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Me
Moderate Poster
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 431
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 Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 7:57 pm Post subject: Can You Say Coercion? |
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http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060918-083122- 8058r
Terror suspect zips lip; fears retribution
| Quote: | LONDON, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- Claimed fear of retribution by Pakistani security agents has brought a temporary halt to terror trial proceedings in London.
Omar Khyam, accused with six others of plotting a bombing campaign in Britain, stopped testifying at the Old Bailey after saying his family in Pakistan had been threatened by Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Service Intelligence, or ISI. "I just want to say the ISI in Pakistan has had words with my family relating to what I have been saying about them," The Evening Standard quoted Khyam as telling the court Monday. "I think they (ISI) are worried I might reveal more about them, so right now ... the priority for me has to be the safety of my family so I am going to stop (testifying).
"I'm not going to discuss anything related to the ISI anymore, or to the evidence."
Khyam, said to be a member of an al-Qaida-related terror cell, was arrested in March 2004 after more than half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that could be used as an explosive was found in a London storage facility.
Khyam has denied charges of conspiracy to cause an explosion.
In earlier testimony he described how he had traveled to Pakistan to receive military training and how he had raised money through fraud for Islamists in Afghanistan. |
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Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
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| Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:59 pm Post subject: |
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This is very intriguing.
I read that the court was reconvening yesterday but no reports have surfaced so far.
What is a bit strange is that this chap I think is the principle wtiness and has been singing like a canary up until Monday.
I don't understand why he would be singing in praise of terrorism and then suddenly become reluctant. He seemed to be heading for self incrimination at least, quite happily it seemed, otherwise why volunteer all that terror stuff in evidence ?
Either he is lying about the ISI which would indicate he might be savvy to fake terror and has turned it around - doubtful but possible or it could be a defence tactic.
Or, if he is telling the truth then maybe certain intel outfit(s) don't want anymore to come out and are deliberately sabotaging the trial.
Interesting.
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The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
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Andrew Johnson
Mighty Poster
Joined: 25 Jul 2005
Posts: 1919
Location: Derbyshire
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| Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 9:28 pm Post subject: |
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Mark,
I think the points of your analysis show, the set up is perfect - it keeps people like us guessing what the truth is. And this seems to be the objective....
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Andrew
Ask the Tough Questions, Folks! |
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Me
Moderate Poster
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 431
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| Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 1:09 pm Post subject: |
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If you don't confess to something you didn't do, we will kill your family.
If you're country doesn't obey our orders, we will bomb you.
Same question, can you say coercion?
All blackmailed confessions will be televised, obedience under duress.
link
U.S. `threatened' Pakistan after 9/11
Told they'd be bombed `back to the Stone Age'
Musharraf insulted by demand for co-operation
| Quote: | Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says the United States threatened to bomb his country "back to the Stone Age" after the Sept. 11 attacks if he did not help America's war on terror.
The threat was delivered by Richard Armitage, then the deputy secretary of state, to Musharraf's intelligence director, the Pakistani leader told CBS-TV's 60 Minutes.
"The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, `Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,''' Musharraf said in the interview to be shown Sunday on CBS.
It was insulting, Musharraf said.
"I think it was a very rude remark.''
Musharraf said he reacted responsibly. "One has to think and take actions in the interests of the nation and that is what I did." |
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xmasdale
Angel - now passed away
Joined: 25 Jul 2005
Posts: 1959
Location: South London
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| Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 1:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Me wrote: | If you don't confess to something you didn't do, we will kill your family.
If you're country doesn't obey our orders, we will bomb you.
Same question, can you say coercion?
All blackmailed confessions will be televised, obedience under duress.
link
U.S. `threatened' Pakistan after 9/11
Told they'd be bombed `back to the Stone Age'
Musharraf insulted by demand for co-operation
| Quote: | Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says the United States threatened to bomb his country "back to the Stone Age" after the Sept. 11 attacks if he did not help America's war on terror.
The threat was delivered by Richard Armitage, then the deputy secretary of state, to Musharraf's intelligence director, the Pakistani leader told CBS-TV's 60 Minutes.
"The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, `Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,''' Musharraf said in the interview to be shown Sunday on CBS.
It was insulting, Musharraf said.
"I think it was a very rude remark.''
Musharraf said he reacted responsibly. "One has to think and take actions in the interests of the nation and that is what I did." |
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Musharraf must feel in a stronger position now than immediately after 9/11. If it's true that he was coerced as he says, he probably thinks that much of the world will now believe him. In the autumn of 2001 sympathy for the US was high and Musharraf would probably not have been believed if he had come out with this story then.
Another alternative is that he has released this story with the full knowledge and co-operation of the US government, the purpose of that presumably being to warn all other countries in the world that if they don't do as the US says, they may get bombed to the stone age too. I find this option a little hard to believe because the US is facing mid-term elections and this kind of publicity can do the government no good in the eyes of the public.
Another possibility is that the story is not true and Musharraf is lying in order to stir up anti-US government feelings. |
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