Saudi pleads guilty to terror charges,

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Ahmad al DarbiGUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba – A long-held Saudi captive pleaded guilty Thursday to terror charges for serving as a personal shopper and facilitator for al-Qaida militants plotting suicide bombings of ships in the Arabian Sea.

Under the plea deal, Ahmad al Darbi, 39, could go home to Saudi Arabia after sentencing in August 2017 to serve out the remainder of a 9- to 12-year sentence, according to a statement from the chief prosecutor, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins.

Darbi appeared in court in a white button-down shirt and green tie for the proceedings, which traded an undisclosed sentence at Guantánamo in exchange for return to his native Saudi Arabia. His attorney, Ramzi Kassem, announced that Darbi pleaded guilty to all the non-capital charges. They include terrorism, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects and hazarding a vessel.

In 2002, according to his charge sheet, Darbi bought navigational equipment and some vessels, mostly in the United Arab Emirates. They were intended to be used in an attack on a civilian oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz in an al-Qaida campaign to damage the global economy.

Darbi also admitted to helping Yemenis get training to attack one or more civilian oil tankers.

Some of those resources ended up being used in an attack off Yemen on a Malaysia-bound, French-flagged oil tanker, the Limburg, on Oct. 6, 2002 — four months after Darbi’s capture. A Bulgarian crew member, Atanas Atanasov, 39, was killed.

The judge, Air Force Col. Mark L. Allred, systematically led the Saudi captive through his plea agreement in a morning session. In response to a series of questions, Darbi agreed he didn’t have to be present at a crime to be responsible for it.

“Obviously you were not there and were somewhere else,” the judge said, noting it was a “a theory of vicarious liability” case.

Reports from Yemen last year indicated that U.S. drone strikes killed two other men also blamed for the Limburg attack.

Darbi’s plea deal postponed actual sentencing until August 2017 under a cooperation agreement to meantime testify at military commissions. That suggests he could be used as a witness in the death-penalty trial of another Saudi – Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, accused of plotting the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole off Yemen that killed 17 American sailors as well as the Limburg bombing.

“Even if Darbi is not brought in to testify against Nashiri, things at Guantánamo Bay are heating up,” said Heritage Foundation national security expert Cully Simson, a former Pentagon official who had oversight of detainee affairs.

The deal shows a flexing of the reach of the war court into international affairs. Prosecutors had argued that, because the goal of al-Qaida’s Arabian Sea attacks was to damage the world economy, had it succeeded the American people would have suffered.

“Following sentencing, which will occur about three and a half years from now, it is possible Mr. al Darbi will be repatriated to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to serve the remainder of his sentence to confinement in a Saudi Arabian prison,” Martins’ statement said.

He credited the role of the State Department’s Special Envoy for Guantánamo Closure, Clifford Sloan, as “pivotal to the efforts to coordinate assurances from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia within the context of this plea agreement.”

Darbi is at times described as the brother in law of one of the 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al Mihdhar, who crashed American Airlines flight 77 into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. In 1998, according to Darbi’s classified U.S. military profile, the two men married Yemeni sisters in a “double wedding ceremony.”

Darbi looked fit, chunky in fact, as he sat in court — alternately answering the judge in English and Arabic — after a year-long hunger strike that has simmered in the prison camps. It was his first war court appearance since President Barack Obama took office.

He becomes the sixth Guantánamo captive to plead guilty at the military commissions, the fifth during the Obama administration, in a deal to go home from the prison in southeast Cuba. He’s also the first Saudi convicted of terror charges at Guantánamo.

Darbi was represented by his long-time defense attorney, Kassem, a City University of New York law professor who came to the case during the Bush administration, and Navy Lt. Theresa Champ.

Miami Herald

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54 responses to “Saudi pleads guilty to terror charges,”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar

    We assume they will keep an eye on him when he’s back at home.

  2. nagy_michael2 Avatar
    nagy_michael2

    A Saudi is involved in Terror.. I don’t believe that.. Time for their government to spy on them and jail for good whoever is attempting or wanting to join jihadists.. is this what Saudi Arabia image going to be.. the face of terror..

    1. The real lebanese Avatar
      The real lebanese

      Its a Saudi national, not the Saudi government.

      1. Spare us your crap, seriously. Just because your boy Geagea has sold his soul to the devil, (The Saudi’s) is doesn’t mean you need to defend them. They are the face of terrorism. And anybody who associates with them is no better.

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar

          And although Geagea has said many sensible things, yet people will dump on anything sensible if it comes from what they think is a bad mouth. This inability to see (or admit) what is right or correct for humans even when stated by someone not liked is a major problem of the education, and an ‘election’ system which relies totally on sect divisions and the concept of ‘equality’ which is, frankly, farqued.

          1. 5th you’re much smarter than associating Geagea with sensibility. He’s far from it.

          2. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Nevertheless …. what I said holds.

          3. Why, because you said so.

          4. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Because logic dictates … hmmm … but then, I forgot Shiites dumped that bit.

          5. Yes 5th, your logic. So now your dumping on a whole religion. Not surprising. Keep making comments to please the rest.

          6. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Only one sect of one religion mentioned, there … want some dumping on all the others??

          7. But 5th, we know how you feel about the the religion as whole.

          8. 5thDrawer Avatar

            All of them, thanks. Now you know, religion should shouldn’t enter into it at all … which might be dreadfully secular … but we can speak then with logic?

          9. Now your being cheeky as usual.

          10. Now your being cheeky as usual.

          11. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Because logic dictates … hmmm … but then, I forgot Shiites dumped that bit.

          12. Yes 5th, your logic. So now your dumping on a whole religion. Not surprising. Keep making comments to please the rest.

          13. The others are, rite. lol They are all crap that is sensible. They are all thieves every one of them, that is sensible. But how can FOLLOWERS see that. NO ONE is working for the people but how can followers see that.
            When you FOLLOW no leader like my self I can see as I am not blinded by someone I follow.

          14. Well 5th, I could very well say the same thing about General Aoun and Sayyed Hassan and you would be also quick to dump on them. So please practice what you preach as sometimes you say things that are also frankly Farqued.

          15. The real lebanese Avatar
            The real lebanese

            Look to the future bud. A country controlled by Iranian backed militants or a country booming economically with Western connections? Choose wisely.

          16. Hind Abyad Avatar

            Western connections

          17. The real lebanese Avatar
            The real lebanese

            A cartoon and a photoshopped picture?

          18. Hind Abyad Avatar

            Of course it’s a cartoon and a photoshoped. picture..why do you even ask. Gosh!

          19. The real lebanese Avatar
            The real lebanese

            Haha just making sure we were on the same page.:-)

          20. MekensehParty Avatar
            MekensehParty

            5th, they hate geagea because he was man enough to stand to his principles and still does when other rats ran to embassies and roaches are hiding In a hole. Never been a fan of the LF militia when they were fighting in the name of the cross but today geagea proved he’s the only man with logic and a clear and most importantly sane vision of Lebanon. Of course those who want Lebanon to stay in the Middle Ages have to hate him. Simple

        2. The real lebanese Avatar
          The real lebanese

          Lol why bring Geagea in this? In what deal did Geagea sell his soul to the Saudis? And lastly, did you know that Saudi Arabia is fighting terrorism in their own soil? These are all questions to make you look stupid when you answer. 😉

          1. “In what deal did Geagea sell his soul to the Saudis?” He sold his sole many time TAIF, fighting the LAF and above all killing innocent people.

          2. The real lebanese Avatar
            The real lebanese

            I dont know if you learned your history in school, but Geagea didn’t embrace the Taif because it was based off the 1944 confessional system which he opposed going back too. However we all know Aoun wasn’t happy with it because some one would replace him from the presidential palace. Poor guy. And its funny who’s talking about killing innocent people. I don’t exactly know your thoughts of Hezbollah but my guess is you support them. Everyone their killing and supporting the regimes air strikes must only be foreigners, right? There is hard proof of this, and its something you cant deny.

          3. The real lebanese Avatar
            The real lebanese

            I dont know if you learned your history in school, but Geagea didn’t embrace the Taif because it was based off the 1944 confessional system which he opposed going back too. However we all know Aoun wasn’t happy with it because some one would replace him from the presidential palace. Poor guy. And its funny who’s talking about killing innocent people. I don’t exactly know your thoughts of Hezbollah but my guess is you support them. Everyone their killing and supporting the regimes air strikes must only be foreigners, right? There is hard proof of this, and its something you cant deny.

          4. nagy_michael2 Avatar
            nagy_michael2

            Really libnan1.. so why did Rustum Ghazali visit Aoun in France before the Bride of Hezbollah arrived to Lebanon.

          5. nagy_michael2 Avatar
            nagy_michael2

            Really libnan1.. so why did Rustum Ghazali visit Aoun in France before the Bride of Hezbollah arrived to Lebanon.

          6. If you need me to answer that question for you, then I’m sorry my friend, the only stupid one is you. -:))

          7. The real lebanese Avatar
            The real lebanese

            Haha its a good thing you didn’t answer. Next time we’re in the same situation Ill be sure to ask the same questions since it seems to puzzle your mind.

          8. The real lebanese Avatar
            The real lebanese

            Haha its a good thing you didn’t answer. Next time we’re in the same situation Ill be sure to ask the same questions since it seems to puzzle your mind.

      2. Spare us your crap, seriously. Just because your boy Geagea has sold his soul to the devil, (The Saudi’s) it doesn’t mean you need to defend them. They are the face of terrorism. And anybody who associates with them is no better.

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar

          And although Geagea has said many sensible things, yet people will dump on anything sensible if it comes from what they think is a bad mouth. This inability to see (or admit) what is right or correct for humans even when stated by someone not liked is a major problem of the education, and an ‘election’ system which relies totally on sect divisions and the concept of ‘equality’ which is, frankly, farqued.

          1. 5th you’re much smarter than associating Geagea with sensibility. He’s far from it.

          2. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Nevertheless …. what I said holds.

          3. The others are, rite. lol They are all crap that is sensible. They are all thieves every one of them, that is sensible. But how can FOLLOWERS see that. NO ONE is working for the people but how can followers see that.
            When you FOLLOW no leader like my self I can see as I am not blinded by someone I follow.

        2. The real lebanese Avatar
          The real lebanese

          Lol why bring Geagea in this? In what deal did Geagea sell his soul to the Saudis? And lastly, did you know that Saudi Arabia is fighting terrorism in their own soil? These are all questions to make you look stupid when you answer. 😉

      3. nagy_michael2 Avatar
        nagy_michael2

        I know Bro and that’s what i meant..

      4. nagy_michael2 Avatar
        nagy_michael2

        I know Bro and that’s what i meant..

    2. Saudi had always been the exporter of terror, that’s why they’ve had peaceful desert. Their turn is coming.

      1. Something I can’t wait for Libnan.

      2. Something I can’t wait for Libnan.

      3. nagy_michael2 Avatar
        nagy_michael2

        I meant some saudis not the government. If you read news and be fair about it. The Saudi gov’t is prosecuting anyone who is travelling to Syria or even thinking to go fight abroad. yes they allowed them before. so did Syria allowed them and trained them to go fight shiites and american soldiers in Iraq. Iran did the same thing harboring Al Qaada. so you can’t pick and choose the country supporting Terror. they’re all guilty of it. Syria been supporting terror against lebanon forever. And now they want to cooperate with lebanon on terror? what about the terror General Maniouk and his thugs sending bombers against mosques in Tripoli? what about them supporting Fatah al ISlam against LAF during the Nahr al Bared attacks by extremists? why no one arrested the killers of Antoine AL Hajj if AL Qaada were behind it? it doesn’t make sense does it..

    3. Hind Abyad Avatar

      Saudi multi issued Falwas against Shia resulted in brutal attaks in Awamiya.
      Religious fatwas preceede brutal crackdowns.

      1. nagy_michael2 Avatar
        nagy_michael2

        Hind everyone is guilty of feeding these extremists. When Russian controlled Afghanistan before. The US trained jihadists including Bin Ladin. When Russian fought Chechen to destructions they created Jihadists. When the US were in big capacity in Iraq. Syria and Iran trained jihadists and sent them to fight US soliders in Iraq. Iran even though you don’t want to admit it has many AL Qaada operatives there and have used them to their own advantages. In fact the religious groups that controlled most of iran gov’t always have respect for Al Qaada because of religious ties. I am sure many rich Saudi citizens have used their wealth to support them as well. Syria sent Fatah AL Islam to butcher our soldiers regardless of what you’re going to tell me it was Hariri who did it. The sunnis in Tripoli were throwing rocks at the Palestinians in Nahr Al Bared and Hariri were the formest supporter of the LAF. on the contrary Nassrallah told the army the camp was a red line and should not enter it.. why if this resistance organization who supposedly believe of the formula of Army+Peole+Resistance would stand in the way of the Army who wanted to flush extremists out. Please let’s us be honest here and stop only accusing one group of malicious intent and spare the other.. even recently an article stating the Hezbollah bringing in Eastern European fighters to Beirut Airport to fight alongside Assad. several Ruskies were killed in Syria that were not part of the Russian army.. If the FSA wanted Jihadists in syria to fight alongside them, then why are they rising against them? the jihadists forced their way in to control Syria. now they’re coming to Lebanon. I am for one support the LAF to go in the camps and flush these jihadists out and disarm all the popultions there. Enough of this crap. And I am even with Hezbollah going in there and helping the army. this is where your main troubles are coming from. so why not just go in there and clear the camps.. the car bombings will be reduced by 80% and future attacks against LAF and HA..

        1. Hind Abyad Avatar

          True, that’s why i talk about the rooth and origin of our present, when people say.. ayyy it’s in the past, they have an agenda, the latest news
          in Aleppo al-Nusra (besieging Maaloula), is taking advantage of ISIS unpopularity, unpopular to whom? I don’t know, extremists are fighting extremists, Nusra is the most financed because Al Qaeda considers Nusra it’s afiliated. Al Qaeda’s banker was secretly met by Erdogan (a Nato ally), he arrived in his private jet last week, transfering hundreds of millions to Al Qaeda to fight in Syria, i have the article he’s a banker in Saudi Arabia his name is al Qadi, a personal friend of Ben Ladin, now working with governements. crazy. Who to trust. There are articles daily about Jihadis coming from Europe Asia Russia..i beg the question, who paid for them to come in the Levant. About Russian going to fight fo Assad.. no no, please Russian jihadis are the most extreem of Sunnis, they cut heads with kitchen knifes..they don’t figth for Assad, they kill Shia, Allawites and Christians. Some countries are provoking sectarian War in Lebanon.
          The FSA did fight alongside Nusra and ISIS, there are HRW report on the Lattakieh Aug.2013 massacres. FSA must fight against them now, Eastern Syria is being administraded by Sharia; women must wear long black robe an veil, or face the consequences, they have no right to walk on the streets anymore, it’s a nightmare. We have the Gulf as neighbors.
          I think if Palestinian camps were organized to deny entry to Jihadis all these you mention, this could not happen, Palestinians are stateles, no deffense, they are used by everyone, why did they shose a Palestinian to plant bombs, why they shose poor uneducated & vulnerables, to make these acts..why they used Sirhan Sirhan to kill Robert Kennedy. Or half idiot Oswald, then killing him before he opens his mouth.
          I know about it. I had somebody enter my computer two days ago, he had my IP, not anyone can do this, it takes connections..it was done here (because i’m anti Zionist).
          I think they have to put order Nahr el Bared as soon as possible, urgently, things are getting out of controle. I’m not advocating massacres of course, find leadership from the camp to governe them.

          1. So much of what you say is true in your comment above, people do get exploited, alliances get made for temporary common action for multiple outcomes that get sorted later with another battle, Who really is your long term friend in the middle east. so true that your enemies enemy is your friend but what Happens after that? they turn against each other for another cause or struggle that keeps the coffin and ammunition business booming.

          2. Hind Abyad Avatar

            Geo i think (unfortunatly) War is comming, it’s in the hands of the rich
            and powerfull, we can’t do anything but shut up.. what about the laws of physics? One day they will interfear trust me.

          3. Hind Abyad Avatar

            Geo i think (unfortunatly) War is comming, it’s in the hands of the rich
            and powerfull, what about the laws of physics? One day they will interfear trust me.

        2. Hind Abyad Avatar

          True, that’s why i talk about the rooth and origin of our present, when people say.. ayyy it’s in the past, they have an agenda, the latest news
          in Aleppo al-Nusra (besieging Maaloula), is taking advantage of ISIS unpopularity, unpopular to whom? I don’t know, extremists are fighting extremists, Nusra is the most financed because Al Qaeda considers Nusra it’s afiliated. Al Qaeda’s banker was secretly met by Erdogan (a Nato ally), he arrived in his private jet last week, transfering hundreds of millions to Al Qaeda to fight in Syria, i have the article he’s a banker in Saudi Arabia his name is al Qadi, a personal friend of Ben Laden. Who to trust.
          There are articles daily about Jihadis coming from Europe Asia Russia.
          i beg the question, who paid for them to come in the Levant.
          About Russian going to fight for Assad.. no no, please Russian jihadis are the most extreem of Sunnis, they cut heads with kitchen knifes..they don’t figth for Assad, they kill Shia, Allawites and Christians..some countries are trying too hard to create sectarian War in Lebanon.
          The FSA did fight alongside Nusra and ISIS, there are HRW report on the Lattakieh Aug.2013 massacres. FSA must fight against them, Eastern Syria is administraded by Sharia; women must wear long black robe and the veil or face the consequences, they have no right to walk on the streets anymore, it’s a nightmare. We have the Gulf as neighbors.
          Palestinian Nahr el Bared, i think if it were organized to deny entry to Jihadis all these you mention, Palestinians are stateless, no deffense, they are used by everyone, why did they shose a Palestinian to plant bombs, why they shose poor uneducated & vulnerables to make these acts..why they used Sirhan Sirhan to kill Robert Kennedy. Or half idiot Oswald then killing him before he opens his mouth.
          I know about it..someone entered inside my computer two days ago, he had my IP, not anyone can do this it takes connections, it was done from here i know who..(because i’m anti Zionist).
          They have to put order in Nahr el Bared as soon as possible, urgently, things are getting out of controle..i’m not advocating massacres of course:) To find capable leadership from the camp, guard the entries protect it from Salafi contamination, to governe.

    4. Hind Abyad Avatar

      Saudi multi issued Falwas against Shia resulted in brutal attaks in Awamiya.
      Religious fatwas preceede brutal crackdowns.

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