From Friday's Washington Post, news that an alleged accomplice to the 9/11 plotters has been freed by a judge, pending the completion of his trial, on the basis of a report from German federal police. The report:
had provided information, apparently taken from the interrogation of a top al Qaeda planner in U.S. custody, that the defendant had no advance knowledge of the plot.
I have no idea how strong the case is against one Abdelghani Mzoudi, but to release him because a top Al Qaeda operative reportedly said he wasn't involved smacks more of politics and anti-American spite than it does of credulousness. The unnamed witness is widely known to be Ramzi Binalshibh, the supposed 9/11 mastermind. So now the word of a mass murderer is taken by a German court to be sufficient reason to release an alleged co-conspirator. You don't think Binalshibh would lie to try to protect one of his accomplices, do you? Is the German judge's logic really that "Binalshibh says he didn't do it, so I guess he didn't do it."?
And the Germans wonder why a lot of Americans don't think they have any business making money from the reconstruction of Iraq.
Oh by the way, here's the best part. It's America's fault, and he is owed an apology.
"I think the Germans will have to offer him a major apology and that he will be able to stay here," said the attorney, Josef Graessle-Muenscher, ......The Americans should consider what they have caused. Statements they kept secret led to a guilty verdict."
Imagine the nerve of those Americans. They didn't broadcast the transcripts of the interrogation of the key planner of the 9/11 attacks so as to assist the legal defense team of an alleged accomplice. As you might imagine, not all the Germans involved are pleased with the decision:
The court's decision infuriated prosecutors. Lead prosecutor Walter Hemberger also said that the unidentified witness could only be Binalshibh and that any evidence from him was probably an attempt to protect others. The federal police's fax did note that the witness had provided contradictory information in the past and that those who went to al Qaeda training camps were taught how to behave if arrested and interrogated.
Really? Sounds like they actually have a sort of organized conspiracy thing going on here. Whadduya think?
On the other hand, here's evidence that not all of Germany is asleep at the wheel in the War on Terror.