Another loss for lawfare against terrorist

NY Times:

A Spanish court absolved four men and upheld the acquittal of a fifth on Thursday in the convoluted legal proceedings relating to the 2004 Madrid commuter train bombings that killed 191 people in the deadliest attack by Islamic militants on European soil.

The rulings followed appeals of some of 21 convictions by a lower court after a five-month trial that ended in October. Seven other people were acquitted at that time.

Most dramatically, the court on Thursday upheld the acquittal of one of the bombing’s accused masterminds, Rabei Osman, an Egyptian, who was found guilty in 2006 in Italy of belonging to a terrorist organization.

Mr. Osman was arrested in Italy in June 2004, but disputed prosecution evidence citing wiretaps in which he was purported to have said he had conceived the idea of the attacks.

...

“No matter how many convictions or how long the sentences it will seem insufficient to those of us who lost life and limb, but I believe it closes an important chapter that needed closure,” said Jesús Ramírez, the former vice president of the bombing victims’ association, a survivor of the attack whose body was severely burned and riddled with shrapnel on a 7:36 a.m. commuter train from the town of El Pozo on March 11, 2004. The attack was one of several near simultaneous blasts on four commuter trains that day.

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Terrorism experts said that verdict illustrated the difficulty of building a solid case against suspected Islamists when they belong to a diffuse group with local foot soldiers and no formal structure.

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It is even more difficult if the attack is preempted. Both the US and the UK have experienced difficulties in lawfare cases against terrorist. I dare say, that had we caught the 9-11 terrorist before they got on the plane we would have had great difficulty in convicting them.

The more logical way to deal with these people is to take them out of the criminal justice system and treat them as unlawful enemy combatants. They should be confined until the end of the war. If al Qaeda choose to fight the war for a longer period of time, they are the ones who are increasing their confinement.