Ghailan: This line between terrorist and freedom fighter
One man’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter; this can well be attested in the case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani an alleged ‘terrorist’ who is accused of helping Al-Qaeda in attacks on the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998.
He is now the first Guantanamo detainee who has been tried in a US civilian court and found guilty of conspiracy to damage or destroy US property with explosives.
But he was also cleared of many other counts including murder and murder conspiracy.
Ghailani faces a minimum of 20 years in prison. The verdict comes as the US weighs other civilian terror trials.
The BBC's Iain Mackenzie, in Washington, says the verdict will be seen as a huge blow to the Obama administration and its pledge to try Guantanamo suspects in civilian courts.
Elsewhere, in Afghanistan for instance, Ghailan just like the notorious Osama Bin Laden is regarded as a freedom fighter notwithstanding that when the US embassies in both Dar-es-salaam and Nairobi were shelled in synchronized attacks over a decade ago; some hundred and twenty four people lost their lives.
When reporting his arrest in Gujarat, the Pakistan Times described Mr Ahmad Khailfan and his Uzbek wife as being among the 14 Al-Qaeda suspects arrested in the 16-hour long Gujrat operation by Pakistan Law Enforcement Agencies.
The paper quoted the Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat who stated that the Pakistani security forces had captured a high-level al Qaeda operative ‘who was on the FBI's most-wanted terrorist list in connection with the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa.’
Ghailan who was born in Zanzibar and normally conversed in Swahili apparently cannot drive which leaves many to wonder how he accomplished his missions most of which require fast movements from one point to another, sometimes carrying heavy explosives.
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