in imposing the term that raised eyebrows.
U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour said the successful prosecution of Ahmed Ressam should serve not only as a warning to terrorists, but as a statement to the Bush administration about its terrorism-fighting tactics.
"We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant or deny the defendant the right to counsel," he said Wednesday. "The message to the world from today's sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart."
He added that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have made Americans realize they are vulnerable to terrorism and that some believe "this threat renders our Constitution obsolete ... If that view is allowed to prevail, the terrorists will have won."
Critics of the Bush administration - mostly human-rights groups and Democrats - have long accused the U.S. government of unjustly detaining terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, as well as a small number of American citizens who have been designated enemy combatants.
U.S. Attorney John McKay said he agreed with the judge's comments that U.S. courts are equipped to handle terrorism cases. He would not comment on the judge's criticism of military tribunals and the handling of enemy combatants.
The comments were only the latest surprise in a terrorism case that began on the eve of the millennium when Ressam was arrested as he drove off a ferry from British Columbia with 124 pounds of bomb-making materials. Prosecutors said he had attended terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and was intent on bombing Los Angeles International Airport.
Facing up to 130 years in prison after being convicted of terrorist conspiracy and explosives charges in 2001, Ressam began cooperating with authorities in hopes of winning a reduced sentence. He told investigators from several countries about the operation of terrorist camps and disclosed the identities of potential terrorists, the use of safe houses and other details.
Ressam's information was given to anti-terrorism field agents around the world - in one case, helping to prevent the mishandling and potential detonation of the shoe bomb that Richard Reid attempted to blow up aboard an American Airlines flight in 2001.
Coughenour has called the information Ressam provided "startlingly helpful."
"It is a flat fact that law enforcement, the public and public safety have benefited in countless ways" from Ressam's cooperation, defense lawyer Thomas Hillier said.
However, prosecutors said Ressam put their cases against his alleged millennium bombing co-conspirators in jeopardy when he stopped cooperating with the government in 2003, citing the stress of solitary confinement.
Prosecutors insist that without his testimony they will have to drop charges against Abu Doha and Samir Ait Mohamed. Both men are awaiting extradition to the United States - Doha in Britain, Mohamed in Canada. McKay said that aside from immigration violations, he did not know what charges officials in Europe or Canada might pursue against them.
"It means that two other individuals who we believe to be dangerous will not be prosecuted in this country," said McKay, who was seeking a 35-year sentence for Ressam.
During the hearing, Coughenour unexpectedly called Andy Hamilton, a former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Ressam at trial, from the courtroom gallery to give a sentencing recommendation.
After noting that Ressam's sentence would be "perhaps the most important sentence this court has ever had," Hamilton told the judge that Ressam's reluctance to cooperate further should weigh heavily.
"You can't be a cooperator and a terrorist," he said. "When he stopped cooperating, he went back to being what he was."
Ressam did not speak in court, but provided a short written statement in which he thanked the judge, renounced violence of any kind and apologized for his actions, Hillier said.
With credit for time served and three years off for good behavior, Ressam could be out of prison in 14 years. |
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050728/D8BKE0R80.html
This judge can't stand it that there is an executive branch of government and that it is just as powerful as the judicial branch. His actions are very disrespectful of the POTUS.
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Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71) |
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