>>What would the sentence be should he be convicted in the U.S.I think the so-called TERRORIST PENALTIES ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2003 adds conspiracy and attempt to commit terrorist acts in the list of terrorism offenses subject to the death penalty. Plus regular conspiracy before the fact for murder is probably a capital offense anyway.
>>Why has the US not requested extradition? Some ideas:(a) If we were to request extradition, Germany would likely refuse because of their opposition to the death penalty. So Germany would say no, and it could cause international tension and/or a certain amount of German bashing stateside. (Fifteen years seems a ridiculously brief sentence for an al-Qaeda guy.)
(b) He would demand that some of the Gitmo bad guys testify at his trial, and counterterrorism folk don't want them to communicate with anyone, let alone enter the US.
(c) We couldn't convict him of any other charges. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html