Judge Susan Crawford dismissed, without prejudice, all charges against Saudi-national Abd al-Rahim Al-Nashiri. Al-Nashiri was being held at the Guantánamo Bay Prison since he was accused of and admitted to-being the terrorist mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole, which killed and injured numerous American soldiers. In fact, seventeen US sailors died on 12 October 2000 when al-Qaeda suicide bombers steered a boat full of explosives into the Cole when it was at a port on the coast of Yemen. Before you start writing complaint letters to the government, the phrase, “without prejudice,” means that the charges held against Al-Nashiri can be opened again at a later date. For those of you thinking that justice will be served, I wouldn’t get your hopes up quite yet.
First off, Al-Nashiri has been in prison since the Clinton administration. You read right; it has been over eight years since the bombing occurred and Al-Nashiri still has yet to be convicted of his crime. The bombing occurred right at the end of President Clinton’s term and the Bush administration never whole-heatedly pursued conviction of the al-Qaeda member because the incident did not happen during their watch. The timeliness of the case is definitely an issue and could factor into the decision about whether Al-Nashiri’s case will be opened again. Retired Navy Commander Kirk S. Lippold, who was the commanding officer of the Cole when it was attacked in Yemen, said, “We’ve already waited eight years for justice. Justice delayed is justice denied.”
Also, with Guantánamo closing down, per President Obama’s orders, Al-Nashiri will have to be held in a federal prison, without any unmissable evidence against him. The fact he could be set free if charges are re-opened and nothing can be proved is extremely upsetting, especially to the families who lost loved ones in the bombing. Gary Swenchonis, who lost his son Gary Swenchonis Jr. in the Cole bombing wrote a letter to President Obama stating his feelings on the closing of Guantánamo, “It will be one more tragedy in a long list of tragedies in the Cole attack… Our fear is if the terrorists are tried here in our federal courts, they will go free.” President Obama was willing to discuss his decision to close Guantánamo with some of the people that were hurt by the decision most—the families of the victims of the USS Cole and of the World Trade Center attacks. Some people were skeptical of the decision but willing to listen to Obama’s reasoning, like Jacqueline Saunders who was widowed during the USS Cole attack. She said this about the meeting with Obama, “I had a calm, peaceful assurance that he had made the correct decision. He wants accurate charges so that when they go to trial, justice will prevail.”
The meeting with Obama also convinced John Clodfeller, who went into the meeting with negative thoughts. After the meeting Clodfeller expressed that he felt optimistic about President Obama’s method of handling the controversial issue. Other families of victims did not meet the news quite as smoothly. Sarah Gauna Esquivel, mother of one of the victims of the Cole attack, was not even contacted about the meeting between Obama and the victim’s families. She feels like Obama just forgot about her and her family after they heard about the meeting in Washington on the nightly news. Albert Ramirez, stepbrother of Tim Gauna, feels left in the dark about the whole incident. He expressed his disbelief and anger by pointing out that “someone…admitted to masterminding what happened on the Cole,” and yet “they are dropping the charges? What’s going to happen with him? If they release him, where did the justice go?” Another person who was upset with the decision was Jim Riches, whose son was killed at the World Trade Center attack. On February 14, he said that his “concern is these guys killed my son and I’d like to see justice served on them.” Riches went on to say that he would “like to see Guantánamo stay open but my main concern is that we get the justice we deserve.” Even some political unrest has come to the forefront over President Obama’s decision to close Guantánamo. Lamar Smith, Texas representative and ranking representative on the House Judiciary Committee states, “Justice for the families and the victims has already been delayed too long.” Smith wants to be sure that the U.S. is “careful not to send a message to our enemies abroad that we are letting up in our prosecution of the war on terror.” He also contends that “the Obama administration’s decision to close Guantánamo Bay was premature at best and dangerous at worst.”
The military charges against Al-Nashiri was the last active case at Guantánamo before all pending cases being held there were frozen for a three-month review period before any charges are brought up again. With over 245 cases being analyzed by the Obama administration, they will be very busy over the next few months. When the time period expires, decisions will have to be made on whether prosecutions will take place or if the alleged terrorists will be set free. Al-Nashiri’s case was made stronger, in his favor, when the CIA released a statement that he was one of the three inmates that was tortured through the use of ‘waterboarding’—a torture method used to simulate the feeling of drowning. After the CIA admitted to torturing Al-Nashiri, he made a statement that he only confessed to the planning the bombing because of the torture methods used by US interrogators, rendering this evidence inadmissible in non-military courts.
At the end of three months all will become clear as to the fate of Abd al-Rahim Al-Nashiri. Until then the victim’s families will have to continue waiting, as they have for eight years, to see if justice will be served. However with all of the time that has passed, the very little hard evidence, and the torture that Al-Nashiri experienced while being held in Guantánamo, there may not be enough to prove the al-Qaeda mastermind’s guilt in the murder of seventeen American lives.
Works Consulted:
http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1197231.html
http://www.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/president_barack_obama_meets_with_area_widow_others/8987/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/06/guantanamo-trial-halted-cole-obama
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first-100days/2009/02/06/families-cole-victims-worrywhite-house-meeting-window-dressing/
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