THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Why We Need Gitmo (second item): Al-Qaeda operative Jaber Elbaneh, a dual citizen of Yemen and the U.S. who was part of a group of 36 Yemenis charged with conspiring to blow up oil installations in 2006, had finally been put behind bars by a Yemeni judge, reports The Washington Post. Although the U.S. had a $5 million bounty on his head, Elbaneh had been living under the personal protection of Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh:
Elbaneh was indicted in 2003 on U.S. charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization for his alleged membership in the so-called Lackawanna Six, a group of young men from near Buffalo, N.Y., who had traveled to Afghanistan to train in al-Qaeda camps.
Unlike other members of the cell, Elbaneh did not return to the United States after the trip to Afghanistan. He went to Yemen instead, where authorities reluctantly arrested him in January 2004 after receiving heavy pressure from Washington.
He escaped from a maximum-security prison two years later, along with 22 other inmates.
Rumors persisted that he was allowed to remain free with the tacit permission of the Yemeni government. Three months ago, Elbaneh confirmed the suspicions when he walked unannounced into a courtroom, escorted by four bodyguards, and told a judge that he was under the personal protection of Saleh, Yemen's president.
As with other suspected terrorists, there is a good chance Elbaneh will be freed by the government or allowed to escape again. The Yemeni government refuses to extradite him to the U.S. to stand trial on terrorism charges, citing a constitutional prohibition.
† Taking An Arm And A Leg: Former director of UCLA's cadaver program Henry Reid, 58, and human body parts trafficker Ernest Nelson, 50, have been indicted in Los Angeles County Superior Court on three felony counts of conspiracy to commit a crime, grand theft and grand theft of personal property, reports The Associated Press. Nelson was also indicted on four counts of filing false income tax returns and one count of failing to file an income tax return. From 1999 until 2004, Reid allegedly sold hundreds of body parts to Nelson, whose firm Empire Anatomical Company allegedly made more than $1 million reselling them to research facilities. Bail was set at $500,000 for Reid and $350,000 for Nelson. Both men posted bail, and were been released on their own recognizance. A bail hearing is scheduled for May 30th, and the trial is expected to get under way 90 days afterwards.
† When Science Is A Form Of Worship: John Jackson, a University of Colorado at Colorado Springs physics lecturer and a devout Catholic has “resurrected the mystery of the Shroud of Turin, the fabled burial cloth of Christ that 20 years ago scientists declared a fake,” reports The Denver Post.
Twenty years ago, scientists at three laboratories used radiocarbon dating to determine that the shroud was a medieval forgery, manufactured in the 13th or 14th Century. However, the scientists were not able to determine how the image was created, and admitted their findings did not jibe with other forensic and historical evidence that suggests the shroud is authentic.
The Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit will test Jackson's hypothesis that the shroud had been contamination by environmental carbon monoxide, which distorted the radiocarbon dating results by 1,300 years. For his part, Jackson must figure out how that contamination occurred and is prepared for either a positive or negative outcome:
Science still has much to tell us about the shroud. If we are dealing with the burial cloth of Christ, it is the witness to the birth of Christianity. But my faith doesn't depend on that outcome. …
The shroud doesn't rise or fall on this one hypothesis of mine, but it's part of a first-class adventure story in science and religion.
Millions of Christians believe the blood-stained image on the 14-foot-long linen shroud was formed when Jesus rose from the dead.
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