The Associated Press reports that Ahmed al-Mughassil, reputed mastermind of the June 25, 1996, bombing at Khobar Towers US military housing in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in Beirut and transferred to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia;
Al-Mughassil, also known as Abu Omran, is one of 13 people named in a 2001 indictment in Alexandria, Virginia, in connection with the bombing. Charges include murder of federal employees and bombing resulting in death. None of the 13 has yet been brought to court to face charges, according to court documents.
[…]
A U.S. federal grand jury indictment named 13 Saudis and one Lebanese man in connection with the bombing, saying they were part of the Saudi Hezbollah extremist group. That group was founded by members of the desert kingdom’s Shiite minority who fled into exile in the 1980s to escape what they said was persecution by the kingdom’s Sunni majority.
The eight story Khobar Towers building was home to the United States Air Force personnel from the 4404th Wing (Provisional) who were performing search and rescue support. 19 were killed and nearly 500 were injured in the attack. The attack has been blamed on Saudi terrorists, al Qaeda and Iran depending on which indictment you want to read, but ultimately, it was a failure of the US government to learn the lessons of the 1983 Beirut bombing.
That ECP always scared the crap out of me. It seamed nobody wanted to be fully responsible for it.
It kinda seems like it would be a waste of time extraditing him to the US where he’d be fed, clothed, and housed at our expense while the current DC klown krewe took its time and pussyfooted around on the case, why not let the Saudi Government convict and behead him? On the other hand, him spending the rest of his life in the Supermax might be the right thing, but how much time and tax money would it take to get him there?
My concern is that they’ll warehouse him for awhile until they can exchange him for the next Bergdahl.
I was thinking that myself which makes me more in favor of just letting the Saudi Government convict and behead him, maggots have to eat, too!
How about we send him to some undisclosed location, get whatever intel we can from him – then send him to the Saudis for final disposition?
There is a Federal prison that was built a while back standing empty. I think it’s Thompsonville, or something like that. There is no reason it cannot house these people and be used as a supermax prison. If bodaprez decides to give up Gitmo, as I suspect he does like the contemptible twit he is, then this is an appropriate place to put them.
Problem there, Ex-PH2, is that if they are moved onto US soil, US law – including right to lawyers, bail, writ of habeus corpus, right to a speedy trial, etc . . . – all come into play just as if they were US citizens.
They’re not POWs; as captured terrorists, they’re “detained persons” – a very different status. All the Geneva Conventions say they are due is food, shelter, reasonable medical care, and an opportunity to pray. They don’t rate any more, and I’ll be damned if I want to see any of those a-holes get a damn thing more than they’re getting at Gitmo today.
Yep. Never read a requirement about WHERE the detained must be housed. In Saudi Arabia seems like an easy deal from here.
Now you’d know better than me, however, couldn’t a legal argument be made that these guys be shot as “Spy’s” since none were wearing uniforms when captured?, Additionally, none had officially sanctioned governmental authority. This is just the barracks lawyer in me talking.
Hondo, didn’t congress pass a law to the effect barring bringing these scuzbzgs into the U.S.?
Not that ol’ jug ears would sign such a bill.
OC
Long drop, short rope. Next!
Lots of abandoned unmarked mineshafts in AZ. No one would hear him screaming.
I was thinking a few minutes with the general population would fix the problem in no time.
Plenty of those in Pennsylvania, too.
At any rate, I’m glad we got him.
Plenty of them in CO as well, many in remote locations miles away from anything or anyone! Maybe they could use him for say, toxicity testing on that mine effluent that the EPA let loose, I hear there is still plenty of it left in that mine!!
This brings back memories. . . . not good ones.
I had orders for Saudi, and arrived the day AFTER the bombing. My wife was hysterical until I told her I was still at the airport (La Guardia, I believe), safe.
As I understand it, wasn’t Khobar also the repl-depl for inbound? I missed it by one day. . . .
Not that I’m claiming PTSD, but still, I get a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I guess it’s true that God watches over fools and drunkards (no, I wasn’t drunk, so that puts me in the other category), as there were circumstances, that had they gone another way. . . . . .
Let the Saudis handle this. Give him a fair trial and lop his head off in the city center during the Friday Follies, when Sharia justice is meted out in public.