9/11 conspirator freed by Germans

This guy has kind of a far-away look about him, but nevertheless his participation in the Hamburg Cell alone should have netted him life without parole. Mounir El Motassadeq had previously been sentenced to the maximum term,

But a retrial was ordered when a federal court in 2004 quashed the verdict on the grounds that US authorities had refused to allow the court to question top suspects from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network in American custody.

Those 'AQ in American custody' have really torpedoed some trials of late. In America we also ditched the strong charges against Jose "dirty bomb" Padilla due to fears of calling these AQ suspects to testify in open court. So, just who are these AQ suspects? Not hard to guess--Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh and Abu Zubaydah.

Would bringing them out jeopardize our secret prison network? Gotta believe the answer is 'perhaps', but I think the reasons go much deeper, beginning with the way KSM was handled by 9/11 Commission and press in general. How so? As if he wasn't very important, that's how so.

Ask the average American on the street "who is KSM?" and you'd likely see a jaw drop open, followed by guesses like "a Dutch airline?". Give them a hint and say, "the mastermind of 9/11" and the ensuing cranial confusion over how Bin Laden's name could possibly be abbreviated "KSM" might cause several heads to explode.