[Moupponge]

Thursday, April 05, 2012

Accused September 11 mastermind to face trial at Guantanamo

By David Alexander

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Accused September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four suspected co-conspirators were ordered on Wednesday to stand trial before a Guantanamo war crimes tribunal, the Pentagon said, a move that throws the politically charged case into the limelight in an election year.



Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is seen during his arrest in this March 1, 2003 file photo. REUTERS/Courtesy U.S. News & World Report/Handout/Files
Convictions on the most serious charges, which include terrorism, hijacking, conspiracy and murder in violation of the law of war, could carry the death penalty. The decision to move to trial in a military court is the latest chapter in a decade-long political and legal battle over handling detainees. One of the most contentious issues has been whether terrorism suspects like Mohammed and his alleged co-conspirators should be tried in civilian courts as criminals or before military courts as enemy combatants.

The trial will bring a deep examination of the events leading up to 9/11, the deadliest attack ever carried out on U.S. soil and one that propelled the country into a global war against al Qaeda and its affiliates. The trial stands to be double-edged for President Barack Obama, who is running for a second term in November. It will remind voters about the killing of long-fugitive al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden last year, a highlight of his presidency. But it could also draw attention to his failure to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, which he had promised to do as a candidate in the 2008 election.

The official overseeing the Guantanamo tribunals, retired Vice Admiral Bruce MacDonald, referred the case to a capital military commission on charges of terrorism, hijacking aircraft, conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians and other counts, the Pentagon said. The case is fraught with controversy. All five defendants were held in secret CIA prisons before being sent to Guantanamo in 2006. The CIA has acknowledged subjecting Mohammed to a simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding during his interrogation, and other defendants have said they were abused.

The tribunals, which have gone through several revisions, ban the use of evidence gained through coercion, but critics say the hearsay rules are broad enough to allow the introduction of second-hand information obtained through torture. Asked on Wednesday about the decision to proceed to trial, White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "It has been more than 10 years since 9/11 ... and the president is committed to ensuring that those who were accused of perpetrating the attacks against the United States be brought to justice."

Carney said Obama remained committed to closing the U.S. military facility in Cuba that houses high-risk terrorist suspects, blaming its continued operation on "obstacles ... from Congress." The prison at Guantanamo still holds 171 people, down from 252 when Obama took office. The president had promised to close the facility by the end of his first year in office, but the deadline passed as the administration struggled against the hard reality of finding other countries willing to take the inmates.

Mohammed, who is Pakistani, and the other four are accused of planning and executing the September 11, 2001, hijacked airliner attacks that killed 2,976 people in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attacks were part of a conspiracy involving al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and other members of his group. The five were initially charged in the Guantanamo war crimes court in 2008. Obama, then a candidate for president, opposed the use of the tribunals.

After his election, Attorney General Eric Holder moved to have the case transferred to a federal court in New York and the military charges were dropped. The effort to try the case in civilian court ran into stiff resistance in Congress and in New York, where officials warned about the security threat and said the cost of protecting the venue could be as much as $1 billion. Congress eventually blocked the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners to the United States for trial or any other reason.

One year ago, on April 4, 2011, the administration abandoned efforts to try the case before a civilian court near the site of the World Trade Center attack, as Obama had promised, and shifted the case back to a military tribunal at Guantanamo.

BLAMES LAWMAKERS

Holder blamed lawmakers for the policy reversal, saying their decision to block funding for prosecuting the September 11 suspects in a New York court had forced the administration to move back to a military trial. Representative Buck McKeon, Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, welcomed the decision to try the group before a military commission at Guantanamo, saying it was time for "judgment to be passed and long-delayed justice to be done."

The American Civil Liberties Union condemned Wednesday's decision to proceed with a military case, saying the administration was "making a terrible mistake by prosecuting the most important terrorism trials of our time in a second-tier system of justice." "Whatever verdict comes out of the Guantanamo military commissions will be tainted by an unfair process and the politics that wrongly pulled these cases from federal courts, which have safely and successfully handled hundreds of terrorism trials," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said.

The decision to refer the case to a tribunal means the five will have to be arraigned before a military judge at Guantanamo within 30 days of their formal notification that the case will go to trial. Notification is expected to happen on Thursday, a Pentagon spokesman said. The case has been referred to a joint trial, meaning the five will be tried together. In addition to Mohammed, the accused are Walid bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi.

James Connell, the civilian attorney for Aziz Ali, said in a statement that his client, a nephew of Mohammed, did not kill or plan to kill anyone and should not face the death penalty. Ali's attorneys have said in the past that he was a computer worker in Dubai who sent money to the hijackers and was not a direct participant in planning the attacks. "Mr. Ali would not be eligible for the death penalty if this case were tried in federal court," Connell said. "This attempt to expand the reach of the death penalty to people who neither killed nor planned to kill is another example of the second-class justice of the military commissions."

(Additional reporting by Jane Sutton in Miami, Laura MacInnis, Alister Bull, Susan Cornwell and Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington; Editing by Mary Milliken and Cynthia Osterman)

[Moupponge]

Thursday, April 05, 2012

Factbox - Accused 9-11 plotters face death penalty trial

(Reuters) - Five Guantanamo prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 attacks in 2001 will face the death penalty if convicted in a U.S. war crimes tribunal, the Pentagon official overseeing the trials said on Wednesday. Nearly 3,000 people were killed when alleged al Qaeda operatives hijacked four passenger planes and crashed them into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field. Here are some details about the accused facing charges that include mass murder:

* Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - Pakistani raised in Kuwait, educated in the United States. Accused of planning the September 11 attacks and training the hijackers to use short-bladed knives by practicing on sheep and camels. Prosecutors contend he was a military operations commander for al Qaeda's foreign operations before his capture in Pakistan in 2003. Known as KSM, he has claimed responsibility for 31 attacks or planned attacks and told the U.S. military that he was responsible for the September 11 attacks "from A to Z" and that he beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. KSM said in a previous court hearing at Guantanamo that he wanted to plead guilty and would welcome martyrdom.

* Walid bin Attash - Yemeni raised in Saudi Arabia, lost his right leg in 1997 battle in Afghanistan. Accused of running an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan where he trained two of the September 11 hijackers. The Pentagon said he travelled to Malaysia in 1999 to observe U.S. airline security in order to assist the hijacking plan. Also accused of financing the attack on the USS Cole, buying the boat and explosives used in the attack and recruiting the operatives. He was also accused of helping obtain a passport for a man involved in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Kenya, and acting as the link between bin Laden and the leader of al Qaeda's Kenya cell.

* Ramzi Binalshibh - Yemeni national and one-time roommate of suspected September 11 hijack ringleader Mohamed Atta in Hamburg, Germany. Accused of serving as a link between al Qaeda leaders and the hijackers. U.S. officials say he tried but failed to obtain a visa to enter the United States to take part in the attacks as a pilot-hijacker. The Pentagon said he helped find flight schools for the hijackers in the United States. Binalshibh was captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in September 2002. Military doctors diagnosed him with a delusional disorder and he was being given psychotropic drugs at Guantanamo, where defence lawyers have challenged his mental competency for trial.

* Ali Abdul Aziz Ali - Also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, is a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and cousin of jailed 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef. He is accused of being an important facilitator of the September 11 attacks, transferring money to U.S.-based operatives and assisting nine hijackers on their way from Pakistan to the United States. The Pentagon said he sent about $120,000 to hijackers for their expenses and flight training.

* Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi - Saudi accused of being a key financial facilitator of the September 11 attacks. The Pentagon said he provided the hijackers with money, Western clothing, travellers' checks and credit cards. Accused of accepting about $20,000 in wire transfers from two of the September 11, 2001, hijackers in the days before the attack. The U.S. military said his laptop held files that included al Qaeda expense reports and details of al Qaeda operatives and their families. Has said he was not a member of al Qaeda but attended an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and supported all "jihadists."

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Vicki Allen)
Copyright © 2012 Reuters

[EliteFranceska]

death penalty is too cheap for him...his one life vs the thousands killed - he win. I say, hang him by his dick and cut one slash from him every single day....repeat until he die...barbaric yes, but justice for what he has done.

uncannily, he is MKS. WE have MSK in our backyard - and he is not standing trial anytime soon.

[sDePrx59]

Yeah, right !!!!