Protesters Slam Holding 9/11 Trial in N.Y.

Several hundred people rallied in the rain near Manhattan's federal courthouse complex to protest the plan to put major terrorism suspects on trial in New York.

The demonstrators, including 9/11 families and their supporters, gathered in Foley Square, just blocks from the site of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

They say a New York trial could again make the city a terrorism target.

Last month Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the U.S. would put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison on trial in a federal civilian court in New York City.

Anger at the Obama administration ran hot in the crowd. One person held up a sign calling Holder "disgraceful and despicable." Another sign said "Obama/Holder ... Jihad from within."

Supporters of the 9/11 Never Forget Coalition say the five defendants should face a military tribunal instead.

A "statement of support" for the rally, posted on the coalition's Web site and signed by actors Robert Duvall, Brian Dennehy, Jon Voight, Danny Aiello, Robert Davi, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Ben Stein, states that Holder's decision to try key figures in the September 11 attacks in a civilian court in New York City is "a travesty of our justice system" that puts the national security of the United States of America at risk.

The signers said the trial would give the defendants a platform "to spew their propaganda and hatred to the world from a courthouse just blocks from Ground Zero.

"We stand with 9/11 families, New York City's first responders and the U.S. military who will be forced to cope with the consequences of this dangerous decision if it is not reversed," the statement said.

Addressing the crowd, Dennehy said he didn't believe the men deserved "normal constitutional protections."

Lee Ielpi, a retired firefighter whose son, also a firefighter, died on 9/11, said he believed the U.S. has been in a state of war since the attacks, and that a military tribunal was therefore the appropriate venue for justice.

"They deserve a fair trial in a military tribunal, not on our soil," he said. "Guantanamo is where it should be."

But other victims of the 9/11 attacks disagreed.

Lorie Van Auken lost her husband at the World Trade Center. She said in an interview before the rally it was fitting that the accused answer charges a short walk from where the twin towers once stood.

John Feal lost half his foot at Ground Zero. He told the N.Y. Daily News, "If you’re afraid of terrorists, then they’ve already won." He said trying the defendants in New York was "poetic justice."

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., says military commissions have a poor track record when it comes to trying terrorism suspects. He expressed confidence that U.S. prosecutors can win a conviction in a regular, civilian court.

CBS

9/11 family members welcome, criticize civilian trials

Some family members of 9/11 victims welcomed the announcement that five Guantanamo Bay detainees with alleged ties to the attacks will be tried in a New York civilian court, while others blasted the decision.

"I'm very, very disappointed in the government," said Anne Ielpi, whose son, Jonathan Ielpi, was a firefighter who was killed in the south tower.

"It's like throwing it in our face again," she said, speaking by phone Friday. "We can't get away from 9/11, we can't."

She said the five, who include confessed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, should be tried in military court.

"It definitely should have been finished in Cuba," she said.

But others -- including members of the September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, some of whom spoke to reporters by phone on Friday -- said a civilian trial allows for transparency, noting that families of the victims could attend. Their access to a military trial would be more limited, they said.

"Here we can see what's going on," said Valerie Lucznikowska, whose nephew was killed in the attacks. "Everyone in the world can see what's going on."

John Leinung, whose stepson, Paul Battaglia, worked in the north tower, said the United States has a responsibility to "operate under our existing system of laws."

"I think our traditional court system is very capable of convicting guilty people," he said.

Dozens of family members of 9/11 victims have signed a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced the trial decision; President Obama; and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates opposing a civilian trial for the alleged plotters.

They said it would give the men a well-publicized platform, blocks from where the towers stood, in which they could espouse their views.

"It is incomprehensible to us that members of the United States Congress would propose that the same men who today refer to the murder of our loved ones as a 'blessed day' and who targeted the United States Capitol for the same kind of destruction that was wrought in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, should be the beneficiaries of a social compact of which they are not a part, do not recognize, and which they seek to destroy: the United States Constitution," the letter said.

However, Leinung said the trials offer an opportunity for justice.

"If we want the world to operate lawfully, if we want people to address their international grievances in a fair manner, we are under an obligation to do that ourselves," he said.

CNN

Father of 9/11 Victim Fights to Have 'Murdered by Muslim Terrorists' Inscribed on Son's Memorial

Image credit: All Seeing Eye

By Douglas Kennedy

KENT, Conn. - Peter Gadiel wants everyone to remember his son, James, who was killed during the September 11 terrorist attacks.

And he also wants people to remember how he died: "Murdered by Muslim terrorists."

For Gadiel, any tribute to his son would be woefully incomplete without those words.

"I think it's important, because I think there's a nationwide effort to suppress the identity of the people who were involved in the attacks," Gadiel told Fox News.

Eight years ago, 23-year-old James Gadiel worked for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center. He died when a hijacked plane crashed into the North Tower.

For years, Gadiel's hometown of Kent, Conn., has wanted to honor the young man with a memorial plaque next to its town hall. But the tribute has hit a snag because James' father wants to include the phrase, "Murdered by Muslim terrorists," under his son's name.

For Peter Gadiel, it is a central fact of the Sept. 11 attacks that is often left out. Read more ...

Source: Fox News
Peter Gadiel
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Municipality of Kent
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MASH message for Peter Gadiel:

Dear Mr. Gadiel,

You said: "Muslims have to acknowledge that it was their co-religionists who committed this act in their name." We couldn't agree with you more. Please know that there are Muslims who are disgusted with Kent officials' cowardice. Without acknowledging what happened on 9/11, there is no way forward. Germany acknowledged the Holocaust and other atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis in WWII and Germans became a better people for it. We would like to add our voices to your demand that "Murdered by Muslim terrorists" be added on your son's memorial plaque.

Respectfully,

Muslims Against Sharia

The Saudi Pattern of DeceptionThe 9/11 families' lawsuits brings new revelations.

By Ryan Mauro

Families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks are trying to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, the country from which 15 of the 19 hijackers came from. The legal team has new documents outlining the Saudis’ history of bankrolling terrorism and extremism, helping to expose the pattern of deception used by the Saudis to portray themselves as a staunch ally of the United States.

The legal team, for example, has a sworn statement from someone in Afghanistan who says he personally saw a representative of Turki al-Faisal, the former head of Saudi intelligence, give a check for $267 million to a top Taliban official in 1998. Treasury Department documents were obtained that showed that the International Islamic Relief Organization, a charity described by The New York Times as “heavily supported by members of the Saudi royal family” was being used to support terrorists at least into 2006. Read more ...

Source: FPM

Court Ruling Cuts off Saudi 9/11 Litigation

Saudi Arabia and four of its princes are immune from 9/11-related civil litigation after Monday's U.S. Supreme Court decision not to take up an appeal of a lower court decision that ruled against 9/11 families. The move keeps intact a ruling by New York's 2nd District Court of Appeals dismissing the lawsuits. In a statement, attorneys for the family of the FBI's former New York Executive Agent in Charge John O'Neill, who died at the World Trade Center, expressed disappointment at the ruling:

"We note, however, that there are still cases pending in the lower courts against other sovereign nations unaffected by the Supreme Court's ruling.

We note, too, that there are still cases pending against other defendants seeking to hold them accountable for their actions in assisting Al Qaeda."

Earlier Monday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on a government report which found a Saudi-financed charity, the Saudi High Commission, helped supply weapons to the Somali warlord responsible for killing 18 U.S. soldiers in the 1993 Black Hawk Down battle. Read more ...

Source: IPT Blog

9/11 Families: Obama Favors Saudi Terror Financiers Over Victims

Families who lost loved ones on September 11 are angry over the news that the Obama Administration has intervened to prevent alleged Saudi terror financiers from lawsuits. On May 29 - just five days before President Obama made his first state visit to Saudi Arabia - Solicitor General Elena Kagan filed a brief arguing that it would be "unwarranted" for the Supreme Court to hear cases brought by the families against five of Saudi King Abdullah's closest relatives for financing the attacks. The group, named the 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism, charges that "five Saudi princes knowingly and intentionally provided financial support to al Qaeda waging war on America."

"By urging the high court to not review lower court decisions dismissing these these cases, the Obama Administration took the side of the Saudi princes over thousands of family members and survivors of the 9/ll attacks seeking justice and accountability in U.S. courts," the families said in a statement issued May 29. Read more ...

Source: IPT News

Obama Administration
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