terrorists beware

[HoreTore]

So....

A taxi driver who picks up and drives a criminal(which he is bound to do by law, btw) is now a criminal too?

Good lord.

EDIT: This thing reminds me of "The enemy within" by Jan Guillou, btw.

[Innocentius]

Breaking news indeed. Progress!

EDIT: This thing reminds me of "The enemy within" by Jan Guillou, btw.

You mean you have to put up with his books in Norway as well? It's spreading like a cancer.

[PanzerJaeger]

So....

A taxi driver who picks up and drives a criminal(which he is bound to do by law, btw) is now a criminal too?

Good lord.

EDIT: This thing reminds me of "The enemy within" by Jan Guillou, btw.

Thats not exactly the situation in this case.

[HoreTore]

Thats not exactly the situation in this case.

Why not? All he was doing was driving a bad guy around... So why shouldn't another guy who is driving a different bad guy around be jailed?

[KarlXII]

Thats not exactly the situation in this case.

Actually it is. He was payed 200$ a month to drive Bin Laden around, this was a lot of money for someone like him. There is no proof he was commited to Islamic terrorism, nor any proof he comitted acts of violence, he was simply guilty by association. They even went as far as saying he was a conspirator behind the 9/11 attacks.

[PanzerJaeger]

He was not "legally bound" to drive a terrorist around, so your logical leap didn't quite make it.

This isn't really anything new. If you're employed by a criminal, you may be subject to litigation. There are lessons to be learned here somewhere....

[KarlXII]

He was not "legally bound" to drive a terrorist around, so your logical leap didn't quite make it.

This isn't really anything new. If you're employed by a criminal, you may be subject to litigation. There are lessons to be learned here somewhere....

No he was not, but he was being payed a hefty sum to just drive around.

Do you honestly think life is a fair sentence for him?

[PanzerJaeger]

No he was not, but he was being payed a hefty sum to just drive around.

Do you honestly think life is a fair sentence for him?

Sets a good example. Don't deal with terrorists, no matter how much money they're throwing around.

And don't worry, this will be knocked down on appeal.

[KarlXII]

Sets a good example. Don't deal with terrorists, no matter how much money they're throwing around.

And don't worry, this will be knocked down on appeal.

Sets a good example? The man is a car driver, there is no evidence supporting he engaged in any terrorist activity, he was being payed to drive, not bomb Kabul.

I hope this will be knocked down on appeal, that's setting a good example

[HoreTore]

He was not "legally bound" to drive a terrorist around, so your logical leap didn't quite make it.

This isn't really anything new. If you're employed by a criminal, you may be subject to litigation. There are lessons to be learned here somewhere....

Right. I assume the Enron executives had personal drivers too. It's your opinion that they should be sentenced too, right?

[PanzerJaeger]

I will be living in early in 2007 to the arabian penuisala.I have alawys had a loveaffair with Horse

You left out some bolding.

Seriously though, I agree with you*. This guy was a low level nobody. That doesn't mean that he doesn't deserve what he got.

*Except on the torture camps..

But seven years, two wars, torture camps*, and trillions of dollars - and this is what the US administration has to show for it's effort? A second rate adventurer?

To our credit, we have eliminated much of Al Q outright. They can't seem to keep a PR guy more than a few months..

Also, I believe this was essentially a trial run to set precedents and such. More cases will be forthcoming.

Right. I assume the Enron executives had personal drivers too. It's your opinion that they should be sentenced too, right?

You're comparing Enron executives to Osama bin Laden? Really?

In any event, if one of their drivers could be proven to have known that the execs were planning on cheating the shareholders and did nothing, he may be liable on some level.

[HoreTore]

You're comparing Enron executives to Osama bin Laden? Really?

In any event, if one of their drivers could be proven to have known that the execs were planning on cheating the shareholders and did nothing, he may be liable on some level.

They're both criminals aren't they?

But proven to know something? Was OBL's driver proven to know anything? You really think 9/11 was told to everyone who wanted to know about it? And anyway, what on earth could he have done if he found out something? That is, what could he have done without ending up with a bullet in the head within the hour...

[Adrian II]

Great news. At this rate they should get a conviction on Osama's hairdresser by, oh, 2025.

[LittleGrizzly]

Fish & Griz -

A) I'm surprised that both of you would be so willing to work for a terrorist, financial difficulties or not. Apart from the leering eye of the ever watchful Predator Drone, one must make some very objectionable moral compromises to justify working for such a man. I'm not sure your assumptions about the man's financial status or motives are correct, either.

Im not sure of the state of the yemeni economy or its average citizens but seen as $99 a month is a damn good wage outside of any first world country i would assume it's still a hell of a lot of money, the moral objections are not really much more than working with any goverment that works with saddam type dictators at the moment, hell my goverment has plenty of friends in dark places who would happily kill far more than 3,000 of thier own people and plenty of drivers who take them around whilst making these decisions, i don't see american lives as any more important than other nationalitys lives and i don't see terrorism as any worse than a dictator using goverment power to kill his own. Sinn Fein has had driver(s) in the past, we don't seem to have gone after them..... If i was Irish and in need of a job and offered well above usual wages to be sinn fien's driver, i would do it, i imagine the situation would seem very similar to a middle easterner working for Osama pre 9/11

It may be morally questionable but so is a huge amount of things western goverments are involved in, but that is ok as were the good guys right ? and as we have declared them as the bad guys any punishments we hand down are just...


B) Moral equivalencies seldom make good arguments. Trying to compare working for the vast expanse that is the US Federal Government to personally driving around a man whose immediate goals, and the goals of his organization, consisted entirely of plotting and executing terrorist attacks against civilians just doesn't work.

I fail to see why the moral equivelance isn't valid here, the only difference i see is that AQ have been declared bad guys by america, the nasty people we still work with have yet to be declared bad guys, so this man has been charged because he works for someone america declared a bad guy, much worse people are allowed of scott free or worse have goods and money exchanged as they are not declared bad guys, but easily visible by everyone else as bad guys... besides there is the example of terrorist groups in Ireland, thier drivers haven't been handed down life sentences, or forced to suffer years of torture in some camp, the only difference i see is one involves irish citizens and uk goverment, other one involves middle eastern citizens and american goverment...

This man made several unfortunate choices that led him to be made into an example. They were his choices to make, though.

I think just being in Gauntanamo for a few years is more than enough torture for any crime he did commit

[ICantSpellDawg]

[B]
I think just being in Gauntanamo for a few years is more than enough torture for any crime he did commit

Torture? Any crime?

[Kralizec]

They even went as far as saying he was a conspirator behind the 9/11 attacks.

He wasn't convicted on that charge.

[KarlXII]

He wasn't convicted on that charge.

But he was charged with it. I think that's a large leap to accuse a car driver of being a conspirator behind 9/11.

[LittleGrizzly]

If Blair or Bush where ever charged with war crimes could we charge thier drivers to ?

what of milosovic's driver or saddams driver ? have they been charged for thier heinous crime of being the driver to a criminal ?

And most importantly i guess is there any evidence other than the fact he was Osama's driver?

[LittleGrizzly]

He was payed 200$ a month to drive Bin Laden around, this was a lot of money for someone like him.

Exactly my point! Almost any afghani would have liked that job, even extreme idealogical differences wouldn't stop most people for that amount of money, and to just drive him around... if i was in a county as poor as afghanastan and i was offered that kind of money i drive almost anyone round....

Edit: is it just because he was his driver or was there other stuff on him ?