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Euros springing hard boyz
Ahmed Ressam's lawyer expects him to be locked up a long time. "Anything less than 20 years would be a miracle," says Tom Hillyer. The Algerian's nervous tics caught a U.S. Customs inspector's eye as Ressam arrived from Canada in December 1999 with the makings of four powerful bombs. A year later he was convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport. Faced with a prison term of up to 130 years, Ressam gave evidence that helped authorities round up numerous alleged associates. In the months before 9/11 he told U.S. investigators about a network of Qaeda fixers and sympathizers in the United States, Canada and Europe with links to Osama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan.Ressam's sentencing hearing is due next month. Prosecutors have promised him no more than 27 years behind bars. But some of the suspects he fingered in Britain and France are already going free, despite his testimony and corroborating reports from intelligence agencies across two continents. One worrisome case is that of Fateh Kamel. Labeled a jihadi "mastermind" by law-enforcement sources in Europe and North America, he allegedly helped to recruit Ressam to the cause. He was arrested on a visit to Jordan and extradited to France, where in 2001 he was sentenced to eight years for trafficking in forged ID papers and "association" with terrorists implicated in subway bombings there. The evidence against him included Italian wiretaps. "I'm not afraid of dying, and killing doesn't frighten me," he was quoted as saying. "If I have to press the remote control, long live the jihad!" France released him in January, reportedly for "good behavior," and a Canadian government source confirms Kamel is back in Canada. Al-Zarqawi set up a British terror cell that Qatada may have led Reuters Al-Zarqawi set up a British terror cell that Qatada may have led A former roommate of Ressam's is among at least six other alleged associates being freed in Britain. They were jailed under a post-9/11 law saying foreign militants could be detained indefinitely based on intelligence reports, but British judges struck down the law late last year on human-rights grounds. Last week they were all set free. British court documents say the former roommate, identified only as "S," received Qaeda training in Afghanistan. He and the others were said to be close associates of a British-based jihadi known as Abu Doha, who once helped run Al Qaeda's Afghan training network, according to British authorities. Ressam tagged him as a key contact in the plotting of the L.A. airport attack. He's in jail awaiting extradition to the United States. Among those released was another London jihadi once labeled "truly dangerous" by a British judge. Radical imam Abu Qatada claims to be a religious scholar with no terrorist ties. But he has been described by investigators as Al Qaeda's "ambassador" in Europe, and had been held without charges for two years. German government documents describe him as the onetime leader of a British terror cell set up by the notorious Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, a fellow Jordanian, but no one has produced the kind of evidence that would convict the imam in a British court. Under Parliament's newly approved antiterror controls, Abu Qatada and other former British detainees will be on the streets, but their activities are supposed to be closely monitored. U.S. officials won't say what they're doing to guard against the threat of new attacks by former detainees. Other countries failed to make a solid case against them. It's far from certain that America could do better. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-07-31 |
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