Today’s Terrorism News

Moussaoui Lets Conviction Stand

Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to conspiring in the 9/11 attacks, has let the deadline for an appeal of his conviction to the Supreme Court pass. An appellate court affirmed his conviction in January. His appointed attorneys told the appellate court that they let Moussaoui know about the possibility of a further appeal and that he didn’t give them permission to file the papers on his behalf.  They have now been given permission to sign off on the case. Moussaoui is in solitary confinement serving a life sentence. CNN, AFP, New York Times (January).

Court Inches Through 9/11 Test Case

In preparation for the trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, attorneys are in the midst of debating the questions to be included on a jury screening questionnaire. Ghailani, charged in connection with the U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, will be the first former Guantanamo detainee to face trial in a federal criminal court. The case is being seen as a possible forerunner of a trial of the alleged 9/11 plotters now being held at Guantanamo, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The Ghailani trial is scheduled to begin in Manhattan late next month.

U.S. Combat Troops Leave Iraq, 50,000 Support Troops Remain

Members of the U.S. Army’s 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division – the last U.S. combat troops in Iraq – crossed into Kuwait this morning. The Los Angeles Times rode with them on their convoy out. Fifty thousand support troops remain, and are scheduled to be withdrawn at the end of next year. The State Department is scheduled to take control in October 2011, although some experts say that the plan isn’t realistic and should be open for reconsideration upon request of the government of Iraq.  The State Department is planning to have 2,400 people stationed there, protected by 6,000 to 7,000 private guards, according to The New York Times. BBC, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times.

U.S. Citizens Increasingly Wrong About Obama’s Religion

According to a Pew Research Center Poll, 18% of people in the U.S. believe that President Obama is Muslim. Thirty-four percent (including less than half of the Democrats) said that he’s Christian, which is correct. The public is increasingly mistaken, as when he was inaugurated almost 50% of people said that he’s Christian and only 11% believed him to be Muslim. New York Times, Washington Post.

Former FBI Agent Says Park51 Opposition Threatens National Security

Ali Soufan, a former FBI supervisory special agent, argues at Forbes that the opposition to Park51 – the mosque and cultural center planned to be built two blocks from Ground Zero – threatens national security by reinforcing the mistaken impression, both at home and abroad, that the U.S. is at war against Islam rather than against al Qaeda. “When demagogues appear to be equating Islam with terrorism, it’s making young Muslims unsure about their place in the country,” he says. “It bolsters the message that radicalizers are selling: That the war is against Islam, and Muslims are not welcome in America.”

At The Daily Beast, Peter Beinart comments that the Republicans who oppose the development have turned their backs on George W. Bush’s respect for Islam, and that Democrats have folded up their ostensible principles in the face of political winds.

The Washington Post answers a set of frequently asked questions about the Park51 proposal, and talks to young Muslims in New York about what the community center would mean to them.

Floods in Pakistan Affect U.S. Security Strategy There

The devastating floods in Pakistan, which have left 20 million people homeless displaced, is forcing the U.S. to think about how to continue its strategic efforts to foster security while also taking account of the humanitarian crisis. Relief groups have had a difficult time raising funds to provide assistance there, although it is beginning to pick up.  “There is no relationship between the number of people in acute need of help and what has actually been provided in this first month,” the former U.N. official who led the response to the 2004 tsunami told The Washington Post. New York Times, AP (via New York Times), Washington Post.

At The New York Times Op-Ed page, Daniyal Mueenuddin discusses the impact of the damage on those who have lost their homes, and writes that “[i]t is as if a neutron bomb exploded overhead, but instead of killing the people and leaving their houses intact, it piled trees upon the houses and swept away the villages and crops and animals, leaving the people alive.”

Petraeus Discusses Goals in Afghanistan

In an interview with Wired‘s Danger Room blog, Gen. David Petraeus addressed the objectives of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, saying that “[t]he national security imperative for the United States and most [of] the troop-contributing nations is, of course, that Afghanistan does not once again become a sanctuary for transnational extremists, as it was before the 9/11 attacks” (with the second brackets in the original). He went on to say that “the only way to achieve that goal is to have an Afghanistan that can secure and govern itself.” A group of 40 experts known as the Afghan Study Group is assembling a report that will recommend that the U.S. rethink its strategy in Afghanistan to focus specifically on al Qaeda with a limited number of troops, according to The Huffington Post.

News stories compiled by the staff of the Center on Law and Security

What are we missing? Send a tip, link, or story to CLS@exchange.law.nyu.edu and we’ll credit you in TTN!