Posted on 08/19/2005 12:24:03 AM PDT by An.American.Expatriate
Yourt German courts be damned. If this man was involved in the 9-11 attacks which killed thousands, every American should be demanding that he be captured or better yet killed the minute he steps out of jail. He's a mass murdering scumbag and maybe German history should have taught the Germans not to tolerate those.
I understand your anger, but I please you to understand, that our courts can't judge without unequivocal evidence. If they gave him a different penalty it would have been arbitrarily. Besides - This is also the lesson out of German history...
The problem ist not the judge or the court, the problem lies within the deep distrust between our contemporary gouvernments. If the US are so suspicious, that they do not give the German police a chance to interrogate Binalsibh, something has gone really wrong. I hope, that this problem is solved after our elections we await eagerly here in Germany. If Mrs. Merkel will get the next Chancellor, the policy will be much more America-friendly than it still is under Schroeder.
Pray with us that she will make the race!
Nice try.
The court ORIGINALLY decided, based on all the evidence available, that Motessadeq was GUILTY.
The High Court reversed because Binalshibs protocols were NOT provided and Binalshib claimed that Motessadeq was not involved.
Now the protocols, and additionaly testimony were provided - and - POOF - aquitted!
No NEW evidence was provided that discredit the orignal evidence - EXCEPT for Binalshib's claim. This claim alone is apparently sufficient to aquit Motessadeq - even though such claims are common practice.
It was clear that this would occur and was predicted by many at the time of the reversal.
BTW - in order to keep thier positions, your judges must please thier masters - otherwise, at the end of thier terms they will not be reappointed . . . so much for judicial independance!!
In a summary about the testimonies of Ramzi Binalshibh and Chalid Scheich Mohammed, given by the US department of justice in 2004, was claimed, that Motessadeq was not involved.
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/18/18100/1.html
(Sorry, the link is in German, but mabe you can read it)
The judges had no "smoking gun" to proof the guilt of Motessadeq.
Furthermore our secret services refused to give information to the court, because they were afraid to trouble the relationship to the USA:
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/18/18944/1.html
(dto. also in German)
Personally I can not get around the question, why testimonys, that are in a correlation with a terror act, that happend 4 years ago, are kept secret? It is obvoiusly the will of the United States, that they are still kept secret, although some criminals like Motessadeq, that might have been involved, could have been punished. How is it possible, that any information about this well known terror plot can be so dangerous, that it has to be kept restricted? As far as I know Binalsibh was no rocket scientist with all-dominant knowlege. He was captured in September 2002. Therefore he has for sure no actual tactical information that could be interesting to the enemys of the US. What could Binalsibh have been telling to a German policeman, if he would have been interrogated directly?
To me it is very cryptic why the US authorities were that restrictive with informations in this case.
There are NO testimonies!! These are classified interrogation protocols tht were excerpted for the specific purpose of allowing them to be released to the court.
Thank you for verifying though that the court reversed it's decision based on the claims of Binalshib & Co. that Motassedaq (and others) knew "nothing"/ was "not involved".
As to WHY Binalshib is not allowed to testify publically / what info he may or may not "know":
Allowing him to make public statements can lead to "signals" being sent to others, divulgence of his location, them identities of those who captured him (and maybe those that betrayed him??).
Furthermore, in order to "testify" he would need to be in the court (unless special arrangments were made) - his presence in Germany would allow to ask for, and according to german law - automatically!! receive asylum (he faces the death penalty in the US). Besides - it was already clear that he would make no statesments which would implicate Motessadeq - Binalshib's entire "testimony" would have been to "clear" him.
The judges had ALREADY convicted Motessadeq based on the evidence - the high court overturned because they did not consider Binalshibs claims - they retried him based on the SAME evidence/testimony with the inclusion of Binalshib's claims (and some additional US testimony - basically some re-confirmations of facts already in evidence) AND - the court decides as the high court basically told them to.
It was a farce from the beginning and, considering the severity of the punishments that terrorists have received in Germany in the past - I doubt seriously whether the various terrorist organsations will be overly concerned about Germany's efforts in the WoT.
Nobody was talking about public statements from where Binalsibh could send a message to his islamiac morons. It would have been sufficient to give a German attorney the chance to interrogate him for a testimony inside the USA. If there would not have been any evidence that Binalsibh throw in unburdening information, Motassedeq would have gone to jail for a minimum of 15 years.
Although I would like to see Motassedeq much longer behind bars, the incorruptibility of our German law system is a higer value to me, than the short satisfaction of having revenge. It is the will of the terrorists that our free and open societys collapse through their bestiality. If we install a sort of "martial law", through courts that do not fit into our own western standarts, than the terrorists have taken away a big victory. They want us to overreact through spreading fear and anger. I do not want to oblige.
It is useless to argue with you because you believe in the infallability of your government/system.
Fine.
Just don't expect us to believe you - some of us look at more than just one side of the argument ...
Different countries - different conventions and different legislations. This is the way things are going on this planet... I am sorry, but in Germany you need real proof to bring somebody into a jail. This is good to me. Furthermore you do not have to trust in me (or my fellow countrymen). We all live in a free world were anybody can trust in those he or she likes to trust in.
But...you should not forget that we Germans have a well known self interest to clarify this case, because over 30 of our own compatriots died in this evil terror act too.
Not sure I understand what your getting at . . .
German nationals died on the aircraft and in the WTC on 9/11.
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