Did handlers botch Ressam's cooperation? (Seattle Times)

[icymist]

Sunday, May 8, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 a.m.




Did handlers botch Ressam's cooperation?

By Hal Bernton, Mike Carter and Maureen O'Hagan

Seattle Times staff reporters

In the spring before the 9/11 attacks, Ahmed Ressam, the would-be Millennium bomber of Los Angeles International Airport, began to talk about his life.

The Algerian offered an inside look at a journey that took him from Afghanistan terrorism camps to a Port Angeles ferry crossing, where he was caught trying to enter the United States in a sedan loaded with bomb-making materials.

Ressam poured out his story to Fred Humphries, a Seattle FBI agent who had helped piece together the government's case against him. In these sessions, three times a week for up to five hours at a time, Ressam painted a vivid picture of his life with a Montreal-based cell, terrorism "trade craft" learned in the camps, and the full or partial identities of more than 120 individuals he met along the way.

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Perhaps the sheer weight of confinement might have turned Ressam against his captors. But court documents and sources familiar with his treatment indicate that government actions and missteps contributed to Ressam's decision to stop talking:

• Early on, Ressam felt betrayed by Justice Department officials, who changed their stance on how long of a sentence they would recommend.

• In the weeks following 9/11, Ressam was harassed by inmates and guards who sought to humiliate him.

• Ressam was shaken by a change in his government handlers in September 2001, and he came to detest the interrogations.

(Much more)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002267309_ressam08m.html

[icymist]

1. Ressam's case raises questions about treatment of 'combatants'

Saturday, May 7, 2005 · Last updated 1:14 p.m. PT

Ressam's case raises questions about treatment of 'combatants'

By GENE JOHNSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SEATTLE -- Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian national caught on his way to bomb Los Angeles International Airport five years ago, was afforded all the rights of a U.S. citizen.

"Dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen who has been held for three years without charges, was not.

Ressam's case shows the legal system's capacity for handling terrorists and the Justice Department's ability to use the courts to get them to talk.

Padilla's does not.

The successful prosecutions of Ressam and, more recently, of Zacarias Moussaoui, the "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11 attacks, raise questions about the way the government has handled "enemy combatants" like Padilla and hundreds of others captured in the war on terror, many lawyers say.

(More)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Ressam%20and%20Padilla

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. These clowns in the Bush administration are such klutzes

they'd fuck up a wet dream.