London bomber set up AQ camp in Oregon in 2002 - Ashcroft let him get away

[StefanX]

Asshat let Aswat get away

The Justice Department blocked efforts by federal prosecutors in Seattle in 2002 to bring criminal charges against Haroon Aswat, a suspect in the July 7 London bombings, according to a report in today's Seattle Times.

-- mcjoan at DailyKos, Sun Jul 24th, 2005 at 10:11:26 PDT (headline by ctkeith)

Aswat was allegedly involved in an al-Qaida effort to set up a terrorist-training camp in Bly, Oregon.

So a year after 9/11, Ashcroft was more concerned with covering up nude statues than going after suspected terrorists.

[Old and In the Way]

1. Totally bizarre.

They let real terrorists establish training camps in our country, but incarcerate innocent people with no links to AQ? WTF is going on with these people?

[havocmom]

3. Don't forget he caught Tommy Chong and nailed 12 hookers in the Big Easy!

Geeze, it's hard work avoiding relevant work by keeping busy with busting for bongs and making sure New Orleans is safe from consensual sex with money involved!

Plus, he probably had to make sure Liberty stayed covered by the drape he hung up.

[Yupster]

17. Reminds me of a book I read recently

Here's the link on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743470591/qid=1122269487/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-3113659-9314544

This guy was an American jihadi warrior who turned to be a CIA informant.

He suggested setting up a gunrange and weapons training camp in Arizona. His thinking was that every potential terrorist in the US would eventually file through his camp, and the US could get pictures and names of every one of them.

The Clinton administration considered his proposal but considered it too risky and turned him down.

Then he left the CIA too.

It's a pretty chilling book for those interested in the subject.

He became a Muslim in jail.

[DBoon]

2. Ashcroft was busy with more important things

arresting New Orleans prostitutes and sending Tommy Chong to federal prison.

[Frederik]

4. al-Qa'ida-related people

living and operating in the US have been protected by the upper echelons of the Justice Dept, including the 9/11 hijackers. This is why Sibel Edmonds is under a gag order, she discovered this whole underworld of protected drug trafficking, terrorism and illegal arms trading, including in nuclear materials, from wiretaps she was translating. The whole thing is connected to "no more than ten" well-known politicians and heads of federal agencies, whom Sibel has the names of.

[StefanX]

5. Gun-runners and drug-smugglers...

...running the world.

Imagine how much better the world would be if we could throw these ten or so criminal individuals in jail.

PS - I think Valerie Plame may have been onto this group of gun-runners and drug-smugglers. As mentioned on some very long DU threads earlier.

[Tommymac]

6. Good insight!

Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Frederik]

7. Certainly not impossible

regarding Plame. WMD was the field she was working in.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Your title is misleading

The camp was attempted in 1999. From the Seattle Times link:

But long before he surfaced as a suspect there, federal prosecutors in Seattle wanted to seek a grand-jury indictment for his involvement in a failed attempt to set up a terrorist-training camp in Bly, Ore., in late 1999. In early 2000, Aswat lived for a couple of months in central Seattle at the Dar-us-Salaam mosque.

It was the blocking of the charges that happened in 2002.

[StefanX]

9. Oops - He allegedly tried to set up camp in 99, Ashcroft let him go in '02

Thanks for catching that.

Still very bad for Ashcroft - letting an Al Qaida-related suspect go AFTER 9/11.

Weird. Almost as if they're trying to HELP our enemies.

[ClayZ]

10. ALMOST?

[sandnsea]

11. There was no evidence

This was all pretty lame to begin with, the very idea of a terrorist camp in Bly Oregon is hysterical. One would have to be a total idiot to try that. But there was no evidence. The only solution would have been to hold the guy under the Patriot Act, and then people would have been fighting for his release.

Kneejerkism doesn't help anything.

[Geek_Girl]

14. Can you point me to a link that says there was no evidence

because the article does not state that.

<snip>
At the time, however, federal prosecutors chose not to indict Aswat for reasons that are not clear. Asked why Aswat wasn't indicted, a federal official in Seattle replied, "That's a great question."
</snip>

[WhoWantsToBeOccupied]

12. We must coddle our "terrorist" stooges till they help us sow fear!

[roguevalley]

13. Bly, Oregon is my aunt's home town and its as big as a flea. They

had the ranch down from hers to raise sheep. None of the locals believed the FBI when they came. I doubt they still do.

[Lannes]

15. kick

Hopes this gets more coverage!

[The Traveler]

16. Typical Bushista crap

Stuff like this makes ya wonder ... maybe they are destroying this country's future ON PURPOSE! I am finding it more and more difficult to believe that this perfect storm of brewing disasters is the result of mere incompetence and ideological blindness.