US withdraws charges against USS Cole suspect

A Pentagon judge has withdrawn charges against a Saudi detainee at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp accused of taking part in the deadly October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen.
Judge Susan Crawford, the convening authority of military commissions, "has withdrawn the charges" against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told AFP.
However Crawford "has withdrawn the charges without prejudice, meaning he can be charged again," said Jeffrey Gordon, another Pentagon spokesman.

Crawford's procedural move brings the case against Nashiri to a halt, at least temporarily, and falls in line with President Barack Obama's executive order shortly after taking office calling for a 120-day delay in proceedings against terror suspects at Guantanamo.
Nashiri's was the last Guantanamo detainee to be facing trial.
Army Colonel James Pohl, the chief judge at the Guantanamo Bay war crimes court, had rejected Obama's request to suspend Nashiri's trial.

The Saudi national was due to be arraigned on Monday, and the Pentagon prosecutor had sought the death penalty for him.
Born in Mecca, Nashiri, 43, was accused of conspiring to help two Islamic extremists who steered an explosives-laden barge alongside the US Navy destroyer Cole, which was docked at the port of Aden, Yemen. The attackers then detonated themselves and their load.
The October 12, 2000 attack killed 17 US sailors and wounded dozens of others. The blast punched a 12-meter (40-foot) hole in the ship's side.
Nashiri was arrested in 2002, and held in a secret CIA prison for almost four years before being transferred to the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Defense Department charged that Nashiri rented apartments and houses near Aden to observe the port area, and purchased the boat used in the attack.
In February, former CIA director Michael Hayden confirmed that US interrogators had secretly waterboarded Nashiri and two other detainees while he was in the spy agency's custody.
According to defense lawyers, often the whole process begins again from zero in order to avoid using documents that could show the defendant had been subjected to harsh interrogations.
Before the Pentagon withdrew charges against Nashiri, the leading US rights group American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) accused Defense Secretary Robert Gates of not backing the president's executive order to halt proceedings against terror suspects at Guantanamo.

"Despite President Obama's orders to close Guantanamo and halt proceedings, it appears this has not filtered down through the Department of Defense," said ACLU head Anthony Romero.
"One must question whether this is just the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, whether this is a revolt in the new Obama administration, or whether the new Secretary Gates is just like the old Secretary Gates."
Gates served as defense secretary under president George W. Bush and was retained in the post by Obama.

Last week Kirk Lippold, the commander of the USS Cole when it was attacked, condemned Obama's executive order.
Lippold, who backs Guantanamo trials and keeping alleged terrorists in the Cuba detention camp, argued that the US "shouldn't make policy decisions based on human rights and legal advocacy groups."
On Thursday he struck a more conciliatory tone, but remained critical of Nashiri's uncertain fate.
"The families have already been through enough. Don't put the families through even more of this agony," he urged.


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Obama: Time of crisis can be 'great opportunity'

Obama sounds hopeful theme, says country will turn bleak times into `great opportunity'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Trying to buck up a dispirited nation, President Barack Obama on Saturday promised that prosperous days will return and cast these bleak times as nothing less than a "great opportunity." Packing some heft with his hope, he defended his fast-moving and expensive agenda.
"We will get through this," Obama said in his weekly radio and video address, taped Friday after another week of downbeat news.
The unemployment rate climbed to 8.1 percent, the highest in more than 25 years. Stock values kept tumbling, down to their lowest levels since 1997. The latest Gallup polling finds that an anemic 20 percent of people in the United States are satisfied with the state of the nation. At least that's an improvement from the 14 percent a month earlier.
Rather than pitch ahead to his next message, Obama devoted his address to recapping what his team did this past week to help get people working and spending.
The goal was to demonstrate that the administration is on the case and, more broadly, that history shows American resilience will win.
"We've experienced great trials before," Obama said. "And with every test, each generation has found the capacity to not only endure, but to prosper -- to discover great opportunity in the midst of great crisis. That is what we can and must do today. And I am absolutely confident that is what we will do."

The echoes of history emerge often as Obama seeks a balance between the practical language of governing and the oratory meant to keep people inspired. Just a few days earlier, he promoted new transportation plans by saying the nation built itself up before, during the Civil War and the Great Depression.
Recent efforts include a more detailed plan to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure; another plan to spur lending for people and businesses; an overhaul of the way the government hands out private contracts to reduce waste; and a summit on how to overhaul health care.
He defended his budget proposal, whacked Wall Street "accounting tricks" and sent a message to Congress that it must make some tough choices.

Separately, the president offered advice to people struggling to pay their bills. He told The New York Times that people should be prudent and get back to fundamentals, with an eye on steady savings, reasonable returns and long-term investing.
"What I don't think people should do is suddenly stuff money in their mattresses and pull back completely from spending," Obama told the newspaper in an interview posted on its Web site Saturday. "I don't think that people should be fearful about our future. I don't think that people should suddenly mistrust all of our financial institutions because the overwhelming majority of them actually have managed things reasonably well."
The president would not say whether the economy will be growing again by year's end. He said that timing depends on several factors. Notable among them was his call for other countries to take actions to shore up their financial markets and coordinate those actions with the U.S.

Another busy week awaits Obama, who was at Camp David for the weekend with his family.
On Monday, he plans to reverse President George W. Bush's restrictions on federal funding for stem cell research. On Tuesday, it is a push for education overhaul. Come Thursday, he will discuss the economic rescue with state officials.
"From the day I took office, I knew that solving this crisis would not be easy, nor would it happen overnight," Obama said in the weekly address. "And we will continue to face difficult days in the months ahead. But I also believe that we will get through this -- that if we act swiftly and boldly and responsibly, the United States of America will emerge stronger and more prosperous than it was before."
More than 4 million jobs have disappeared since the recession began in December 2007. The rate of the job losses is only accelerating.

Obama says the country can't afford to take on one big problem at a time. Politically, his strongest time to attack them all may be now.

In one of the biggest examples, he has set a goal of signing a bill this year that would fix the health care system, which leaves millions uninsured.
Obama says he is not wedded to a plan on how to fix the problem. But one proposal he has endorsed, giving people the option of buying medical coverage through a government plan, is drawing opposition from Republicans.
Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., emphasized that point in the GOP's weekly radio address. "I'm concerned that if the government steps in it will eventually push out the private health care plans millions of Americans enjoy today," Blunt said.



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