Nation & world briefing
German court convicts
first Sept 11 defendant
Daniel Rubin
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
HAMBURG, Germany — A Ger
man court on Wednesday convicted a
Moroccan student of being an acces
sory to the murder of thousands in the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, concluding
that Mounir el Motassadeq was an al
Qaida operative who helped the Ham
burg cell headed by Mohamed Atta
carry out the suicide hijackings.
In a heavily guarded courthouse,
Motassadeq, 28, the first person to go
on trial in connection with the at
tacks, received the maximum sen
tence that German law allows, 15
years in prison, for his role in the
deaths of nearly 3,000 people in New
York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Throughout the trial, which began
in October, the former electrical engi
neering student proclaimed his inno
cence, acknowledging that he had at
tended a training camp in Afghanistan
that Osama bin Laden operated and
had sent money to his fellow Muslim
students. But he said he had no idea
they were planning any violence.
Prosecutors countered that he
had played an “ice-cold” role in
helping a plot to turn airliners into
weapons that resulted in “the most
terrible terrorist attack in history.”
Presiding Judge Albrecht Mentz
found the prosecutors had made
their circumstantial case.
“The accused belonged to this
group since its inception,” Mentz
said in reading the verdict. “He knew
and approved the key elements of
the planned attacks ... including the
high number of victims.”
The judge cited the testimony of
Motassadeq’s former roommate,
who quoted him as saying, “They
have something big planned... The
Jews will burn, and we will dance
on their graves.”
When the judge gave the sentence,
Motassadeq, standing with his arms
crossed, squeezed his eyes shut. He
was stunned by the verdict, one of his
lawyers said afterward. The lawyer
said they would appeal the verdict,
which also found that Motassadeq be
longed to a terrorist group.
A tall, gaunt man with a thin
beard, Motassadeq (mo-ta-SAH
dek) moved to Germany in 1993.
After studying German, he enrolled
in an electrical engineering pro
gram at the Technical University of
Hamburg-Harburg. Two years later,
according to Germany’s chief pros
ecutor, Motassadeq met Atta, the
intense, Egyptian-born leader of
the group of seven Islamic students
who formed the nucleus of the
Hamburg al-Qaida cell.
© 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
News briefs
Bush buys foreign
support for War
WASHINGTON — A public dis
pute this week over how much the
United States will pay Turkey to help
it weather a war in Iraq has high
lighted the fact that President Bush
is having to buy support for his poli
cies toward Saddam Hussein;
U.S. diplomats are negotiating
deals totaling billions of dollars with
Turkey and others, including Israel,
Jordan and Egypt, to defray the costs
of war or cement official backing for
American policy in nations where it1
is politically unpopular.
Turkey, which suffered an economic
disaster from the 1991 war in neigh
boring Iraq, is asking for as much as
$30 billion in aid this time, much of it in
loan guarantees that cost taxpayers lit
tle. As bargaining power, it is withhold
ing its approval for the United States to
station troops in Turkey to open a cru
cial second front against Iraq.
The Bush administration has
offered $6 billion in grants and
$20 billion in loan guarantees.
Simultaneously, a high-level
Israeli delegation is in Washington
hoping to wrap up an agreement on
a package of aid to boost Israel's mil
itary and defray costs from the war
on Iraq and the war on terrorism.
Israel, already the No. 1 recipient of
U.S. foreign assistance, is asking for
roughly $4 billion in additional military
aid over the next two to three years,
plus $8 billion in loan guarantees.
Jordan, which neighbors Iraq
and could face economic disloca
tion and an influx of refugees, has
requested 01 billion.
And Egypt, another top recipient of
U.S. aid, recently asked for more as
sistance, too. It fears a sharp drop in
tourism, a mainstay of its economy,
from a new war in the Middle East.
None of the money has been re
quested by the Bush administration,
much less approved by Congress.
Lawmakers are beginning to ask
questions about the foreign assis
tance bill they may be handed.
"What commitments has the ad
ministration made to some of our al
lies that could be very expensive in
the future?" Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R
Minn., asked Secretary of State Col
in Powell during a House Budget
Committee hearing last week.
— Warren P. Strobel, Knight
Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
Analysts warn about
waiting on North Korea
WASHINGTON — U.S. policy op
tions are dwindling fast on how to halt
North Korea's headlong rush to build a
nuclear arsenal.
The crisis over North Korea's nu
clear weapons program will dominate
talks when Secretary of State Colin
Powell visits Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul
beginning Friday. As it announced
Powell's trip on Wednesday, the State
Department balanced a demand that
North Korea "visibly, verifiably and ir
reversibly dismantle its nuclear
weapons program" with a hint that the
Bush administration would be open to
talks, under certain conditions.
'We have no plans to attack or in
vade North Korea," State Department
spokesman Richard Boucher said,
adding that the Bush administration is
"pursuing a peaceful approach."
But Washington has not said what
its North Korea policy will be, even as
analysts warn that North Korea may
be dead-set on acquiring nuclear
weapons and not willing to negotiate.
If North Korea quickly becomes a
major nuclear power, Japan and other
countries might seek nuclear weapons
of their own, and the possibility of war
on the Korean Peninsula would in
crease. Cash-strapped North Korea
also could choose to sell nuclear
weapons to terrorists.
North Korea could have a half dozen
nuclear weapons within weeks or
months. U.S. intelligence agencies say
it already may have one or two.
Washington faces an "imminent
danger" if Pyongyang begins serial
production of nuclear weapons, said
former Defense Secretary William
Perry, who oversaw efforts to halt
North Korea's nuclear program dur
ing the Clinton administration.
"If they get them, they might sell
them to the highest bidder, including
terrorists. Time is of the essence," Per
ry said at a forum last week at the East
West Center in Honolulu.
— Tim Johnson, Knight Ridder
Newspapers (KRT)
SECURE.
CLEAN.
NEW.
Open Mon - Fri 6:30 am - 11 pm,
Sat 7:30am - 11 pm, Sun 8 am - 10 pm
Free high speed
internet connection
while you wash!
Bring your laptop and plug in. Network
interface card and network cable required.
ENJOY A FREE CUP OF COFFEE
WHILE YOU WASH AT SPIN
CITY LAUNDROMAT!
| Spin City laundromat customers may present
| this coupon at Jiffy Mart (in the Hilyard
Plaza) to receive one 12 oz. coffee.
Limit one per customer.
Expires 2/26/03
L
Conveniently located in the
Hilyard Plaza (next to Jiffy Mart &
Bruno's Chef's Kitchen)
3443 Hilyard at E. 34th Ave. &
W. Amazon.
in
ten
earn six
credits, 6 weeks, as tow as
ical costs of tuition, room &
imated airfare)
. p-.il V o|
Law
Term 1: May 27-July 3 • Term 2: July 7-August 14
SUMMER SESSIONS
www.summer.hawaii.edu • toll-free 1 (800) 862-6628
donated will provide six pounds of
ight against hunger in Lane County.
You can help fight hunger in Lane County by donating even
one dollar to the Governor’s Food Drive until February 28.
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
BOOKSTORE