Israel: IDF expected to seek death penalty for killers of Fogel family

Death sentences were occasionally handed down against terrorists in the early years of the state, but were always commuted.

The army will apparently seek the death penalty for the murderers of 5 members of the Fogel family in the West Bank settlement of Itamar in March. This would be the 1st time it has sought a sentence of death since the mid-1990s.

Such a request would most likely be purely symbolic, since the only case in which a death penalty was ever actually carried out in Israel was that of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1962. Death sentences were occasionally handed down against terrorists in the early years of the state, but were always commuted.

The victims of the Itamar settlement attack, 10-year-old Yoav Fogel, Udi Fogel, 37, four-year-old Elad Fogel, 3-month old Hadas Fogel and Ruth Fogel, 36.

Yet even to seek such a penalty would be a departure from longstanding army policy: Since the mid-1990s, not even the most heinous terrorist acts have resulted in a request for capital punishment.

Military prosecutors are expected to demand the death penalty this time due to the extreme nature of the case: Udi and Ruth Fogel and 3 of their children, ranging in age from 3 months to 11 years, were killed in their beds shortly after the family finished their Shabbat dinner.

The Shin Bet security service has wrapped up its investigation into the murders and indictments are expected to be filed shortly against the two suspects, Hakim and Amjad Awad of the village of Awarta, near Itamar. Both confessed to the killings under interrogation. On Tuesday, a military court ordered them held in detention for another 10 days.

Though the death penalty has never been used against terrorists, Israel Defense Forces regulations in the West Bank allow its imposition subject to various conditions: Incriminating evidence must be presented at the trial even if the defendants have confessed; the judges trying the case must hold the rank of lieutenant colonel or higher; and the sentence must get the judges' unanimous consent.

A death sentence is automatically reviewed by a 5-judge appellate panel even if the defendant does not seek to appeal. If the appellate court upholds it, the military commander in the territories must then review the sentence as well and consider commuting it.

Source: Ha'aretz, May 20, 2011

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Bin Laden death 'not an execution'

Osama bin Laden

The death of bin Laden was not an "execution" and does not call into question Europe's opposition to the death penalty, the European Commission said today.

In the wake of a statement from Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso welcoming his death as a "major achievement" which ensured his crimes did not go unpunished, a spokeswoman insisted the EU's underlying values of justice were not called into question.

"Our values relating to justice in the EU are very important values for us."

She said the statement, issued jointly with EU Council president Herman Van Rompuy, hailed an "important defeat" for a terrorist movement responsible for many deaths across the world.

She added: "Bin Laden was responsible for many deaths and with his death one enemy has disappeared and we see that as a step towards making the world a safer place.

"This in no way questions the basic principles and values we have always supported ... this was not the execution of a death sentence, it was something completely different. We continue to be against the death penalty."

The joint Commission statement said: "Osama bin Laden was a criminal responsible for heinous terrorist attacks that cost the lives of thousands of innocent people. His death makes the world a safer place and shows that such crimes do not remain unpunished.

"This is a major achievement in our efforts to rid the world of terrorism.

"The European Union continues to stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States, our international partners and our friends in the Muslim world in combating the scourge of global extremism and in building a world of peace, security and prosperity for all."

Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary general of Europe's human rights watchdog the Council of Europe, hailed the death as of huge significance.

He said: "The news of the death of Osama bin Laden is certainly an important step in the international efforts in fighting terrorism. It is of immense symbolic significance.

"However, as recent events have shown, the threat of terrorism remains acute today and the Council of Europe is dedicated to combating terrorism together with its member states."

European Parliament president Jerzy Buzek said: "We have woken up in a more secure world.

"Although the fight of the international community against terrorists is not over, an important step has been made in the fight against al-Qa’ida, to give security to millions of people: Christians, Muslims, all those who believe in peaceful coexistence."

Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the attacks of September 11 and the man who ever since has remained an elusive, shadowy presence at the centre of perhaps the world’s greatest manhunt, has been killed by special forces troops at a compound two hours outside of Islamabad.

The al-Qa’ida leader was killed on Sunday during an operation north of the Pakistani capital led by helicopter-borne US special forces.

Source: The Independent, May 2, 2011

How bin Laden was killed

The raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Islamabad, came about four years after U.S. intelligence officials identified a man who served as one of the al Qaeda leader's trusted couriers, according to senior Obama administration officials.

Bin Laden was shot in the head and chest during the operation, a senior administration official told CNN. White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said that despite intelligence indicating that he was in the compound, there was no certainty the al Qaeda leader was actually there when the president authorized the assault.

In announcing bin Laden's death Sunday night, Obama called it "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al Qaeda."

"A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties," he said. "After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body."

Four others in the compound died in the raid, including bin Laden's adult son and a woman, Brennan said.

"Thinking about that from a visual perspective, here is bin Laden, who has been calling for these attacks, living in this million-dollar-plus compound; living in an area that is far removed from the front; hiding behind women who were put in front of him as a shield," Brennan told reporters. "I think it really just speaks to just how false his narrative has been over the years."

A senior administration official said later that the woman who died was not bin Laden's wife and may not have been used as a human shield, as originally reported. Nor did bin Laden have a gun, as earlier reports had indicated, the senior official said.

A DNA match confirmed with virtual certainty that bin Laden was killed in the operation, a senior administration official told CNN. Officials compared DNA of the person killed with bin Laden "family DNA," a senior administration official said, and a senior U.S. defense official said one of bin Laden's wives identified the body to U.S. forces.

There are also photographs of the body with a gunshot wound to the side of the head that shows an individual who is recognizable as bin Laden, a U.S. government official said. No decision has yet been made on whether to release the photographs and if so, when and how.

Calling the U.S. operation a surgical raid, officials said it was conducted by a small team and designed to minimize collateral damage.

A firefight was under way for most of the 40 minutes that U.S. Special Operations forces were in the compound, as the team encountered resistance from bin Laden and three other men, a senior defense official said.

The official said the forces had to fight their way through the first floor of the three-story building, where two adult males lived.

Bin Laden and his family lived on the second and third floors, and they were cleared last, with bin Laden killed in the last five or 10 minutes of the siege, the official said.

One of bin Laden's wives identified his body to U.S. forces after the team made visual identification, the official said.

In the end, all four of the combatants in the compound were dead, along with a woman whom one of the men used as a human shield, the officials said. Sources said bin Laden was shot in the head.

John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, said it is his understanding that the woman who was killed was one of bin Laden's wives.

Later, a senior U.S. official said that bin Laden's wife was not the woman killed and that she may not have been used as a human shield after all. This official also said that bin Laden was shot twice, once in the chest and once in the head.

At some point, one of the assaulting helicopters crashed due to a mechanical failure, according to the officials. It was destroyed as the U.S. team flew away, they said.

Obama and the senior administration officials said no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation, which took place very early Monday morning Pakistani time.

Source: CNN, May 3, 2011


Storming bin Laden's compound

Bin Laden's compound

The operation took place at a fortified compound on the outskirts of Abbottabad in north-west Pakistan.

It happened at some time between 0000 and 0130 local time on Monday morning (Sunday 1900-2030 GMT), dozens of local residents told a BBC reporter. Between two and four helicopters were seen flying low over the area, causing panic among some residents.

Residents describe hearing three explosions several minutes apart, followed by a huge explosion that shook their houses and knocked crockery from shelves. Most residents said they then also heard gunshots, but that the firing was brief, just a couple of minutes or so.

As the explosions started, they say, the lights in the area went off, going on and off again shortly afterwards. One report quotes some residents as saying they were commanded in Pashto - not the common language of the area - to turn their lights off, but this is unconfirmed.

It is believed that militants inside the house fired at the helicopters, but eventually they were able to land or hover outside the compound, and the commandos - a special team of some 15 or 25 US Navy Seals - emerged from them.

At some point in the operation one of the helicopters crashed, either from technical failure or having been hit by gunfire from the ground. But no US commandos were injured.

There are contradictory reports about which base the helicopters took off from, with some saying the US air bases at Jalalabad or Bagram in Afghanistan, but others suggesting it was the nearby Ghazi air base inside Pakistan.

Security concerns

The target of the operation was the compound, which had at its centre a large three-storey building with high walls, barbed wire and security cameras - and few windows.

The compound - valued at about $1m (£600,000) - had two security gates but no phone or internet lines running into the building.

Its occupants were so concerned about security that they were reported to burn their rubbish rather than leave it out for collection as other residents in the area did.

Mr Brennan told reporters that the commando team had been "able and prepared" to take Bin Laden alive "if he didn't present any threat".

"The concern was that Bin Laden would oppose any type of capture operation. Indeed, he did. It was a firefight. He, therefore, was killed in that firefight, and that's when the remains were removed," said Mr Brennan.

However other US officials who spoke to news agencies on condition of anonymity denied that Bin Laden had returned fire.

The al-Qaeda leader was in his bedroom when he was shot twice, officials said - once in the head and once in the chest.

Footage purporting to be of the bedroom appears to show a round gaping hole in the wall, suggesting US forces blasted their way into the building.

US officials described the operation as a "surgical raid" and said that as well as Bin Laden, three adult males - thought to comprise Bin Laden's trusted courier, his brother and Bin Laden's adult son - were killed.

A woman was also killed. She was originally reported to be one of Bin Laden's wives, though later reports suggested his wife was only wounded. There have also been conflicting reports as to whether the woman who died was being used as a human shield.

A senior intelligence official told reporters at a US Department of Defense briefing that Bin Laden's body was identified visually on the scene by operatives, by name by a woman at the scene believed to be one of his wives, by CIA specialists using photos and finally later on Monday by experts who found "virtually a 100% DNA match of the body against DNA of several Bin Laden family members".

The team left the compound carrying documents, hard drives and DVDs which it is hoped could yield further valuable intelligence data, officials said.

According to an official from Pakistan's main intelligence agency, the ISI, there were 17 or 18 people in the compound at the time of the attack, while US officials say those who survived the attack included a wife, a daughter, and eight to nine other children, not apparently Bin Laden's.

The ISI and US officials contradict each other as to whether a detainee was taken away alive.

Bin Laden's body was then flown to Afghanistan before eventually being buried at sea. US officials said this was to avoid his grave becoming a shrine.

Source: BBC, May 3, 2011


May 4, 2011 Updates

U.S. revises story on bin Laden's raid, offers more details

Bin Laden's residence sits in
a region where most residents
are Pakistani army personnel.

Abbottabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- U.S. officials issued a revised version of the nighttime raid that killed the world's most-notorious terrorist.

The 40-minute raid early Monday in Pakistan left Osama bin Laden dead, along with four others in the complex that sits on a mountainous region near the capital.

Bin Laden was not armed during the raid, but he put up resistance when U.S. forces entered the compound, the White House said. Officials had earlier said that bin Laden was an active participant in the firefight, implying that he was armed and gave the U.S. Navy SEALs little choice but to shoot him down.

After the operation, U.S. forces departed with the al Qaeda leader's body, nearly 10 years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

U.S. military personnel arrived on two helicopters, attacked the residence and started moving methodically from room to room, said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

They were engaged in a firefight throughout the operation, he said.

There were no armed guards around the compound, according to a U.S. official who is not authorized to speak on the record.

CIA Director Leon Panetta told PBS "NewsHour" that the original plan was for two Black Hawk helicopters, carrying 25 people, to go into the compound.

The first was to go over a courtyard, while the second was to go over the roof. But the first helicopter had problems and had to set down on the ground, prompting the second one to do the same, he said.

"Both teams immediately went into the compound itself. They had to breach about three or four walls in order to get in there," he said. "They were able to do that and they immediately then went into the compound itself and fought their way up to the third floor."

Besides the bin Laden family, two other families lived in the compound, according to Carney.

On the first floor of the building, two al Qaeda couriers were killed in addition to a woman caught in the crossfire, he said.

Bin Laden and his family lived on the second and third floors, and they were cleared last, with bin Laden killed toward the end of the siege, Carney said.

Bin Laden was not armed but did put up resistance when U.S. forces entered the compound, he said.

According to the U.S. official, who is not authorized to speak on the record, bin Laden "didn't hold his hands up and surrender."

A woman in the room with him -- believed to be bin Laden's wife -- rushed U.S. forces and was shot in the leg, but not killed, said Carney.

Officials had earlier said that bin Laden was shielded during the shooting by women, including his wife.

Five of the approximately two dozen people in the compound were killed -- the two couriers, the woman, bin Laden and his son, said the U.S. official who sought anonymity.

Panetta told PBS he didn't think bin Laden said anything to U.S. forces before he was killed. Read more.

Source: CNN, May 4, 2011


White House changes story: Bin Laden unarmed

The administration possesses graphic images of bin Laden's corpse, at least one of which is likely to be released, according to CIA Director Leon Panetta. Officials hope that doing so would quiet any doubts that bin Laden is indeed dead. The worry is that anti-U.S. sentiment would be inflamed as a result.

CBS News national security correspondent David Martin has also had the photos described to him and said it "does sound very gruesome."

Bin Laden was shot twice at close range, once in the chest and once in the head, right above his left eye and that bullet opened his skull, exposing his brain and it also blew out his eye. So these are not going to be pictures for the squeamish," Martin said.

How did bin Laden resist Navy SEALs without a weapon?

White House officials initially suggested bin Laden had been holding a gun and perhaps firing at U.S. forces. The corrected account raised questions about whether the Americans ever planned to take him alive, or simply were out to kill him.

After they shot him in the head and chest, the SEAL team in just minutes quickly swept bin Laden's compound for useful intelligence, making off with a cache of computer equipment and documents. The CIA was hurriedly setting up a task force to review the material from the highest level of al Qaeda's leadership.

The revised account of bin Laden's final moments was one of many official details that have changed since he was killed in the nighttime raid early Monday morning in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. The White House misidentified which of bin Laden's sons was killed — it was Khalid, not Hamza. Officials incorrectly said bin Laden's wife died in gunfire while serving as his human shield. That actually was the wife of a bin Laden aide, and she was just caught in crossfire, the White House said Tuesday.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney attributed those discrepancies to the fog of war, saying the information was coming in bit by bit and was still being reviewed. Nevertheless, the contradictory statements may raise suspicions about the White House's version of events, given that no independent account from another source is likely to emerge. The only non-U.S. witnesses to survive the raid are in Pakistani custody.

Source: CBSNews, May 4, 2011


May 5, 2011 Update

Account Tells of One-Sided Battle in Bin Laden Raid

The new details suggested that the raid, though chaotic and bloody, was extremely one-sided, with a force of more than 20 Navy Seal members quickly dispatching the handful of men protecting Bin Laden.

Administration officials said that the only shots fired by those in the compound came at the beginning of the operation, when Bin Laden’s trusted courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, opened fire from behind the door of the guesthouse adjacent to the house where Bin Laden was hiding.

After the Seal members shot and killed Mr. Kuwaiti and a woman in the guesthouse, the Americans were never fired upon again.

This account differs from an official version of events issued by the Pentagon on Tuesday, and read by the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, which said the Seal members “were engaged in a firefight throughout the operation.”

In a television interview on PBS on Tuesday, Leon E. Panetta, the director of the C.I.A., said, “There were some firefights that were going on as these guys were making their way up the staircase of that compound.”

Administration officials said the official account of events has changed over the course of the week because it has taken time to get thorough after-action reports from the Seal team. And, they added, because the Special Operations troops had been fired upon as soon as they touched down in the compound, they were under the assumption that everyone inside was armed.

“They were in a threatening and hostile environment the entire time,” one American official said.

When the commandos moved into the main house, they saw the courier’s brother, who they believed was preparing to fire a weapon. They shot and killed him. Then, as they made their way up the stairs of the house, officials said they killed Bin Laden’s son Khalid as he lunged toward the Seal team.

When the commandos reached the top floor, they entered a room and saw Osama bin Laden with an AK-47 and a Makarov pistol in arm’s reach. They shot and killed him, as well as wounding a woman with him.

The firefight over and Bin Laden dead, the team found a trove of information and had the time to remove much of it: about 100 thumb drives, DVDs and computer disks, along with 10 computer hard drives and 5 computers. There were also piles of paper documents in the house.

The White House declined to release any additional details about the operation, saying that further information would jeopardize the military’s ability to conduct clandestine operations in the future. The administration’s reticence came after it was forced on Tuesday to correct parts of its initial account of the raid, including assertions that Bin Laden had used his wife as a “human shield.”

Source: The New York Times, May 5, 2011


Michael Moore: Bin Laden Wasn't Killed, He Was Executed

Osama bin Laden wasn’t killed by a Navy SEAL team -- he was straight up executed, Michael Moore told TheWrap on Wednesday.

The “Fahrenheit 9/11” director has been setting Twitter aflame Wednesday afternoon urging the Obama administration to come clean about the circumstances surrounding the terrorist leader’s death -- particularly in light of the White House’s shifting account of last weekend’s firefight in Abbottabad (see map below).

The Oscar-winning director has been tweeting about his belief that Bin Laden should have received a trial, and his theory that Pakistan was keeping the Al Qaeda head under house arrest. TheWrap grilled Moore about his controversial views.

Is Obama lying about how Bin Laden died?

Common sense tells you he was executed. That was the plan all along. Just tell us that and quit treating us like children.

I have a lot of faith in Obama, but we’ve received three different stories in three days. We heard, "There was a firefight." "He used a woman as a shield." Now it turns out none of these things were true. He wasn’t armed.

Does it matter if he was executed? Do you think he deserved a trial?

I am a Catholic, and the position of the Catholic Church and the Pope is that we are 100 percent against the death penalty unless it is in self-defense. Look at the Nuremberg Trials. We didn’t just pop a bullet in the heads of the worst scum in history. We thought it was important to put them on trial and expose their evil. In a democracy we believe in a system of justice and we believe in a judicial system that gives people a day in court...and then we hung them.

It doesn’t mean we can’t hang them afterward.

Do you think people will be angry if it turns out the operation was less heroic than it originally seemed?

It was heroic. There was no need to embellish things. People in positions of power tread so gingerly around the electorate. Some people may not like it, but don’t bullsh*t us anymore about stuff like this.

The government, especially the Pentagon, has a poor track record of telling the truth, starting with Jessica Lynch. Pat Tillman, that was all made up, and this firefight is going to turn out to be hooey.

Also Read: Killing Bin Laden: Keeping Secrets in the Age of WikiLeaks

Will it hurt Obama if the story turns out to have been partly false?

It won’t hurt him, because the basic facts will remain the same. Osama is still dead and everybody is happy about it.

In your tweets you say that Pakistan was safeguarding Bin Laden.

This is not a conspiracy theory. This was a garrison city. He was living in a compound attached to their version of West Point.

Source: TheWrap, Brent Lang, May 5, 2011


May 6, 2011 Update

Osama Bin Laden: Legality of Killing Questioned

The death of the man held responsible for mass atrocities, including the 11 September 2001 attacks, was welcomed around the world.

But as the US narrative of the raid has developed - and changed - since Monday's raid, there have been growing questions about whether it was legal to kill the al-Qaeda leader.

At one level, these questions have focused on what happened during the operation at the building in Abbottabad in which Bin Laden was found.

"The issue here is whether what was done was an act of legitimate self-defence," said Benjamin Ferencz, an international law specialist who served as a prosecutor during the Nuremburg trials and argued that it would have been better to capture Bin Laden and send him to court.

"Killing a captive who poses no immediate threat is a crime under military law as well as all other law," he told the BBC World Service.

'Killing appropriate'

Putting the case for the legality of the raid on Wednesday, US Attorney General Eric Holder said it was "conducted in a way that was consistent with our law, with our values".

"If he had surrendered, attempted to surrender, I think we should obviously have accepted that, but there was no indication that he wanted to do that and therefore his killing was appropriate," he told the Senate judiciary committee.

No blow-by-blow account of what happened in the moments before Bin Laden was shot has been agreed upon.

US officials have suggested that Bin Laden may have been reaching for a weapon, and that the Navy Seals may have suspected that people in the compound were wearing suicide belts.

But they have also said Bin Laden was not carrying a weapon - after initially saying he was.

And they have told US media that just one person in the compound shot at the special forces team, in what appears to have been a fairly one-sided confrontation.

Legal experts have therefore asked whether the US forces were instructed to kill, and whether Bin Laden was given a chance to surrender.

'Proportionate response?'

Like Mr Ferencz, British law professor Philippe Sands QC, of University College London says it is impossible to make a definitive legal judgement without knowing precisely what happened. But he says the case for the raid's legality has been weakened.

"The question to ask is: were the measures taken in the actual situation that pertained reasonable and proportionate given the circumstances in which the [Navy Seals] found themselves?" he told the BBC.

"The facts for Bin Laden don't appear to easily meet that standard."

On a broader level, US officials have justified Bin Laden's killing as an act committed as part of an armed conflict with al-Qaeda.

Mr Holder said Bin Laden's killing was "an act of national self-defence", calling the al-Qaeda leader "a lawful military target" who had acknowledged his role in the 9/11 attacks.

"It's lawful to target an enemy commander in the field," he said.

Some legal experts have backed up that position.

"I don't think that this is an extrajudicial killing," Philip Bobbitt, a specialist on constitutional law and international security, told the BBC's Today programme. "I think this is part of an armed conflict authorised by the United Nations, authorised by both houses of Congress."

'Setting precedents'

But the fact that Bin Laden was killed in a normally quiet town in a country that was not informed about the raid until after it had finished, has also raised questions.

"As a matter of international law, one country is not free to enter another country apparently without the authorisation of that country, and intervene, whether to kidnap or kill a national of a third state," Mr Sands said.

He acknowledged that under the doctrine of necessity, where there is an "overriding threat to national security", such an act might not give rise to responsibility or liability.

But he said the difficulty with that argument was that it was put forward against a background of a rise in extrajudicial killings, including through the use of drones, and that this was not a "lawful direction to be taking".

The logical conclusion of any idea that Bin Laden could be killed as an enemy combatant was "that anyone associated with al-Qaeda in any country in the world can be taken out, can be executed," Mr Sands said.

"I think it's deeply troubling if we are indeed moving to a place where you can have a global assassination policy for those who are perceived to cause trouble," he added.

The UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, and the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Martin Scheinin, have raised a similar concern.

"In certain exceptional cases, use of deadly force may be permissible as a measure of last resort... including in operations against terrorists," they said in statement.

"However, the norm should be that terrorists be dealt with as criminals, through legal processes of arrest, trial and judicially decided punishment," they added.

"Actions taken by states in combating terrorism, especially in high profile cases, set precedents for the way in which the right to life will be treated in future instances."

Source: BBC News, May 6, 2011



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Investigators Looking For Who Planted Pipe Bomb at Colorado Mall

Investigators are searching for whoever planted a pipe bomb among propane gas tanks at the Southwest Plaza Mall in Littleton, Colorado shopping mall on the 12th anniversary of the Columbine massacre.


 The bomb and propane tanks were discovered after the fire department responded to a small fire at the mall. The bomb squad was called to defuse the bomb. The FBI has identified a person of interest, based on surveillance video:

The FBI has released these surveillance pictures of the man they are looking for. The subject is describe as a white male, with graying hair, a silver mustache, wearing a dark colored cap with a light colored logo on the front, gray and white horizontally striped shirt, dark jacket with silver buttons, blue jeans, and dark colored shoes.

Anyone with information about this man is asked to call Jefferson County Sheriff's Office tipline at (303) 271-5615.

Members of the Jefferson County Bomb Squad found two propane tanks and a pipe bomb inside the mall after a fire broke out near the food court. The mall is expected to remain closed until Thursday.

The fire started at about 11:50 a.m. Wednesday. By 11:59 firefighters had extinguished the fire. Firefighters found a suspicious device at the origin of the fire, including two propane tanks and what was later revealed to be a pipe bomb.

Posted by lawhawk

Israel: Death Penalty Unlikely for Itamar Massacre Terrorists

Israel is very unlikely to mete out the death penalty for the two terrorists who slaughtered five members of the Fogel family, but calls are mounting to make it mandatory in such cases.

Israeli civilian law allows the death penalty only for Nazi criminals, and the only time it has been implemented was for Adolf Eichmann. Military courts could impose a death sentence on terrorists in Judea and Samaria, which are under military law, but this has never happened.

Chava Chai, the neighbor of the Fogels and whose house was the first to be entered by the terrorists while the Chai family was away for the Sabbath, told The New York Times, “We hope they will receive the same justice as the Fogel family. They should be given the death penalty.”

The death penalty is the least that the terrorists deserve, said National Union Knesset Member Uri Ariel, quoting a saying by Rabbinic sages that “whoever takes mercy on cruel people will eventually be cruel to merciful people."

Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely also called for a change in legislation to allow the death penalty for terrorists, explaining that doing so would serve as deterrence. She was joined by Druze Likud MK Ayoub Kara.

National Union KM Dr. Michael Ben-Ari also called for the death penalty for what he called "monsters.”

Source: IsraelNationalNews.com, April 18, 2011

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Might a military jury deny 9/11 suspect's death wish?

Under military commission rules, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed cannot plead guilty to a crime that carries the death penalty, even though he wants it. And a military jury might be less likely than a civilian one to grant his wish.

His words leave little doubt about his role. It is his punishment that remains uncertain.

Four years ago, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed not only brazenly portrayed himself as mastermind of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The senior Al Qaeda operative also bragged to a U.S. military tribunal that he had directed other major terrorist attacks around the globe.

Mohammed claimed responsibility for the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, for the "shoe bomber" attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner in 2001, for the deadly bombing of a nightclub in Indonesia, for planned assassination attempts against Pope John Paul II and President Clinton, and for aborted attacks in London, Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.

He even boasted that he had personally decapitated Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi, Pakistan. "For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head," Mohammed said.

But it's not clear whether his confessions, which mirrored those he made after being waterboarded 183 times by CIA interrogators in 2003, can be used against him in military court. Moreover, now that the Justice Department has transferred his case and that of his four alleged co-conspirators to a military commission at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, winning a death sentence may not come easy.

Click here to read the full article.

Source: The Los Angeles Times, April 6, 2011

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China: 7 sentenced to death in Xinjiang

March 23, 2011: Seven people allegedly involved in plotting terrorist activities have been sentenced to death for robbery and murder in China's far western region of Xinjiang, a state-run news website said.

China's Supreme People's Court recently approved the death penalty meted out to seven people by a court in the Silk Road city of Kashgar in Xinjiang's west, the Tianshan website said.

It was unclear whether the seven are Uighurs, historically Xinjiang's majority ethnic group, many of whom resent heavy-handed Chinese rule.

The report says the seven sentenced to death are among a dozen people who met and raised funds between June 2008 and October 2010 to carry out "violent, terrorist" activities. It did not elaborate.

The robberies and murders were committed on three occasions last year, the report said. On Aug. 7, Aimaiti Tuheti and Yiming Dawuti and others killed a security guard at a pedestrian mall while trying to steal, it said. On Oct. 12, Nuermaimaiti Aobulikasimu and 11 others broke into a house, bound and killed the couple living in it and seized their belongings.

Finally, on Nov. 11, Aobulikasimu and others charged into the homes of two brothers, robbed them and killed six people, the report said. It did not explain who the victims were or why they were targeted.

The report did not say when the executions would be carried out.

Three others were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, the report said. Such sentences are usually commuted to life imprisonment.

Source: AP, March 23, 2011

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US holds on to use of death penalty

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) — The United States has disavowed torture and pledged to treat terror suspects humanely, but set aside calls to drop the death penalty, as the United Nations carried out its first review of Washington's human rights record.

As part a groundbreaking commitment to improvement under the Obama administration, the US joined the 47-nation Human Rights Council in 2009. And in doing so, submitted to more international scrutiny.

State Department legal adviser Harold Koh outlined nine key improvement areas yesterday, encompassing about 174 of the 228 recommendations the community had urged on Washington in an initial report last November. Nations are held accountable for what they agree to improve.

He said the US would agree to improvements in areas ranging from civil rights to national security to immigration, including intolerance of torture and the humane treatment of suspects at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba.

But in some areas the US stance was unchanged, particularly on the death penalty, which had led to a chorus of objections from many European nations.

Critics say the law is inhumane and unfairly applied. But Koh said capital punishment was permitted under international law.

"To those who desire as a matter of policy to end capital punishment in the United States — and I count myself among those — I note the decision made by the government of Illinois on March 9 to abolish that state's death penalty," Koh told the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.

Cuba, Iran and Venezuela complained the US was brushing too many recommendations aside, while China and Russia said the US was not going far enough on Guantanamo, and called for it to be shut down as President Barack Obama had promised.

Other nations urged the US to reduce overcrowding in prisons, ratify international treaties on the rights of women and children, and take further steps to prevent racial profiling. Koh said Obama also would push to ratify additional measures under the Geneva Conventions and add protections for anyone it detains in an international armed conflict.

Civil society groups have praised the US for involving itself in the review process, which all UN member states have to undergo every four years. Japan, France and Cameroon had led the writing of the report on the US.

However, Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's human rights programme, said one of the biggest US shortcomings was that it still had not created an independent human rights monitoring commission as has been done in over 100 countries.

"While the Obama administration should be commended for its positive engagement in this process, in order to lead by example, this international engagement must be followed by concrete domestic actions to bring US laws and policies in line with international human rights standards," he said.

Source: AP, March 21, 2011

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India: 26/11 attacker Kasab's death penalty upheld

Mumbai, Feb 21 (IANS) The Bombay High Court Monday upheld the death sentence awarded to Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab for his role in the 26/11 attack, closing another chapter in one of the most watched legal trials in the world and hailed as a triumph of the Indian legal system.

A division bench of Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice R.V. More delivered the verdict, holding him guilty on four counts. Kasab now has 30 days to appeal in the Supreme Court. Two Indian co-accused, alleged to be his accomplices, were let off by the court for lack of evidence.

'It is the rarest of rare cases. If he is not awarded the death penalty, then people might lose faith in the judicial process,' the bench grimly observed.

While Kasab, the sole surviving terrorist in the Nov 26-29, 2008 attack that claimed 166 lives and shocked the world, smiled and grinned when the judgement was read out, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam termed it 'a triumph of justice'.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan welcomed the verdict but promptly announced that the state government would challenge before the Supreme Court the acquittal of Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed, both Indian nationals and co-accused in the 26/11 trial.

Hailing the verdict, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram Monday said Kasab's trial had raised the prestige of the Indian judiciary and welcomed the judgement upholding his death sentence.

'This is a tribute to our legal system. We should allow our legal system to deal with the case in the manner every other case is dealt with. The manner in which we dealt with the case has raised the prestige of the Indian legal system,' said Chidambaram, who had also complimented the prosecution on the judgement.

Kasab's government-appointed lawyer Farhana Shah declared they would recommend to him to appeal against the death sentence before the apex court.

Appearing nonchalant and carefree, Kasab smiled and grinned as he appeared before the court via a video camera link from his cell in Arthur Road Central Jail for the hearing.

The high court upheld the four counts on which Kasab had been slapped with the death sentence by the trial court of Special Judge M.L. Tahaliyani in May 2010, including the killing of three top Mumbai police officers - Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kamte.

Bursting crackers and shouting slogans, Mumbaikars welcomed the verdict. Several people were seen sharing the news with each other while some shouted 'Bharat mata ki jai'. They were unanimous in saying Kasab deserved death and the punishment should be expedited.

'My father's soul will now rest in peace forever. I believe this is the apt punishment for Kasab and the likes of him,' said Deepak Bhonsale, son of assistant sub-inspector Balasaheb Bhonsale who was killed in the 26/11 attack. He wished it 'would not take long' to put the verdict into action. 'Hanging should be at the earliest,' he said.

A total of 166 people were killed in the mayhem let loose by Kasab and nine other gunmen during the 60-hour Mumbai terror attack. While Kasab was the sole gunman caught alive, his nine accomplices were killed in the fight with security forces.

'This is a victory of justice and defeat of drama by Pakistani terrorist Kasab,' a jubiliant Nikam said soon after the hearing.

Addressing mediapersons, he said, 'the storm of terror unleashed by Kasab and his accomplices has finally ended' and there would be mourning and breastbeating in the camps of his handlers.

In his briefing - in which he called Kasab a 'monster' and 'demon' and also threw in a couplet to get a resounding round of applause - Nikam said the accused frequently attempted to misguide the prosecution and investigators, changed his statements at regular intervals and even pleaded for a life term at the fag end of the trial.

'However, nothing worked and we managed to foil all his designs,' Nikam said. He also said he would recommend appealing against the acquittal of the two Indian co-accused, Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed, by the court.

The Ansari-Ahmed duo were named co-accused for having conspired in the Mumbai attack conspiracy and providing logistics support prior to the terror strike.

'Both have been acquitted for lack of evidence against them. We consider it a victory of truth,' lawyers Ejaz Naqvi and R.V. Mokashe told mediapersons shortly after the verdict.

Source: sify.com, Feb. 21, 2011

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Death Penalty Confirmed for Sarin Gas Attack Chemist

Execution chamber at
Tokyo's Detention Center

The chemist of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult who concocted the deadly nerve gas that killed a dozen people in the Tokyo subway in 1995 has received his final judgment. Japan’s Supreme Court Tuesday rejected the final appeal by Masami Tsuchiya, one of the top lieutenants who masterminded the fatal attacks, confirming the death sentence passed on him in 2004.

Mr. Tsuchiya was one of 13 cult members sentenced to hang for their part in the chemical attack during the morning rush hour commute in central Tokyo on March 20, 1995: The attack killed 12 people and left up to 6,000 others seeking medical treatment, according to the U.S. State Department. The chemist, now 46, was convicted for his role in developing the liquid sarin used in what was Japan’s most devastating terrorist attack in modern times.

Mr. Tsuchiya, who was not present in the courthouse during Tuesday’s proceedings, was also previously convicted for producing sarin in an earlier attack in Matsumoto, Nagano prefecture in 1994, which killed seven people. In handing down its decision on Tuesday, the Supreme Court said Mr. Tsuchiya continued to develop the poison even after he recognized the disastrous consequences that resulted from the Matsumoto attack, showing that he played a crucial role in the crimes even if not physically present on the day. “Even if we consider that he was not directly involved in the murders, in this case the death penalty cannot be avoided,” the Supreme Court said in its ruling according to Japanese state broadcaster NHK.

The leader of the cult, Shoko Asahara, already sits on death row. He was sentenced to death in February 2004, ending an eight-year trial that found him guilty of 13 crimes. Mr. Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, lost his final appeal to overturn his death sentence in September 2006. In all, the death sentence has been finalized for 10 of the 13 found guilty, according to NHK.

Source: Japan RealTime, February 15, 2011

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Indonesian cleric Ba'asyir facing terrorism charges

Abu Bakar Ba'asyir

Abu Bakar Ba'asyir has been in custody since his arrest in August.

Police in Indonesia have charged radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir with inciting terrorism, a crime that carries the death penalty.

Mr Ba'asyir was arrested in August in a raid linked to the discovery of a militant training camp in Aceh.

Prosecutors said they hoped to go to trial "very quickly".

Mr Ba'asyir previously served 26 months in jail before being cleared of involvement with Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the group behind the 2002 Bali attacks.

The 71-year-old was imprisoned for conspiracy over the bombings, in which 202 people died. However, his conviction was overturned and he was released in 2006.

He has been described as the spiritual leader of JI, which has links to al-Qaeda - a claim he denies.

He is now the leader of the hardline Islamist group Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT), which was created in 2008.

Multiple charges

Under Indonesian law, police pass a dossier containing the results of their investigation to prosecutors, who then decide whether to go to trial. The dossier had been returned to police once for further investigation.

Prosecutors said Abu Bakar Ba'asyir faced multiple charges under terrorism legislation.

"The harshest allegation is that he incited others to commit crimes of terrorism, which carries the death penalty," South Jakarta prosecutors' office chief Mohammed Yusuf said.

"We want to try him very quickly," he said.

The charges are linked to the discovery of a training camp in Aceh in February, where police said militants were planning Mumbai-style attacks on the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

A lawyer for Mr Ba'asyir said he denied the charges and blamed "foreign interference".

Source: BBC News, December 14, 2010

Iraq has 835 prisoners on death row

BAGHDAD — Iraq has 835 people waiting to be executed, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said Monday, just days after the UN envoy to Baghdad called on the country to abolish capital punishment.

Speaking at a news conference about anti-terrorism measures, Bolani said Iraqi courts had convicted 14,500 people for such offences, with an unspecified number serving life sentences in addition to those due to be executed.

"The government is keen on providing justice," he said, noting "14,500 criminals have been convicted, with 835 receiving death sentences and others life imprisonment."

Iraq executed 230 people from 2005 to 2009, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in July, adding that, at the time, 1,254 death sentences had been handed down.

Bolani's remarks came after UN envoy Ad Melkert called on the Iraqi government to abolish the death penalty, in a speech marking International Human Rights Day on Friday.

"On this day we would like to reiterate our universal call to refrain from carrying out the death penalty and would encourage Iraq to consider banning this instrument as a fundamental feature of applying justice in a new Iraq," he said, according to a transcript of his speech.

Baghdad reintroduced the death penalty in 2004, after a brief moratorium immediately after the US-led invasion of 2003. Those sentenced to death are usually hanged.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is an ardent supporter of capital punishment, but President Jalal Talabani opposes its use.

Source: AFP, December 13, 2010

Cuba commutes another bomber's death sentence

For the 2nd time this month, the Cuban Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of a Salvadoran man convicted of plotting a series of Havana hotel bombings in 1997, leaving just 1 person left on the island's death row.

Otto Rene Rodriguez Llerena's sentence was reduced to 30 years in prison, according to a story posted late Monday on the state-run Cubadebate Web site.

The court last week commuted the death sentence of another Salvadoran man convicted in the case, Ernesto Cruz Leon, giving him 30 years in prison as well.

Both men admitted guilt in the bombings, which killed an Italian tourist and wounded 11 other people including 7 foreigners. They were convicted in 1999.

The plot was allegedly organized and financed by Cuban-Venezuelan Luis Posada Carriles - a former CIA operative and one of Cuba's most-wanted men, who is also accused in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner and in a series of attempts to assassinate former Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Posada Carriles acknowledged involvement in the hotel bombings, but later retracted the admission and denied playing any role. He was awaiting a Venezuelan trial over the airliner attack when he escaped from jail and fled the country. Today he lives in the United States, where he faces charges of lying to federal authorities in his 2005 bid to become a U.S. citizen.

While capital punishment is allowed under Cuba's constitution, President Raul Castro announced in 2008 that nearly all death sentences would be commuted, and the rest - a handful of capital cases involving terrorism - would be reviewed.

The only prisoner remaining on death row is Cuban-American Humberto Eladio Real, a member of an anti-Fidel Castro group who was convicted of killing a policeman in 1994.

Source: Associated Press, December 7, 2010

Cuba commutes Salvadoran bomber's death sentence

Raul Castro

Cuba's Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of a Salvadoran man convicted of terrorism for his role in a string of bombings that killed an Italian and wounded 11 others in 1997, ruling Friday that he should serve 30 years in prison instead.

Ernesto Cruz Leon, who has already been behind bars for more than a decade, was given the maximum term allowable under the statute, state-run website Cubadebate said, without providing further details of the ruling.

The re-sentencing means only 2 prisoners remain on death row in Cuba. President Raul Castro announced in 2008 that nearly all death sentences would be commuted, while a handful of such sentences against those convicted of terrorism would be reviewed.

Cruz Leon confessed to planting bombs in 5 hotels and a restaurant in a plot to scare away tourists and hurt a key source of income for the island. He was convicted in 1999 and given the death penalty, along with fellow Salvadoran Otto Rene Rodriguez.

The plot was allegedly organized and financed by Cuban-Venezuelan Luis Posada Carriles, former CIA operative and one of Cuba's most-wanted men, who is also accused in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 people and of a series of attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro.

Earlier this year Venezuela captured and extradited to Cuba another Salvadoran suspect in the hotel bombings: Francisco Chavez Abarca, who allegedly recruited Cruz Leon.

Besides Rodriguez, the only other person remaining on death row is Cuban-American Humberto Eladio Real, a member of an anti-Castro group who was convicted of killing a policeman in 1994 when he stormed ashore in Villa Clara armed with assault rifles and other weapons.

Cubadebate did not say whether similar proceedings are planned to review their death sentences in addition to Cruz Leon's.

"We have received this as good news because we are against the death penalty," said Elizardo Sanchez, the head of the Havana-based Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation.

However Sanchez said his group continues to be concerned as long as capital punishment remains on the books.

Cuba's constitution allows for the death penalty, but the country has effectively had a moratorium for years on carrying out death sentences.

Source: Fox News, December 4, 2010

Toys and terrorists

It's the middle of August and there's almost no political news, especially not of the EU variety, given the whole of Brussels is on a (well deserved?) five-week holiday.

But if you look hard enough there's always something worth writing about. Henrik Alexandersson, prominent Swedish blogger and Pirate Party employee, for instance, has found that the EU Directorate General for Justice, Freedom and Security is proposing a ban on the fuel used for children’s toy steam engines in an effort to prevent terrorism.

The EU fears that a terrorist could buy tens of thousands of fuel tablets and then extract a sufficient amount of an explosive substance out of them to make a bomb. As Henrik says, quite why anyone would go to the trouble of using tens of thousands of fuel tablets, since it would surely be far easier to build a bomb from staple goods such as ammonia and formalin, we're not sure. But he says a ban would effectively be the end for the German manufactured steam engines, as no substitute fuel exists. Will the Germans resist?

MUMBAI - AND DELHI

I have not written about the terrorist attack on Mumbai for a very good - to me - reason. Fire has been coming out of my mouth and smoke from my ear, from absolutely furious anger. One aspect of this whole affair, as an aspect vital to us Sikhs, seems to have been completely overlooked - or purposely ignored.

I have not trusted myself to say anything reasonable or lucid. So I have been silent.

Now someone else has written what I would like to say. In fact two people have. First, the Sikhtoon, then a link to the blogpost.

I am a regular reader of Sidhusaaheb's blog, I, Me, Myself. He has a incisive political sense (sometimes at odds with my ideas, though), a great sense of humour, and he's a Sikh. What more could anyone ask for?

To read his post, please go to my post about Mumbai on sometimes - 2. It's worth the click, I promise.