First Civilian Trial of GITMO Terrorist Result: Conviction on Only One Charge

Way to go, Obama.  You wanted to try these shitbags in civilian court, so the consequences are on you.

Jackass.

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Ahmed Ghailani was found not guilty on all but one charge Wednesday by a civilian jury in New York, in a case with ramifications for Obama’s policy toward Guantanamo and civilian trials for terror suspects.

Ghailani was acquitted in federal court on more than 280 charges in connection with the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, including one murder count for each of the 224 people killed. He was found guilty for only one charge, conspiracy to destroy government buildings.

Ghailani faces a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a possible life sentence. He will remain in custody and sentencing will take place on Jan. 25, 2011.

The acquittal is seen as a major blow to the U.S. government, as Ghailani was the first former Gitmo detainee to be tried in a civilian courtroom. The case had been viewed as a possible test case for President Barack Obama administration’s aim of putting other terror detainees — including self-professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — on trial on U.S. soil.

……Prosecutors had branded Ghailani a cold-blooded terrorist. The defense portrayed him as a clueless errand boy, exploited by senior Al Qaeda operatives and framed by evidence from contaminated crime scenes.

The judge had earlier decided that a star witness would not be allowed to testify because the witness was identified while Ghailani was held at a secret CIA camp that used harsh interrogation techniques. It is unknown what effect this witness would have had on the case.

Prosecutors had alleged Ghailani helped an Al Qaeda cell buy a truck and components for explosives used in a suicide bombing in his native Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998. The attack in Dar es Salaam and a nearly simultaneous bombing in Nairobi, Kenya, killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.

……The defense never contested that Ghailani knew some of the plotters. But it claimed he was in the dark about their sinister intentions.

“Call him a fall guy. Call him a pawn,” lawyer Peter Quijano said in his closing argument. “But don’t call him guilty.”
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/11/17/gitmo-detainee-ahmed-ghailani-guilty-terrorism-charges/

A major blow?? What the fuck did Obama and his pal Holder expect? A jury that would actually give Ghailani what he deserved?

He was ass-deep in the bombing plot. He obtained some of the materials used to kill over 200 people, but “don’t call him guilty”. Too bad we can’t call the little mutherfucker “dead”.

Every captured muslim terrorist is an enemy combatant that belongs in front of a military tribunal, not in front of 12 clueless civilian jurors. That ‘test case’ for trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a New York federal court didn’t work out so well.

Great job, Obama.