Morrocan Man Sentenced on Terror Charges, AP/Yahoo, 08/19/2005
German court convicts 9/11 suspect, UPI/WorldPeaceHerald, 08/19/2005
This is an interesting case of Munir Motassadeq, a Moroccan-born German
man who's accused of assisting the 9/11 hijackers. It brings up a lot
of issues from how the US interacts with foreign courts, in this case
German, to how the US's concerns for information secrecy might have
freed this guy and on to the efficacy, in general, of the legal
system's prosecution of terrorism. I follow a bunch of this
stuff, but I comment
very little, unfortunately.
For example, Motassadeq was convicted of 'assisted
murder' in 02/2003 and given 15 years - a sentence which was overturned
by appeal and he was freed. Freed? I'd have thought the US
would've wanted this guy, at the very least, in Gitmo pronto, but free
he was for about a year. Another Moroccan, Abdelghani Mzoudi, a friend of
Motassadeq, was acquitted in a seperate trial (with identical charges) in 02/004.
Free. The prosecutor's request for appeal for Mzoudi was thrown
out.
There were various reports of the levels of political
pressure and non-pressure to have Motassadeq retried, as he has been, as well
as accusations (by the German prosecutors) that the US wasn't being
forthcoming enough to convict Motassadeq. International
cooperation on terrorism, people, please? Kuno Boese, a terrorism
expert at a Berlin university said "That's good. We can't be the
laughing stock of our EU neighbors any longer."
Found guilty of belonging to a terrorist cell, Motassadeq was found
innocent of over 3,000 counts of being an accessory to murder. Whether
there's an appeal, how this case affects Germany's legal
system and other legal implications for prosecuting terrorism are still
open questions.
Spain is currently trying 24 Syrian-born Spanish men accused of being Al Qaeda members (
It's Liberty vs. Security in Spanish Terror Trial,
LA Times, 08/10/2005), 3 of whom are accused of assisting in 9/11, with
a verdict to appear in September. Some info and key people in
this trial: Pedro Rubira, Spain's lead prosecutor; Jacinto Gil, a
defense attorney; investigating judge Baltasar Garzon; key defendant,
Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, alleged head of the Spanish Al Qaeda cell,
'Soldiers of Allah'; co-defendant Driss Chebli - Barakat & Chebli
are accused of arranging a 07/16/2001 planning meeting w/ Mohd Atta in
Spain and having taken video tape of the WTC; co-defendant Taysir
Alouni, an Al Jazeera reporter. Spain has a max of 40 years prison time
for terrorist activites and no death penalty - the prosecutors are
seeking sentences totalling tens of thousands of years.
Further, last month the EU put into effect a Europe-wide arrest warrant
for Al Qaeda suspects. Good, right? Germany found it
unconstitutional and let Mamoun Darkanzali, a Syrian-born German, go
free from the extradition Spain sought for the trial mentioned above. (
EU: Commission says Europe-Wide Arrest Warrant Still Valid,
AKI, 07/18/2005) Darkanzali was accused of being a member of a
terrorist cell and "providing logistics support and financing the
network,
including the purchase of a cargo vessel that he and two others bought
in December 1993 for its leader Osama bin Laden." Free.
In the aftermath of the "Non/Nein" and Heard Round the World, it seems like there's some passive agressive rage going on with regards to the adoption of the Euro. There's been a call for the return of the Dutch Guilder and the Italian Lira as well as some pouting by Luxembourg, current holders of the rotating EU presidency (it changes every 6 months).
Both the Dutch and the Italians are ticked about the Euro-induced inflation they've had to endure since the switch to a single currency.
"Wouldn’t it be better perhaps to return, temporarily, at least to a system of double circulation (of both the euro and lira)?"
- Roberto Maroni, Italian Welfare Minister (
Times Online)
The Germans, who're huge EU supporters and have approved the failed EU Constitution, gave this retort: 'Going back to the deutschmark is not an option,' German finance ministry spokeswoman said. (
Forbes)
Frits Bolkestein, former EU single market commissioner, told Dutch television last week that he now regretted giving up the guilder, the symbol of Dutch trading success. (
Telegraph)
Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister, said he'd resign if his country votes no on their EU Constitution referrendum, July 10th (
Telegraph) -
"As a result of the referendums, the euro is weakened. What helps the economy for the moment could in the long term become a burden," he said. "It is a question of basic decency towards the voters of Luxembourg. If there is a ’no’, it is not the people who have to quit. It is up to me to go." (
Times Online)
Not too much to say about this one, the news reports say it all: France, a founding member of the EU, votes no on adopting the EU Constitution. Euro,
mais naturellement, but
non to sociopolitical hugging. The Dutch, today, will also say no to it. It's pretty clear that while the EU knows that they need to band together economically to compete with ASEAN and the US, they're still bigoted people who'll eat their own before losing their socialist ways to take one for their team or allowing Turkey into the EU.
Over the weekend I had the opportunity to speak to a new friend, a Swede, who didn't think it was a big deal that France said no (although the rebounding US Dollar says otherwise - this'll be a short rebound, too) since his take was that they'll simply make a few edits and get consensus next time around. I tend to agree with him, even though the pro-yes noise and the analysis claimed that it would simply be too difficult to make changes and get them re-approved by the countries that have already ratified the EU Constitution. Although I agree with that, too, in the end, it comes out to be a wash: The EU Constitution will be (and is) a sign of how hamstrung and ineffective the EU is by their insistance on consensus. Their "great experiment" (as American Representative Democracy is often called) has fizzled in the test tube. The ones that voted yes (Austria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain) look like chumps and the ones that vote no look like the wicked, mustachio-twirling bad guys that they are.
With that said, it's sad that the US's largest trading partner and largest "ally" continues to prove that it'd rather dither than do. Some percentage of the vote may've been anti-American or at least anti-Capitalist - are we supposed to be reaffirmed in looking out only for ourselves? I think that's definately part of the message Europe is sending to us. (France, in particular, who's a staunch advocate of the idea of an EU that's on par with America, loses out with the failure of the EU Constitution but quickly gives itself points for appointing de Villepin Prime Minister.)
The markets, as mentioned, are sending the US Dollar on a high ("
Euro Slides to Eight-Month Low Vs. Dollar, AP/yahoo) and dropping the US 10 year bond prices to beneath 4%. That's due to France saying "non" - quite a vote of no-confidence for the Euro. I expect this to be temporary financial schadenfreude.
Edit:
Euro vs. Dollar Chart, BBC.
"An exit poll broadcast by state-financed NOS television said the constitution failed by a vote of 63 percent to 37 percent, an even worse defeat than the 55 percent "no" vote in France's referendum Sunday." -
Dutch Voters Reject EU Constitution, AP/sfgate - that's a lot, people, especially when they didn't think more than 40% would turn out.
It's still "Non!" to the EU constitution in France with their vote right around the corner. The Dutch, on the other hand (whose vote is on June 1st) are going to say "Ja" even if it takes two votes (and they're currently leaning towards No).
BBC's EU Constition: Where Member States Stand is a good summary.
Reuters: “Metro newspaper showed 62.3 percent of respondents who have decided how to vote oppose the treaty.” That vote's going to happen on 05/29.
That's up from the Metro newspaper 03/15 poll, 57.8%. Salut!
Tim Lehmann, Assistant Director of PNAC thinks it's due to the Turkey issue (Weekly Standard).
It'll be Europe's just desserts (flan, probably) if France bails on the 500+ page Constitution, authored by one of France's former Presidents. (Recall, good Citizens, that ours is about 11 pages.)
Three guesses as to who said that. Me, good guess, but wrong. Jack? Also good guess, but still wrong. Yes, that's right,
Jacques Chirac. Yesterday, the Head Cheese went on tv with a townhall style meeting in order to try to convince the country that they should vote "Oui!" in the upcoming May 29th referrendum for France's acceptance of the European Constitution. Seems like his future threats are more of a slow-to-the-party realization of France's actual status in the world. In the "Non!" camp are about 53%-55% of polled voters in France and Chirac's own party, the "Union for a Popular Majority." Sad times for one of the founders of the EU.
Greece's parliment is voting on Tuesday (04/19/2005) to see if it'll join the four other countries that have approved the EU Constitution (Lithuania, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy) [according to CNN.com... I thought Spain had also ratified it? Maybe that was just the "Si!" referrendum which needs to be formally approved by their socialist government. I'll check into that.]
The Economist has a rather pithy analysis (
Can the constitution be saved?, 04/15/2005) of what'd happen if France says no on the 29th which highlights the utter bureaucratic morass that can happen when things are decided by committee. In a way, it's the height of Democracy, stagnation of decision at a governmental level that allows for the third and fourth tiers of society to function.
Continuing on
my European Constitution watch...
EU in Tactical Retreat to Save French Referendum, ABC News
Is France planning on saying "no" to the
EU Constitution on May 29th?
Poor Jacques Chirac. European Commissioner buddies "have rushed to the rescue of President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday in a bid to save a knife-edge French referendum on the EU constitution by retreating on a disputed bill to open up the services sector" because apparently the idea of opening cross-border competition to local services, "from plumbers to architects" is making the "no" camp all a-twitter. Seems as if the "minority" that are planning on voting "no" also take issue with Turkey's eventual membership into the EU.
This should be a good one to watch. Even better is that one poll calls the "no" voters a "minority" and two others in
Le Figaro show the that the majority (52%) would say "no" to the constitutional referrendum. [
"
Poll: France Likely to Nix EU Constitution," SFGate 03/20/2005] Further deliciousness is that 52% of those polled didn't even think they were going to bother to vote. My prediction, less than 60% turnout in France. Sixty percent would be a respectable voting number in any democracy, though.
"The EU does not have a Plan B," noted Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka of the damage that a French "no" to the constitution would cause.
...
Socialist Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said: "We don't want to have a new underclass emerging in the labor market. We don't want to have workers coming to Sweden and living 10-15 together in a garage or in a small apartment."
... like what happens similarly here in America.
Meanwhile, Ireland's set up
a website to explain the European Constitution, in order to avoid the European ennui, er, referrenda, that's sweeping the continent.