Judge rules security guards' rights violated in Baghdad shooting case

CRIMINAL charges against five Blackwater security guards accused of fatally shooting 14 people in Baghdad in September 2007 have been dismissed.

Judge Ricardo Urbina said prosecutors violated the defendants' rights by using incriminating statements they had made under immunity during a State Department investigation to build their case.

“The government used the defendants' compelled statements to guide its charging decisions, to formulate its theory of the case, to develop investigatory leads, and ultimately to obtain the indictment in the case,” Judge Urbina ruled.

“In short, the government had utterly failed to prove that it made no impermissible use of the defendants' statment or that such use was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The guards had been charged with killing 14 Iraqi civilians and wounding 18 others using gunfire and grenades during an unprovoked attack at a busy Baghdad intersection.

They had faced firearms charges, and up to 10 years in jail on each of 14 manslaughter counts.

Judge Urbina explained in his opinion that federal prosecutors were offered an opportunity during a three-week hearing that began in mid-October 2009 to prove that they had not made use of the defendants' statements.

“The explanations offered by the prosecutors and investigators in an attempt to justify their actions... were all too often contradictory, unbelievable and lacking in credibility,” Judge Urbina wrote.

He added: “The court must dismiss the indictments against all of the defendants.”

The five defendants were security guards employed by Blackwater Worldwide, which since has been renamed a Xe Corporation.

Blackwater has insisted its personnel were acting in self-defence, but critics repeatedly have accused the company of a “shoot first, ask questions later” approach when carrying out security duties in Iraq.

A State Department review panel in 2007 concluded that there had been insufficient US government oversight of private security firms hired in Iraq to protect diplomats and to guard facilities.

The panel found that as a result there was an “undermined confidence” in those contractors, both among Iraqis and US military commanders.

The Australian

Air passengers face full body X-rays after suicide bombers hide devices INSIDE their bodies

Travellers to Europe face having to undergo such scans under security measures expected to be announced by France's Interior Ministry

Travellers to Europe face being treated like drug smugglers as security chiefs are expected to recommend new intrusive security measures.

French anti-terror chiefs are expected to propose the new measures, such as full body X-rays or handing in all electronic devices, after a terrorist tried to kill a Saudi prince with a bomb he had inserted into his body.

Al Qaeda's latest ploy was first pioneered by Abdullah Hassan al Asiri, who blew himself apart in Jeddah in late August in an attack on Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi anti-terrorism chief.

The 23-year-old terrorist blew himself into 70 pieces when he detonated the bomb - inserted into his rectum - with a mobile phone.

His body was said to have absorbed some of the impact of the explosion, however, leaving the prince only slightly injured.

However experts claimed such a blast would be catastrophic in the pressurised atmosphere of a passenger jet.

Now President Nicolas Sarkozy's new domestic intelligence directorate (DCRI) is considering draconian measures, police commanders told Le Figaro newspaper.

But some in the government are already slamming measures that would leave passengers being treated as drug smugglers.

'It is unthinkable when you think about the frequency with which some people fly,' a senior Interior Ministry official told Le Figaro. 'The health risks would be too high.'

The 'bum bombs' - or, in American terms, 'keister bombs' - could have a catastrophic result on an aircraft, especially if it were removed from the bomber's body, Scott Stewart of Stratfor, a Texas-based global intelligence firm, told the Times.

Because the human body absorbs much of the impact, however, a certain amount of explosive would be needed.

The devices could also be used in targeted attacks - such as the failed assasination attempt on the Saudi prince.

Al Qaeda has promised to put instructions to create such a bomb on the internet.

Source: Mail Online

CAIR Protests Cleveland Airport Security

When they are not trying to make excuses for, or fund terrorism, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is usually looking for a way to make it easier to commit terrorism. In the heart of Rock and Roll (Cleveland, Ohio) the Airport Security has come up with a rule to make things more secure and convenient for airport customers. No Praying on the cuing line. If it was time for prayers you have to pull out of line and go pray and then get in line when you are all done. Read more ...

Source: Yid With LidCAIR
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award

Supporters of Hamas should be:
	I am a Muslim
	Praised
	Left alone
	Shunned
	Jailed until the War on Terror is over
	Forever rotting in Gitmo
	Shot on sight
	I am not a Muslim
	Praised
	Left alone
	Shunned
	Jailed until the War on Terror is over
	Forever rotting in Gitmo
	Shot on sight

Misplaced Criticism of U.S. Immigration Security Efforts

According to its recent press release, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is demanding that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explain its 2004 operation conducted prior to that year's national elections. In doing so, it dismisses the legitimate pursuit of intelligence leads and seems to beg immigration agents to look the other way when they stumble into someone who turns out to be in the country illegally.

Reporting about the recent release of documents related to the 2004 operation, an October 30 New York Times story states that the DHS action focused on some 2,500 foreign nationals, most from Muslim countries of origin. They were questioned by federal agents about their background and potential involvement in security threat activities, and any knowledge they might have had related to such activities. About 500 of the interviewees were arrested for immigration law violations, but none were arrested for any national security charges.

CAIR asserts that the 2004 operation amounted to religious or ethnic "profiling" since the majority of the aliens interviewed were Muslim.

The Times article cites government sources who say that the operation was based on "priority leads" generated by intelligence information garnered from a variety of U.S. agencies, indicating that those selected for interviews may have had links to, or knowledge of, security threat activities, particularly those that may have related to the 2004 elections. The process of generating those leads, per the government sources, included analyzing intelligence provided by the CIA. Read more ...

Source: IPT News

Netherlands: Former MP Hirsi Ali seeks police protection in US

Amsterdam, 29 July (AKI) - A court in The Hague has approved a request by Somali-born ex-MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali for witnesses to be heard in her claim for the Dutch state to pay for her security in the US, Dutch media reported on Tuesday.

The Dutch government stopped paying for Hirsi Ali's police protection after she moved to the US permanently last year.

An outspoken critic of Islam and advocate of women's rights, Hirsi Ali had to live under police protection in the Netherlands after receiving death threats. She now works for a conservative US think-tank.

"Hirsi Ali clearly had protection in the Netherlands because she was in danger and probably still is," a senior researcher at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations' security programme, Bibi Van Ginkel, told Adnkronos International (AKI).

"She has for some time been the voice and face of women's emancipation under Islam, and is clearly under some threat," Van Ginkel said.

Hirsi Ali's radical opinions expressed in her writings and lectures have "really insulted some people," she said.

But Hirsi Ali is a former MP and public figure, and the Dutch government should "try and arrange some kind of protection" in cooperation with the US authorities, she argued.

"The Dutch government cannot look the other way and shouldn't try and get out but find more of a solution than it has done," said Van Ginkel.

She said the Dutch government had provided some extra protection for Hirsi Ali at the beginning of her stay in the US.

Former Dutch deputy Prime Minister Gerrit Zalm, Netherlands anti-terror chief Tjibbe Joustra and Justice Minister Ernst Hrsch Ballin, are among those Hirsi Ali has reportedly requested to be heard as witnesses.

The preliminary hearing is expected to be heard on two consecutive days later in this year. This could result in a full court case in which Hirsi Ali challenges the Dutch state to continue to pay for her security in the US.

In her orginal court application in May, Airsi Ali asked for eight witnesses to be heard, but on Monday the court said the number would initially be restricted to five.

A motion in the European Parliament to fund Hirsi Ali's US security failed in March to reach a quorum of half the deputies in the 785-member body.

Hirsi Ali has also set up a fund to finance her security in the US. "She has raised a considerable sum but it is not enough to pay for everything," Van Ginkel said.

Hirsi Ali wrote the screenplay for 'Submission', a controversial film criticising domestic violence towards Muslim women made by Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh.

A Dutch-Moroccan extremist Mohammed Bouyeri murdered Van Gogh in an Amsterdam street soon after the film was aired on Dutch television.

Hirsi Ali was given round-the-clock police protection after Bouyeri pinned a letter to Van Gogh's chest containing explicit threats towards her.

She has just written a children's book with Anna Gray, entitled 'Adan and Eva', about the impossible friendship between a Muslim boy and a Jewish girl.

Hirsi Ali's co-author is writing under a pseudonym, as she fears the book could put her life in danger. It is being translated into English, Danish, Spanish and Italian.

Source: AKI

CAIR warns muslims about 3D airport scanners

Airport Scanners Stripping You Naked?
A new type of three-dimensional scanners have begun to appear at several airports around the world. Airports in Canada, Moscow and Osaka as well as those in several U.S cities such as Phoenix, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Denver, Albuquerque, and New York all use the body-scanning machines on randomly selected passengers. These, for the time being, voluntary scanners are being described as virtually stripping passengers naked.

The scanners use high frequency electromagnetic waves to produce a detailed 3-D image of the body without clothing. Any suspicious items appearing in the image are further investigated by a conventional security pat down. Read more ...

Source: Creeping Sharia

Arab States Wake Up

By Amir Taheri

The Conference of Arab Interior Ministers held its 25th annual session in Tunis last week - and singled out terrorism as "the principal threat" to the national security of the 22 countries of the Arab League.

What took the ministers so long to understand what terrorism is doing to their nations? Read more ...

Source: The New York Post