Landmark al Qaeda trial collapses (AP/CNN) {19 freed in Yemen}

[eppur_se_muova]

Judge: 'Islamic Sharia law permits jihad against occupiers'

Saturday, July 8, 2006; Posted: 2:54 p.m. EDT (18:54 GMT)

SAN'A, Yemen (AP) -- The trial of 19 alleged al Qaeda members had been designed to showcase how serious Yemen was in the fight against terror. But the Islamic militants, accused of plotting to assassinate Westerners and blow up a hotel frequented by Americans, were all acquitted for lack of proof, the presiding judge ruled Saturday.

Prosecutors had failed to provide "adequate evidence that the defendants were plotting attacks against foreigners or planning to assassinate Americans in Yemen," the verdict said.

Critics say the decision points to the Yemeni president's bid to win the radical Islamic vote ahead of elections in September.

Several of the defendants did confess to having been in Iraq to fight U.S. troops there and had Iraqi stamps on their passport, the court heard. "But this does not violate law," the judge said.

"Islamic Sharia law permits jihad against occupiers," he said.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/08/yemen.militants.ap/index.html

[derby378]

1. You see, James Dobson? THIS is what theocracy looks like!

You may focus on your own butt now by sticking your head up inside it.

[Vidar]

2. It's been there for years.

[pinto]

3. I hope someone in Washington is listening...

Background: North Yemen became independent of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. The British, who had set up a protectorate area around the southern port of Aden in the 19th century, withdrew in 1967 from what became South Yemen. Three years later, the southern government adopted a Marxist orientation. The massive exodus of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis from the south to the north contributed to two decades of hostility between the states. The two countries were formally unified as the Republic of Yemen in 1990. A southern secessionist movement in 1994 was quickly subdued.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.exportinfo.org/worldfactbook/yemen_WFB.html&h=375&w=349&sz=33&tbnid=3n7oGhKPdLdTXM:&tbnh=118&tbnw=109&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmap%2Bof%2Byemen&start=2&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=2

[MadMaddie]

4. Nah....they never listen and they never learn...

until they are removed they will ocntinue to make the same mistakes over and over again....with more and more catastrophic results...

[pinto]

5. I don't know. Their ideological-based policies - which for the most part

have failed - seem to be wearing thin, with even the casual political observer.

[MadMaddie]

6. One can only hope....

[Rex]

7. Jihad against occupiers - that sounds like a far cry from

'being welcomed as liberators', like Cheney said before this war. As I remember it was a slam dunk, the people would throw rose petals at our feet. Where is all that Asshole Bush and Cheney? So this story kinda sounds like the Miami 7 - no evidence, but maybe intent.

[Just Me]

8. "Christian base",...."Islamic Sharia base" ---> BAH!

:banghead: