A plea deal. For an enemy combatant and jihadist who came so close to massacring hundreds, in a case that could not be more airtight in terms of evidence and witnesses. It should not be within the realm of possibility that Abdulmutallab could ever be a free man again. And yet, somehow, it is.
What does the government expect to gain in comparison to what it is willing to give up, especially when Abdulmutallab has reportedly been cooperating all along? "Defense: Deal discussed in Detroit plane attack," by Ed White for the Associated Press, September 9:
DETROIT - Lawyers for a Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a plane near Detroit on Christmas said Thursday that they've talked to prosecutors about resolving the case with a deal.
The disclosure was made in a court filing seeking a new deadline to challenge evidence against Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is accused of trying to set off a bomb hidden in his underwear aboard a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit last year with nearly 300 people aboard.
The deadline to file motions is Friday. Abdulmutallab is due in federal court Monday for a pretrial hearing.
In the court filing, defense lawyers said they've met with prosecutors on "multiple occasions, by phone and in person, to explore options for resolution of this case." They said prosecutors are opposed to extending Friday's motion deadline.
Abdulmutallab's lead attorney, Miriam Siefer, declined to comment on the filing. The U.S. attorney's office also declined to comment.
The government has said Abdulmutallab has cooperated with investigators since his arrest Dec. 25. He has been described as a young recruit to al-Qaida's nascent terrorist branch in Yemen.
Abdulmutallab is charged with trying to use a weapon of mass destruction, which carries a sentence of life in prison. Passengers aboard the plane pounced on him and put out flames, then dragged him to the front of the jet where he was subdued.
Any plea deal, particularly one that allows Abdulmutallab to get out of prison at some point, could force the Obama administration back into a debate about whether terrorism cases should be handled at military tribunals, where the rules of evidence are more favorable to the government and defendants have fewer rights than in U.S. courts
The government's opposition to a new deadline to challenge evidence could signal that plea bargain talks have stalled, said Alan Gershel, former head of the criminal division in the U.S. attorney's office.
"It's possible the government doesn't want to drag this out," said Gershel, who teaches at Thomas M. Cooley Law School in suburban Detroit. "This crime happened at Christmas time. We're eight or nine months later. By opposing this, they're saying, 'We're going to wrap this up or not.'"
Still, he believes U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds will grant the defense team's request.
The defense said evidence turned over by the government is "quite voluminous," and lawyers were able to meet with Abdulmutallab only once a week for two hours at a prison where he's being held pending trial.
Former terrorism prosecutor Lloyd Meyer of Chicago said a plea deal is very likely in the end.
"If he went to trial it's almost certain he'd be convicted. The government doesn't have a smoking gun. It has smoking skivvies," Meyer said, referring to Abdulmutallab's underwear. "This is a slam dunk."
But what is to be gained beyond a quicker resolution of the case?
Any sort of deal would be admitting that extremist Islam has some sort of right to act by the intentions and words of the Quran towards the Infidel.
It is astonishing it has come to this as a matter of expediency. Again we see justified the wise word quoted by Winston Churchill: "Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting." Another triumph for Islam when the West is refusing to act resolutely, unable to see that a war is won by fighting and never by half measures.
There have been suggestions in Denmark that fighter bombers should be sent to Afghanistan again to directly assist the Danish soldiers who far to often are right in the thick of it. It has been ruled out as too costly. A few Leopard tanks have been sent. But nothing near what is necessary. Half measures, all the way.
"...the West is refusing to act resolutely, unable to see that a war is won by fighting and never by half measures.
It's worse than that. The West is refusing to even see it is at war. Or rather that a war is waged against the West.
There is a powerful mechanism of denial at work behind that self-imposed blindness. Admitting one is at war needs identifying the enemy and when the enemy is a non-white civilization to go to war against it is committing the worst "sin" in the books of liberal ruling idiocy - the sin of discrimination.
The secret that Islam is at war against the West must be guarded more than the West itself.
So the West squanders lives and limbs of its young men, trillions of dollars fighting Islamic extremism, Islamic terrorism, Islamic this or that, but never Islam.
No wonder our liberal rulers and their hopelessly confused assistants do everything possible to gag those saying we are under attack of Islam. That terrible secret must never get out as it would explode the fundamental dogma of the liberal faith which says that all cultures, civilizations and religions are of equal worth.
In flight music
All time favorites The Shoe-bomber Song and Strangers on My Flight
http://crombouke.blogspot.com/2010/01/sing-along-time.html
"There's a bomb in my undershorts" guy should have been turned over to the military. Instead "I'm just pretending to be President" Obama HAS to have a civilian arrest, civil rights, lawyers and a dose of the civilian justice system. News Flash, Mr. President! Abdulmutallab is a jihadi warrior. We are at war with Islam. You swore an oath to defend this country against "enemies foreign and domestic". Time to cowboy up.
'Living in fear of the Religion of Peace'...The Movie...
Chapter 14...The velvet glove...The Iron fist...and you...
The disclosure was made in a court filing seeking a new deadline to challenge evidence against Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab...
Challenge the evidence? The velvet glove at work...
Those who actually challenge the 'evidence', like Spencer, get the iron fist...But Spencer is good at bobbing and weaving so those spiked blows miss the mark...
I wonder what kind of deal, they will make, and based on what?
This guy deserves no less than the death penalty. Lethal Injection is far more humane than what he intended for his victims. Yet the Govt. patches him up, no doubt at tax payer expense, then due to sheer laziness decides to cut a deal with him! What the hell?
Along time ago a wiseman said it does not belong to man who walking to direct his own step. No kidding politicians couldn't walk a straight line if they tried, for them it seems the shortest distance between two points is a deal with the devil.
Even if he was only given a minimum of 1 year in prison for every person he attempted to murder that would keep his muslim ass in prison for 300 years.
Sounds good to me.
That's justice for you.....if we don't pay our taxes, we lose our assets and go to jail. If you are a suicide bomber, you get a plea deal.