Anti-terror race slows down in court
This AP piece says terrorism cases, initially encouraged by investigators' anti-terrorism powers, are gradually being set back by appeal court decisions around the world.
Spanish authorities had one of the chief suspects in the Madrid bombings, Jamal Zougam, on their radar since at least 2001 as a possible al-Qaida operative, even once searching his apartment, but were unable to build a case against him. Zougam, arrested two days after the bombings, operated in at least two countries, Morocco and Spain. [...] In granting el Motassadeq a retrial last month, a German appeals court pointed to the lack of evidence from Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni in secret U.S. custody who is believed to have been the key al-Qaida contact for the Hamburg cell that included lead hijacker Mohamed Atta. Judges ruled that the lower court, which found the Moroccan guilty in February 2003 of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and belonging to a terrorist organization, failed to weigh how the United States' refusal to allow Binalshibh to testify influenced the case. Fighting terrorism is no ``wild, unregulated war,'' Presiding Judge Klaus Tolksdorf explained in the March 4 verdict, saying authorities' need for secrecy can't outweigh a defendant's right to a fair trial. [...] In the United States, the federal conspiracy case against Moussaoui has stalled because the Justice Department refuses to let Binalshibh testify. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia ruled that unless Binalshibh appears in court, she would ban any evidence connecting Moussaoui to the Sept. 11 attacks, and bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty. - AP, Terrorism War Finds Obstacles in Court.