Those would be indictments of Justice Department officials.
Dateline: Seattle.
Seattle Times
Effort here to charge London suspect was blocked
By Hal Bernton and David Heath
This story lends itself to conspiracy theories: if the Justice Department is truly, blatantly and comprehensively this incompetent, then the conspiracy is about what keeps any of them employed.
If they’re actually not so entirely feckless, the conspiracy must be about an attempt to steal civil liberties by extending the Patriot Act via feigned incompetence. “We’re buffoons. We need more power in order to cope.”
If Haroon Aswat’s pedigree as a “a highly public aide to Abu Hamza al Masri, the militant cleric whose North London mosque was a hotbed of radical Islamist preaching” is true – in addition to the Seattle charges – and if Hamza also helped kill nearly 60 Londoners, then the JD has their most serious ‘splainin to do since Moussaoui’s hard disk was declared immune to profiling despite Coleen Rowley’s request.
In May 2004, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft announced an 11-count indictment by a federal grand jury in New York against Abu Hamza, who allegedly sent Aswat to Oregon to scout out the proposed training camp.
…At the time, however, federal prosecutors chose not to indict Aswat for reasons that are not clear. Asked why Aswat wasn’t indicted, a federal official in Seattle replied, “That’s a great question.”
Indeed, it is.
British intelligence officials now think that in the days and hours before the July 7 bombings, Aswat was in cellphone contact with at least two of the four suicide bombers, according to The Times of London.
… In 1999, Aswat came to the attention of the FBI and federal prosecutors here as part of the investigation into the Bly camp and its founder, former Seattle entrepreneur James Ujaama.
Circumstantial? Yes, indeed – much like finding a trout in the milk.
The point would be that the Patriot Act and security reorganization(s) were supposed to deal with this.
Circumstantial is what it is.
In war, circumstantial evidence is already more than sufficient. If the Patriot Act fails to defuse internecine political warfare then it only serves the purpose of taking away individual freedom.
Sorry. No deal.
It’s hard to believe that with a “co-conspirator” having pled guilty and having named names – “[Ujaama] pleaded guilty to aiding the Taliban and agreed to testify against Abu Hamza and others.” – that Haroon Aswat wasn’t … at least worth a look.
We’re taking heat over Gitmo from Travesty International, and somehow we let this guy help slip a bomb or three to the Brits due to departmental rivalry?
If this is true, heads should rotate freely.