by Winter Patriot
Rashid Rauf, variously described as "a key individual" or "the
ringleader" or "the mastermind" or possibly only "the messenger" but
almost certainly "the al-Q'aeda connection" in the alleged Liquid
Bombing Plot (which was
supposedly foiled by British police
in August of 2006), has a date with the Pakistani Anti-Terror Court
(ATC), where he will appear on Tuesday, February 13th, to resume a
hearing which was adjourned February 9th.
This is surprising because two months ago on December 13th the ATC
dismissed all the terror-related charges against him, and referred his case back to the regular court system.
Rashid
Rauf was arrested in Pakistan in early August. His arrest somehow
triggered the arrests of more than two dozen people in Great Britain
and seven more in Pakistan, supposedly for conspiring to blow up
passenger planes using bombs they intended to make themselves out of
common household liquids while the planes were in flight.
Even though it was quickly shown that
such a plot was physically and chemically impossible,
British authorities clamped down on airport security, restricting
carry-on luggage, requiring close inspections and costing the airlines
millions of pounds. Substantial vestiges of the new airport
restrictions remain, as do several other pieces of the Global Tyranny
Puzzle which were put in place after the alleged plot was supposedly
foiled. Further investigation of the circumstances surrounding this
so-called plot has led this cold blogger away from the question of
whether or not it was a hoax, to the more interesting question of what
sort of a hoax it was.
Late in December, after the ATC had
dismissed the terror charges, the government appealed for (and was
granted) a delay on the dismissal; they also applied for and received a
three-month extension of Rashid Rauf's detention. This then gave them
time to arrange his reappearance Feb 13th at the ATC.
Strangely,
perhaps (or not!), Rashid Rauf's legal roller-coaster has received
steadily decreasing attention in the West; a great deal was made of the
ATC's December decision to dismiss the charges, but the current news
that the charges have been reinstated (or perhaps just continue to be
in effect) has received no attention outside
Pakistan.
It's almost as if the British and American news media wanted this story to go away.
So here are a few more of the details:
Rauf
lawyer Hashmat Habib told the court that he had not been informed about
the remand of the case back to the ATC and that the Punjab prosecutor
general had filed an application in the Lahore High Court (LHC) against
the deletion of terrorism charges against his client.
He said
that the Punjab prosecutor general was not eligible to file an
application against his client in the LHC because he was a government
employee.
He said a legal inspector had told the District and
Sessions Court on February 1 that the case should be referred to the
ATC according to a ruling of the LHC.
Habib said that he would
file a contempt of court case against the Punjab home secretary and
other officials including the Punjab prosecutor general for filing the
application in the LHC against the deletion of terrorism charges
against Rauf.
There's no telling what might happen next, but I'll keep you posted.
~~~
fifteenth in
a series
Writings 
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