Diplomatic cables on the Spanish Audienca Nacional Terrorist Judgments in the Abderrahaman and Madrid bombings cases

Good summary of the case in cable 06MADRID1914 from July 2006. The Spanish Supreme Court announced July 24  that it had annulled the six-year prison sentence handed down  in September by Spain’s National Court against accused  terrorist Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmed, known in the media as the  “Spanish Taliban.” Abderrahaman, a Spanish national captured in Afghanistan [...]

Al-Qaida terrorist’s appeal argues that Britain was complicit in his torture

The Guardian reports that a man convicted of serious terrorism offences is to launch an appeal against his conviction today on the grounds that the British government was complicit in the torture he suffered before being put on trial. Rangzieb Ahmed, 35, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, was convicted two years ago of directing a terrorist [...]

EU adopts action plan air cargo security

European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas set out a 3 recommentations on the EU’s response to the 30 October security alert, when viable explosive devices were found in cargo shipments originating from Yemen and transferring to US-bound flights at airports in Germany and the UK. The action plan can be summed up in three recommendations. 1. [...]

Canadian intelligence head criticized role of courts in anti-terrorism cases

Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Director Judd discussed domestic and foreign terror threats with Counselor of the State Department Cohen in Ottawa on 2 July 2008. In particular, he wasn’t very happy about the Canadian courts. Cable 08OTTAWA918 from Wikileaks’ Cablegate offers some insights: Director Judd ascribed an “Alice in Wonderland” worldview to Canadians and [...]

Kuwait Minister of Interior remedy for terrorists: ‘Let them die’.

During a February 2009 meeting in their ongoing dialog on US-Kuwait CT cooperation, Kuwaiti Minister of Interior Shaykh Jaber al-Khalid Al Sabah discussed with Ambassador US and Kuwaiti efforts to locate and apprehend terror financiers (including Mohammed Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Al-Ali, aka Jawad/Abu Umar), applauded improved liaison information exchange, expressed skepticism Kuwait would ever develop [...]