Guy set to hang for killing Daniel Pearl wants appeal because of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/Pearl_murder_convict_to_appeal_after_confession.html?siteSect=143&sid=7633848&cKey=1174299790000

Pearl murder convict to appeal after confession

KARACHI (Reuters) - The lawyer of an Islamist militant sentenced to hang in Pakistan for his role in the 2002 murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl said on Monday he would use a top al Qaeda militant's confession to support an appeal.

British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, or Sheikh Omar, was sentenced to death in 2002 for the kidnapping and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter, who was abducted while researching a story on Islamic militants.

But Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- the self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States -- said in a confession released by U.S. authorities last week that he killed Pearl.

Omar's lawyer, Rai Basheer Ahmed, said his client's conviction was "a gross miscarriage of justice".

"In the next court hearing, I am going to submit the recent statement by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in which he said he himself beheaded the U.S. journalist," Ahmed told Reuters.

[soothsayer]

1. oh goody, now the real killer can go free cuz of our torture-induced

falsehoods

[sharp_stick]

2. The guy was convicted in Pakistan

I wouldn't put much credence on his guilt or innocence just yet. We very well may have learned a lot of our "techniques" for extracting confessions from the well trained dungeon keepers in Pakistan.

[Little Wing]

3. OJ Simpson is also following a similar legal path

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. What about the guys who are currently doing time for the first

WTC bombing, which Khalid Sheikh Mohammed also confessed to?

[Supersedeas]

5. when propoganda gets in the way of justice--a particular Bushist Regime problem

[HamdenRice]

6. MSM missing the point: 9/11 Hijacker's funder set to walk b/c of KSM "confession"

KSM's false confession may very well lead to the acquittal of Saeed Omar Sheikh. In the mainstream press he has been indentified as the killer of Daniel Pearl.

But he is also the nexus of the Pakistan ISI - Mohammed Atta and the 9/11 hijackers - US intelligence - British intelligence connections.

The Pakistant intelligence (ISI) chief (Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Ahmad) who ordered Sheikh to send $100,000 to Atta, flew to Washington DC in the days before 9/11 for intense discussions with the CIA, State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council staff, and as the planes were crashing into the WTC, he was having breakfast with the chair of the House Intelligence Committee (and soon to be CIA Chief), Porter Goss (who also happened to represent a Congressional District in Florida adjascent to where Atta was based in Florida), as well as Senate Intelligence Committee chair Bob Graham.

(Isn't that bizarre? The guy who sent $100,000 to the hijackers to be used for flight school training had a sit down with the elite of the US intelligence and defense establishment, as the 9/11 attacks were going down?)

Goss admitted in mainstream press reports that his breakfast meeting on the morning of 9/11 (with the guy who allegedly ordered the sending of $100,000 to Mohammed Atta) concerned terrorism emanating from Afghanistant.

Now, KSM's confession may let the go-between (Saeed Omar Sheikh) between Pakistani intelligence and the hijackers, walk.

Sheikh is also alleged to have been a British/al Qaeda double agent or British intelligence asset within al Qaeda.

So, this CIA coerced confession may be a get out of jail card for the operative who funded the hijackers, at the bequest of Pakistan.

[mhatrw]

7. kick n/t

[ComerPerro]

8. well, its certainly a valid point. Torture wins out again!