grope (gr
p)

2. To search blindly or uncertainly: grope for an answer.
2. Slang To handle or fondle for sexual pleasure.



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grope (gr
p)

2. To search blindly or uncertainly: grope for an answer.
2. Slang To handle or fondle for sexual pleasure.



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CNN, 3/10/10: “A Pennsylvania woman has been indicted for conspiracy to provide
material support to terrorists and kill a person in a foreign
country, the Justice Department announced Tuesday…….Colleen LaRose, known as “Jihad Jane” and “Fatima LaRose,” has also been charged with making false statements to a government official and attempted identity theft. She was arrested in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 15, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. No arraignment date has been set, the official said. LaRose is being held at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. LaRose and five unindicted co-conspirators recruited men on the Internet “to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe, and recruited women on the Internet who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad,” according to a Justice Department statement…..”

Link:
…. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/09/pennsylvania.terror.indictment/index.html
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CNN, 3/10/10: “Militants attacked the office of a humanitarian organization in
northwest Pakistan on Wednesday killing five people, police
said.”

Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/10/pakistan.attack/index.html
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Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8557570.stm
BBC, 3/10/10
Blizzards have hit the French Mediterranean coast amid warnings of up to 20 inches of snow in Northern Spain on Tuesday.
Nimes and Perpignan were among the cities hit by the bad weather near the coast in France.
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Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3157478.stm
BBC, 3/10/10
Indonesia says a man who died in a raid in Jakarta on 9 March 2009 was Dulmatin, the last remaining suspect wanted in connection with the 2002 Bali bombings.
The BBC News website looks at the role Dulmatin and others played in the devastating attack that killed 202 people.
The seeds of the October 2002 Bali bombing plot were probably sown in a hotel room in southern Thailand 10 months earlier.
At a secret meeting of operatives from South East Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiah, a man known as Hambali is believed to have ordered a new strategy of hitting soft targets, such as nightclubs and bars rather than high-profile sites like foreign embassies.
But it was not until August 2002 that Bali was chosen as the place to strike.
According to Ali Imron, who was jailed in 2003 for life for his part in the attacks, it was at a meeting in a house in Solo, central Java, that “field commander” Imam Samudra announced the plan to bomb Bali, and the main agents in the plot first came together.
Bali was chosen “because it was frequented by Americans and their associates”, Ali Imron said. He quoted Imam Samudra as saying it was part of a jihad, or holy war, to “defend the people of Afghanistan from America”.
In fact, more Australians and Indonesians would die than Americans, prompting speculation that the plotters were poorly informed, or manipulated by other people still at large.
Hambali, who is currently in US custody in Guantanamo Bay, is believed to have been the South East Asian contact for Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.
But he is not thought to have played an active part in the Bali plotting.
Some of the suspected perpetrators of the bombings are still being hunted
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Instead, 43-year-old Islamic teacher Mukhlas – also known as Ali Ghufron – was convicted as the overall co-ordinator of the attacks.
Prosecutors said he approved the targets and secured finance for the bombings. Mukhlas himself claimed he just gave the bombers religious guidance.
He also recruited two of his younger brothers, Amrozi and Ali Imron, to play key roles in the attack.
Mukhlas and Imam Samudra are said to have chaired preparatory meetings in western Java during August and September.
Ali Imron said that the Bali attacks were originally planned for 11 September, to mark the first anniversary of the terror attacks on the US.
But the bombs were apparently not ready in time, and the plans had to be postponed.
Final planning
The details of the attack were finalised in Bali between 6 and 10 October.
The bombers apparently all had separate roles.
A man called Idris, who was later jailed for another bomb attack, was accused of gathering funds and arranging transport and accommodation for the bombers.
Amrozi cheered after his sentencing and said he would die a martyr
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Amrozi admitted to buying the chemicals and the minivan used in the Sari club blast.
Ali Imron named Dulmatin as the man who helped assemble the bombs, and said a man called Abdul Ghoni mixed the explosives.
Ali Imron said he helped make the main bomb, used at the Sari club.
He said a van loaded with explosives had been driven to Sari by a man called Jimi, who died in the blast. A man called Iqbal wore a vest with a bomb in it, which he detonated in Paddy’s Bar.
“Their duty was to explode the bombs,” Ali Imron had said. “They were ready to die.”
Iqbal is known to have died in Paddy’s Bar. But Ali Imron also told police that the two bombs exploded prematurely, which could have caught Iqbal out, so it is unclear if he was on a suicide mission.
All the individuals detained for playing a major role in the attacks have been sentenced – and Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra were executed in November 2008.
Other key suspects are believed to have been killed by police before facing trial.
Azahari Husin, a Malaysian who was alleged to be JI’s top bomb-making expert and to have helped assemble the Bali bombs, was killed in eastern Indonesian in November 2005.
Another alleged bomb-maker, Noordin Mohammad Top, was killed in a raid in November 2009.
The attacks which killed 202 people in the resort of Kuta, Bali, were a team effort – but the aftermath provoked different reactions from those involved.
Police said Imam Samudra stayed in Bali for several days after the bombing to survey the devastation he wrought and observe the reactions of people he affected.
Ali Imron shed tears in court, and repeatedly expressed remorse for his actions.
Amrozi laughed and joked about his case, giving a thumbs-up sign when he was convicted. He said he was happy to die a martyr.

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Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2385323.stm
The BBC profiles the key men executed, jailed or accused of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombing, in which 202 people died.
BBC, 3/10/10
Amrozi
Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, dubbed the “smiling bomber” by the media for his demeanour during court appearances, was the first of the Bali bomb suspects to go on trial.
He was found guilty of helping to plan and carry out the attacks and was sentenced to death on 7 August 2003.
![]() Born July 1962
From Lamongan, East Java
Mechanic
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Police said he admitted to owning the van used to bomb the Sari Club in Kuta, and to buying explosives.
They said he left for Malaysia in the late 1980s and returned in the early 1990s, having met an older brother who gave him religious guidance.
He reportedly studied at an Islamic school in southern Malaysia where two other suspects – Imam Samudra and his older brother Mukhlas – and detained Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir are all said to have taught.
Amrozi was said to have plotted the bombing with another suspect, Imam Samudra, and to have met him in Bali six days before the bombing.
Along with Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, Amrozi put forward an unsuccessful appeal in 2006 against execution by firing squad, arguing that beheading was more humane.
In October 2008, he warned that there would be “retribution” if he were executed. The execution was carried out on 8 November 2008.
Imam Samudra, an Indonesian computer expert, was sentenced to death in September 2003 for his part in organising the Bali attacks, and executed by firing squad alongside Amrozi and Mukhlas.
During the trial, he thanked prosecutors for demanding the death sentence, saying it would bring him close to God.
![]() Born January 1970
From Tasikmalaya, West Java
Computer expert
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Imam Samudra, who also operated under the aliases of Fatih, Fat, Kudama, Abdul Aziz, Abu Umar and Heri, was described by police as the bombing “field commander”.
During his trial, prosecutors said he chose the target and led planning meetings.
They said he stayed behind in Bali for four days after the attack, allegedly to monitor how the police investigation began.
An engineer with a university education, police claimed that he learned how to make bombs in Afghanistan.
He was also suspected of involvement in a string of church bombings across Indonesia in 2000.
Giving evidence at the separate trial of Indonesian Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, Imam Samudra said bombings were part of jihad.
He quoted a verse from the Koran as saying: “Fight in the path of Allah against people who are fighting Muslims.”
Asked about Christians who died in attacks, he replied: “Christians are not my brothers.”
Imam Samudra denied any connection with the regional militant group Jemaah Islamiah.
In 2004, he published an autobiography – entitled “I Fight Terrorists” – justifying his role in the attacks and describing his time fighting in Afghanistan.
Mukhlas, also known as Ali Ghufron, admitted involvement in the Bali attack, but denied that he played a direct role. He claimed he just gave the bombers religious guidance.
![]() Taught at an Islamic school
Older brother of Amrozi
Alleged operations chief of JI
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He was found guilty of being the overall co-ordinator of the attacks on 2 October 2003 and was executed on 8 November 2008.
The Indonesian court judges said the charges against him were “legally and convincingly proven”, there were no mitigating circumstances and he deserved the maximum sentence of death by firing squad.
Prosecutors had argued that the Islamic teacher, then 43, chaired the preparatory meetings for the attacks, channelled funds to finance it, and approved the targets.
Mukhlas had told a Jakarta court at the earlier trial of Abu Bakar Ba’asyir that he had taken over from Hambali as the operations chief of regional militant group Jemaah Islamiah, which wants to set up a pan-South East Asian Muslim state.
He said he went to Pakistan in 1989, met Arab mujahideen there, and joined them in Afghanistan.
Asked by a judge if he knew Osama Bin Laden, who also served in Afghanistan, Mukhlas said: “Yes, I know him well”, but denied Bin Laden had any part in the Bali attacks.
At one point he told the court: “I wish all the world could be one Muslim country.”
His younger brother, Amrozi, was said to have described Mukhlas as an inspiration to him, and has told police how he received religious guidance from him.
Idris
![]() Born around 1968
Logistics expert
Said he asked God for forgiveness after the attack
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Idris, alias Jhoni Hendrawan or Gembrot, admitted taking part in both the Bali attacks and the Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta in August 2003.
However, he was only found guilty of the Marriott attack at the end of his trial on 24 August, and cleared of the Bali bombings.
This was because the court decided a recent ruling on a special terror law rushed into legislation after the Bali attacks meant it could not be used retrospectively to prosecute him for his part in the Bali bombings.
He was described by police as one of the five people who planned the Bali attacks. They said he played a key logistics role, acting as a link between the planners and the field operatives.
He was also accused of gathering funds for the attack, and of organising transport and accommodation for the bombers in the days leading up to the bombings.
Giving evidence in the trial of Mukhlas, Idris said he had detonated the smallest of the Bali bombs – that which exploded near the US consulate, and did not kill anybody – by mobile telephone.
He was arrested in June 2003 after allegedly robbing a bank.
Police said he was counting the money when arrested, and that the cash would have been used for further terrorist attacks.
![]() Aged 33
Fought in Afghanistan in 1990s
Said he helped build bomb
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Ali Imron was found guilty on 18 September 2003 of planning the Bali attacks and sentenced to life in prison.
He is the younger brother of Mukhlas and Amrozi, but unlike his brothers, he expressed remorse for the Bali attacks.
Throughout his trial he appeared in court in a Western-style suit and sat quietly as evidence was read.
He did not contest the charges against him, and co-operated with police.
Shortly after his arrest in January, Ali Imron took part in a police news conference in which he demonstrated how he and others assembled the bombs.
He said he felt sorry for the families of the victims, but that the US and its allies were legitimate targets.
Ali Imron was accused of helping a fugitive Malaysian, Dr Azahari, to build the bomb which destroyed the Sari club, from chemicals and TNT placed inside plastic boxes in a van they parked outside the club.
He was also charged, along with Idris, of teaching a suicide bomber how to detonate an explosives-stuffed vest which exploded in Paddy’s Bar across the road from Sari Club.
Dr Azahari Husin, a Malaysian, was killed during a raid on a villa in eastern Indonesia by anti-terror police in November 2005.
![]() Born around 1957
Malaysian university lecturer
Supervised the bomb making
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A married father of two, Azahari was alleged to be Jemaah Islamiah’s top bomb-making expert and said by some to be a fanatic, ready to die for his cause.
He had evaded capture at least twice, sometimes escaping only minutes before police arrived.
Azahari had studied in Australia for four years and gained a doctorate from Britain’s University of Reading, before becoming a university lecturer in Malaysia.
He was believed to have given bomb making classes to JI militants and to have issued precise instructions on how the massive car bomb used at the Sari club was to be manufactured.
As well as technical bomb making expertise, he was alleged to have been a key figure at the JI planning meeting which selected Bali as a target.
Azahari’s death was said to have been a major setback for Jemaah Islamiah, but some Indonesian security officials were disappointed he was not captured alive to face questioning about the organisation.
Dulmatin
![]() Born 1970
Javanese technician
Allegedly helped build bombs
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Dulmatin, a Javanese electronics expert who was one of the main planners of the bombings, was shot dead during a raid by Indonesian security forces in Jakarta in March 2010.
He was suspected of having worked alongside Azahari Husin to assemble the massive car bomb, as well as the explosives vest used by a suicide bomber who attacked the nearby Paddy’s Bar. Police say he triggered the Sari bomb using his mobile phone.
He was believed to have fled to the southern Philippines in 2003 to avoid arrest. The Philippine authorities suspected he was involved in training and advising other militants at secret camps, including members of the radical separatist group, Abu Sayyaf.
The US had offered a $10m reward for Dulmatin’s capture.
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Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4318666.stm
BBC, 3/10/10
Dulmatin, also known as Joko Pitono and nicknamed Genius, is widely believed to have been a senior member of the shadowy Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI).
Accused of helping plan and execute the bomb attacks in Bali in 2002, he had long been on Indonesia’s most wanted list.
A US offer of a $10m reward for information leading to his death or arrest indicates just how influential officials believe him to be.
Washington gave the same amount of money to Thailand in 2003, for its part in the arrest of Hambali – dubbed by the Central Intelligence Agency as the “Osama Bin Laden” of South East Asia.
There will be widespread relief at his death at the hands of Indonesian security forces in a raid near Jakarta on 9 March 2010.
Electronics expert
An Indonesian national born in central Java in 1970, Dulmatin originally worked as a car salesman.
The exact time he became interested in militant activity is unknown. But he is widely believed to have been the protege of Azahari Husin, one of the suspected masterminds of the 2002 Bali attacks and other bombings, who was killed by police in 2005.
The two Bali bombs killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists
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Dulmatin is not thought to have had any formal scientific training, but he appears to have gained significant technical skills, supposedly under the guidance of Azahari.
According to the Asia Pacific Foundation, Dulmatin was among the few JI militants able to assemble and explode large chlorate and nitrate bombs.
Dulmatin is also known to have attended a militant training camp in Afghanistan, returning to Indonesia in the mid 1990s, where he is thought to have been a regular visitor at an Islamic school in Solo founded by Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, the man alleged to be JI’s spiritual leader.
Ba’asyir was jailed for conspiracy over the 2002 Bali attacks, though he was later cleared of the offence.
Phone bomb
Dulmatin first became internationally known when named as a key suspect for the bomb attacks at two nightclubs in Bali on 12 October 2002.
A total of 202 people died in the attacks, many of them foreign tourists.
He is believed to have set off one of the bombs with a mobile phone, as well as making explosive vests for a suicide bomber and working alongside Azahari to assemble the massive car bomb used in the attacks.
Police issued this photo fit of Dulmatin after the 2002 Bali bombs
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Like Azahari and his suspected accomplice Noordin Mohamed Top, some analysts believe Dulmatin was also been involved in other bomb attacks in East Asia, but there is little direct evidence of this.
In fact, since 2003 he was believed to have been based in the southern Philippines, involved in training other militants at secret camps.
In 2005, he was thought to have been killed in a targeted air strike by the Philippine military, but the information turned out to be wrong.
In January 2007, the Philippines army said he had been injured during a gun battle between troops and Abu Sayyaf militants, though it was not clear if he was seriously hurt.
According to regional analysts, there are fears that Dulmatin and other JI operatives, notably Umar Patek, had formed an alliance with the Abu Sayyaf, the smallest and most radical of the Islamic separatist groups in the southern Philippines.
Abu Sayyaf was thought to be providing protection and assistance to JI, while JI provided bomb-making expertise and training in return.
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Intro: The “Genius of Jemaah Islamiah (JI)” has been on Indonesia’s most wanted list for years, and is thought to be one of the few members of the militant group able to assemble and explode sophisticated bombs. Security analysts say that while the killing is a significant coup for Indonesian authorities, and shows they are doing their job, it is also a troubling sign that terror networks in Indonesia could be seeing a possible rejuvenation. That would be a big concern for Indonesian police who had hoped that their efforts to stamp out terrorism in the archipelago over the last few years had been successful. Karishma Vaswani, BBC News, Jakarta
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8557561.stm
BBC, 3/10/10
The Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has confirmed that the man killed in a raid on the outskirts of Jakarta on Tuesday was the widely sought terror suspect Dulmatin.
He was allegedly one of the key members of the group which helped to plan and carry out the attacks in Bali in 2002, killing 202 people, mainly foreigners.
Nicknamed the “Genius of Jemaah Islamiah (JI)”, he has been on Indonesia’s most wanted list for years, and is thought to be one of the few members of the militant group able to assemble and explode sophisticated bombs.
The raid, which killed three militants including Dulmatin, is believed to have links to the group of alleged militants they captured last month in Aceh.
“He was the supplier of weapons and funding. He may have had even bigger roles in the group but for now that’s what we have evidence for,” Edward Aritonang, a spokesman for the Indonesian police told journalists.
“We have evidence of the weapons and ammunitions, and the flow of funding.”
But security analysts say that while the recent killing and capturing of alleged militants across Indonesia is a sign that police are doing their job, it also shows a possible rejuvenation of terror networks in the country.
Splinter groups?
“The key question is how the people who participated in the training camp got to Aceh,” says Sidney Jones, an Indonesian anti-terror expert with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG).
![]() The US has put a $10m (£7m) bounty on Dulmatin’s head
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“It looks like this group is a composite of people from a number of different militant groups like Jemaah Islamiah, Kompak and Darul Islam, who are frustrated with what they see as a lack of action within these groups. They’re more radical, and apparently see themselves as Indonesia’s al-Qaeda.”
Noor Huda, an independent security analyst agrees. He thinks that the raid on the alleged militant training camp in Aceh shows that there are elements within Indonesia who are still actively pursuing terrorist activities.
“How do you build a training camp in this remote part of Aceh without the support of others in the country, without weapons, without funding?” Mr Huda told the BBC.
“This shows that there are people who provided the money, people who housed the alleged militants, local networks that ideologically support the aims of this group.
“It is not clear what their goal is, but it’s clear they exist and are operating here.”
This news is potentially troubling for authorities who had hoped that their efforts to stamp out terrorism in the archipelago over the last few years had been successful.
‘Radical ideologies’
Indonesia’s anti-terror unit has been under pressure to show results in its efforts to clamp down on militancy ever since the July bombings in 2009.
Twin bombs were exploded in two luxury hotels in the heart of Jakarta, killing nine people, including two suicide bombers, and injuring dozens more.
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The deadly blasts, coming after four years of relative peace and quiet, shattered the image of Indonesia as a safe nation and rocked the confidence of the international community in the country’s ability to tackle terror.
Ansyaad Mbai, Indonesia’s anti-terror chief, says there is no easy solution to eliminating terror cells in the country but the Aceh group does not necessarily point to a rise in militancy in Indonesia.
“I’m not sure if this means there’s a rejuvenation of terrorist networks in the country, but it is evidence that terrorism is latent,” he told the BBC.
“As long as radical ideology exists, terrorists will always exist. The fact remains that there are still one or more figures in local mosques that are teaching radical ideologies and support terrorist activities.
“But we have to be careful not to brand these places as institutions that support terrorism, it’s just a few individuals within those institutions.”
Security will be one of the key issues discussed during a planned visit by US President Barack Obama to Indonesia later in March.
America has been positioning Indonesia as a modern Muslim nation, a country that has successfully managed to tackle terror threats in the past.
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Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8559054.stm
BBC, 3/10/10
“Indonesia has confirmed that police have killed Dulmatin, the last main suspect of the 2002 Bali bombings.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s announcement came a day after police said they had killed three suspected militants in two raids in Jakarta.
Officials had not immediately been able to confirm that Dulmatin, a suspected planner of the attacks which killed 202 people, was among those killed.
Mr Yudhoyono is on a three-day trip to neighbouring Australia.
The raids on Tuesday were said to be linked to an ongoing operation against militants in Aceh province that has brought a number of arrests.
Dulmatin was alleged to be a leading member of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) – a militant group with links to al-Qaeda – which has a long history of launching attacks in Indonesia and is blamed for the Bali attack.
Most wanted
“We can confirm that one of those that were killed was Mr Dulmatin, one of the top south-east Asian terrorists that we have been looking for,” Mr Yudhoyono said through an interpreter in a luncheon speech at Australia’s parliament….”
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Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/us/politics/09terror.html?th&emc=th
NYT
WASHINGTON — Leading Congressional Republicans are arguing that getting tough on terrorism means trying all foreign terrorism suspects before military commissions. But national security officials who served in the Bush administration say that taking away the criminal justice option would weaken the government’s hand.
Former counterterrorism officials are warning that the political debate has lost touch with the pragmatic advantages of keeping both the civilian and military systems available.
“This rush to military commissions is based on premises that are not true,” said John B. Bellinger III, a top legal adviser to the National Security Council and the State Department under President George W. Bush. “I think it is neither appropriate nor necessary to limit terrorism cases to either military commissions alone or federal trials alone.”
Among the problems with a commissions-only policy, they say, are that some nations will not extradite terrorism suspects or provide evidence to the United States except for civilian trials; federal courts offer a greater variety of charges for use in pressuring a defendant to cooperate; military commission rules do not authorize a judge to accept a guilty plea from a defendant in a capital case; and the military system is legally untested, so any guilty verdict is vulnerable to being overturned on appeal.
Kenneth L. Wainstein, who was assistant attorney general for national security in the Bush administration, said, “Denying yourself access to one system in favor of the other could be counterproductive.”
“I see the benefit of having both systems available,” Mr. Wainstein said. “That’s why I applauded the Obama administration when, despite expectations to the contrary, they decided to retain military commissions. It’s good to have flexibility.”
Supporters of military commissions contend that the foreign terrorists are enemy combatants who should not be treated like common criminals. They argue that critics are exaggerating any problems with commissions while overlooking their advantages.
The Republican line on military commissions has hardened after an outcry over the administration’s decision to send to a civilian court the cases of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of planning the Sept. 11 attacks, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound jet on Christmas.
Conservatives, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, have sought to attack Mr. Obama as soft on terrorism and unwilling to treat Al Qaeda as a wartime enemy rather than a criminal target.
But Mr. Obama has undertaken several hard-line policies in national security matters — including sending more troops to Afghanistan, increasing missile strikes on militants from Predator drones in Pakistan, continuing to imprison some detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, without trials and using military commissions to prosecute some terrorism suspects. Those policies, which have outraged some civil libertarians, have left the administration’s willingness to handle other terrorism cases in civilian courts as a rare remaining opportunity to try to draw a sharp political line between the Obama approach and that of Republicans.
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, has proposed a deal with the White House in which the Sept. 11 trial would be moved to a military commission and the administration would support new legislation clarifying rules for handling detainees, including when they would face civilian or military trials. In exchange, he has offered to provide some Republican support for closing the military prison at Guantánamo.
But Mr. Graham increasingly seems to stand alone within his party in keeping the door open to using some civilian trials.
Last week the party’s 2008 presidential nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, joined with Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, to file legislation that would ban civilian trials for foreign terrorism suspects, including those arrested inside the United States. Other Republicans, including the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, have echoed that view.
But national security officials from both the Bush and Obama administrations say such a ban would create major obstacles to swift punishment of terrorism suspects.
For instance, many European allies, including Britain, have been willing to extradite terrorism suspects only if they faced regular criminal trials, not military commissions. In some cases, extradition treaties require criminal trials.
The Bush administration repeatedly agreed to guarantee criminal trials in order to persuade European countries to extradite terrorism suspects. Currently, at least a half-dozen such suspects are awaiting extradition from Britain and the Netherlands, including two men sought in the 1998 East African embassy bombings and a Somali citizen accused of recruiting young Minnesota men to fight for the al-Shabaab militant group.
Current and former officials who want to preserve the option of civilian trials note that prosecutors routinely use a broad array of charges against terrorism defendants or their friends and families: obstruction of justice, false statements to investigators, passport and immigration fraud, firearms and arms trafficking offenses, and various computer and finance-related offenses.
In one recent major terrorism case, prosecutors coaxed Najibullah Zazi, accused of plotting to set off bombs on the New York City subway, to plead guilty and cooperate with investigators in part by indicting his father for obstruction of justice and threatening similar charges against his mother.
Such charges against relatives could not be brought in the military system. But proponents of the military commissions system argue that military prosecutors could gain such leverage anyway by working with civilian prosecutors.
Supporters of the McCain-Lieberman proposal rebut other criticisms of the measure. They say that because Congress overhauled military commission rules last year to increase defendants’ rights, the United States might be able to persuade foreign countries to extradite suspects to military tribunals.
Even though commissions do not provide for guilty pleas in capital cases, the supporters say, a defendant could stipulate to the military court during a brief trial that he committed an offense, accomplishing much the same goal.
Juan C. Zarate, who served as deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism to Mr. Bush from 2005 to 2009, does see value in the military tribunals. But he still argued that the government would hamstring itself by outlawing civilian terrorism trials.
“We shouldn’t inadvertently handcuff ourselves by taking this tool completely out of our tool kit,” Mr. Zarate said.
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