Every little thing they do is magic
Here’s a little something to cheer you up for the weekend:
A British man wrongly charged with training the pilots in the Sept. 11 attacks and imprisoned for six months can claim damages from the British government, a British court ruled Thursday. […]
Wait, wait, don’t get too giddy yet — this gets better:
Mr. Raissi was picked up by the police at his home near Heathrow Airport 10 days after the [September 11] attacks at the request of the United States, the court noted. During the seven days he was questioned by the British police, an F.B.I. agent observed “from a remote location via a television link,” the court said.
When the seven-day holding period was up, the United States sought to extradite Mr. Raissi after hastily filing what the court called “trivial” charges: failure to note on his pilot’s license application that he had had knee surgery, and that, at the age of 19, he had been arrested for stealing a briefcase at Heathrow and given a false name at the time. [Emphasis added]
Is there any way we can add anything to that? Sadly, yes!:
Mr Raissi, they said, was the “lead instructor” for the hijackers. The courts were told there was evidence that he falsified flight logs to hide the fact he trained Hanjour. Videotape had been found of Hanjour and Mr Raissi together. A notebook said to belong to Abu Doha, a major terrorist suspect, that had been found in London contained Mr Raissi’s phone number.
One by one, over the course of ten court hearings, Mr Raissi’s solicitor proved that the allegations and the evidence to support them were false, if not fabricated. …
In February 2002, Mr Raissi was released from Belmarsh jail. But neither the British nor the American authorities were prepared to say they had been mistaken. He remained a suspected terrorist, unable to travel outside Britain except to Algeria.
Well, ain’t that a kick in the head.
But he’s the exception to the rule, right? I’m sure every single guy we’ve kept locked up and tortured for years in Gitmo, without access to attorneys or any kind of defence, is a bona fide terrorist, right?
Right?
I mean, we’re the good guys, right?
Even if he wins compensation, which he probably will, he is still blacklisted as a pilot and has no means of support. Nice, eh?
I don’t get it. All terrorist suspects are guilty, otherwise, why would they be suspects?
Oh god, my fragile little world is coming crashing down! Up is down, black is white, cats and dogs having gay interspecies marriages and raising little bastard cogs!
He should have been waterboarded first. Would have saved a lot of money.
I don’t understand — are you people saying that if this guy didn’t do anything that they said he did, that somehow this makes him innocent?
Why, you just want the terrorists to walk right in here and take over with an entire army of completely uninvolved and nonactive co-conspirators.
We have to falsely imprison them over there before they force us to falsely imprison them over here.
Well, ain’t that a kick in the head.
Better than a shot to the head lest we forget the Brazilian electrician late for his subway train.
George Bush: international terrorist.
Indeed, Mr. Raissi is central to our point.
Every little thing they do is magic
It is not a big enough umbrella. We must expand it to make sure trick-knee tricksters like Raissi never, ever get us wet.
Yes, go ahead, just blather on about the rough deal terrorists get. Meanwhile, the REAL Americans will keep on keeping you safe, whether you deserve it or not. We know where your countertops are, traitor, and we’ll be watching.
Gee, you’d think God would have said something…
From the article’s comments:
Who can I sue over the years of PTSD and suicidal depression I have suffered since experiencing 9/11. Since that fateful day in New York I have been through my own hell; my career has been interrupted and my family life is in turmoil. 9/11 triggered such a dreadful time for me that it is only now that I am slowly and with much help from doctors finding my feet again. Who can I sue?
David Turnbull, London, United Kingdom
How’s that for cynicism motherfuckers! Because watching the towers fall on tv that morning is entirely comparable to being wrongly incarcerated for 6 months and having your life destroyed publicly.
“Who can I sue over the years of PTSD and suicidal depression I have suffered since experiencing 9/11. Since that fateful day in New York I have been through my own hell; my career has been interrupted and my family life is in turmoil. 9/11 triggered such a dreadful time for me that it is only now that I am slowly and with much help from doctors finding my feet again. Who can I sue?”
I would say, off hand, your parents for raising a fragile little simp with zero mechanisms for coping with stress. But I’m no lawyer.
“Who can I sue over the years of PTSD and suicidal depression I have suffered since experiencing 9/11. Since that fateful day in New York I have been through my own hell; my career has been interrupted and my family life is in turmoil. 9/11 triggered such a dreadful time for me that it is only now that I am slowly and with much help from doctors finding my feet again. Who can I sue?”
Denis Leary said he wanted to sue Dan Fobelberg for turning him into a pussy back in the 70s in the middle of the sexual revolution. Leary says that thanks to Fogelberg and James Taylor, he didn’t get a blowjob until he was in his 30s. I suppose you could try that. Better yet, sue Bush and Blair for turning you into a whimpering frightened child with their all-fear all-the-time campaign, interspersed with liberal doses of chest-thumping.
Good luck with that.
Meanwhile, the REAL Americans will keep on keeping you safe, whether you deserve it or not.
Asshole, the absolute last thing we want is people like you keeping us “safe”. We’d be a lot safer if you did not exist.
Sue ATT. They deserve it for illegally spying on us.
We know where your countertops are, traitor, and we’ll be watching.
Do you know where my cupboards and toaster are too? Because they’re doing just as much protecting as you.
Back to the post–fabricating evidence. I’m so ashamed of what’s going on. How can people cheer for the destruction of justice?
How can people cheer for the destruction of justice?
Because their team is winning.
The dead Vince “Winning isn’t everything — it’s the only thing’ — Lombardi has accomplished from beyond the grave what the living Jeff Davis, Hitler and Stalin each could not do — destroy the Republic.
Throw away that moldy old Constitution and get a big, bright foam “We’re #1” finger.
And I think we all know which finger that would be . . .
I’m assuming Svensker is parody trolling.
Mr. London Calling has got to be a spoof. Otherwise we’d have to believe
Fun n’ games with the IRA = Not traumatic.
Lockerbie = Not traumatic.
Underground bombings = Not traumatic.
But a disaster 3,000 miles away = OMG I NEED A SHRINK!!
I was going to say the same. He’s obviously not British.
It gets even better. If he had been arrested after March 2003 he would not even have been able to contest the evidence presented to his extradition hearing by the US following a change to the Treaty. Because… the US doesn’t need to provide any evidence any longer.
Previously the US has to provide evidence:
“sufficient according to the law of the requested Party… to justify the committal for trial”
Now they have to provide:
“a statement of the facts of the offense(s)”
(i.e. the facts of the allegations, not evidence to support the allegations).
A reduction in requirements which does not go both ways. The UK still has to (rightly) provide evidence in order for an extradition request to be upheld.
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/jul/25ukus.htm
You guys are so full of it. First of all, he wouldn’t have been arrested if he wasn’t guilty. England doesn’t arrest innocent people. Natch. Secondly, just because a court said he’s innocent doesn’t make him so: what if he just had a Svengali for a lawyer and could go all nambly-pambly on the jurors until they accquited?
Do you really want scary British doods all up in your city planning some sort of fish ‘n’ chips catastrophe?
Uh, it’s entirely possible that Mr. Turnbull worked at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, had his career wiped because the firm at which he worked was crushed under a pile of rubble, and had to emigrate back to London.
That being said, there’s a whole buttload of New Yorkers for whom 9/11 is an everyday thing, and who still voted against Bush in 2004 because they believe that one wrong does not justify the other.
Do you really want scary British doods all up in your city planning some sort of fish ‘n’ chips catastrophe?
Do they come with those incredibly hot british chicks with the long legs and long, silky hair and the sparkling blue eyes and a light dusting of cheek-freckles, with that sexy accent and dry, aloof sense of the absurd?
I’m sorry, what were we talking about?
mikey
It’s said that hysteria over 9/11 and terrorism increases the further away you travel from New York. People in small towns in the middle of nowhere expect Al Qaeda to blow up the local mall at any moment, while New Yorkers, including people who lost friends and relatives in the attacks, just get with their lives.
D. Sidhe said,
February 16, 2008 at 17:31
I’m assuming Svensker is parody trolling.
All right, Sidhe, I’m on your toaster and countertops now, too.
what if he just had a Svengali for a lawyer
Well yeah, if he he had a Svengali but where are you going to find one these days? First they were overhunted, then their natural habitat was destroyed, then there was that chemical spill… its the same story everywhere. What’s left of the population has mostly scattered to the big cities and forgotten the old ways.
Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone…
Hey, you can mock my formica all you want, but lay off my freaking toaster. Our last housemate kept threatening to hurl my toaster out the window because it’s all shiny silver and got fingerprints on it and she liked her toaster instead. In an attempt to forestall toaster abuse, I created a god of household appliances and let him live in my toaster. When offered homemade chocolate chip cookies with orange extract instead of vanilla he will mysteriously fix our household appliances, though he seems to be ignoring my oven possibly because it won’t make the cookies right.
You mess with my toaster god at your peril, Svensker!
I hear you ploeg but you also point out why I can’t be fucked to take this guy seriously.
If he isn’t a spoof I’d like to gather everyone one else who survived the attacks on the WTCs and the Pentagon, line them up, and let them take turns smacking some sense into him.
Then the people of Iraq could have a go.
My toaster tried to commit a terrorist act once when it detonated a Frosted Pop Tart, sending flames dangerously close to the coffee maker.
I suspect an Al Queda cell at Nabisco.
I cannot be trusted to own a toaster. They have an amazing power over me. Inexpensive to replace, red-hot coils that heat up almost instantaneously and a mechanical timer? All in one 115 volt device?
I mean, if you can’t keep yourself dangerously entertained for hours, or at least until somebody calls the fire department, why, you just aren’t trying.
I make toast in the broiler…
mikey
Sacrifices must be made for the great GOP boogeyman-shortage crisis.
Of course, the sacrifices won’t be made by us GOOPers ourselves.
For that would not be the American way.
No, it is the poor suckers who must, alas, sacrifice.
For that is the American way.
He remained a suspected terrorist, unable to travel outside Britain except to Algeria.
Wait…what? What’s so special about Algeria?
Raissi is originally from Algeria and lives in London.
Wait…what? What’s so special about Algeria
Also, if he goes back to Algeria, I believe he has to join the army, or get tortured, or some such.
The poor guy’s story reminds me a bit of the story of the “Magic Passport” which supposedly came through the events of 9/11 unscathed, found by some anonymous individual who turned it over to a cop on the street, proof of one of the terrorists involvement in the crime…..save for the fact that the guy who’s passport it was (and who is still on the FBI’s list of the participants in that crime) turned out to be alive and well, with no connection to 9/11 whatsoever.
Funny, isn’t it? The guy’s name was on the list of highjackers that, by sheer coincidence, was in Atta’s luggage, a suitcase that didn’t make the flight and contained most of the “evidence” that we were given in those early days. His and 4-5 other names (that are still on the FBI list) were on the paper that Atta supposedly made naming the highjackers, fellows who turned up alive and well, again, with no connection. You’ve got to wonder who that mystery citizen was “just doing his civic duty” by turning over the “Magic Passport” to a street cop.
Of course, the whole “Magic Passport” story faded away (after it had done it’s job of incriminating Muslims for the “new Pearl Harbor”) when the discovery that it was bogus *should’ve* been a huge story. The bogus accusations on the FBI website still stand, despite the fact that the agncy knows that 5-6 of their “terrorists” are ordinary working stiffs, guys with no connection to terror, guys that are still alive. No wonder Bush/Cheney fought so hard against an investigation of 9/11. No wonder they refuse to release *so* much information that has been requested of them.
When will this ever become a big story?
You’ve got to wonder who that mystery citizen was “just doing his civic duty” by turning over the “Magic Passport” to a street cop.
Bill O’Reilly.