Posted on 02/11/2008 9:59:48 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has charged six detainees at Guantanamo Bay with murder and war crimes in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, it was announced Monday. Officials said they'll seek the death penalty in what would be the first trials under the terrorism-era military tribunal system.
"These charges allege a long term, highly sophisticated, organized plan by al-Qaida to attack the United States of America," Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, the legal adviser to the tribunal system, told reporters. He added that the charges have been sworn "against six individuals alleged to be responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks" which occurred on Sept. 11, 2001 and killed nearly 3,000 people.
Hartmann said the six include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the attacks in which hijacked planes were flown into buildings in New York and Washington. Another hijacked plane crashed in the fields of western Pennsylvania.
The military will recommend that the six men be tried together before a military tribunal. But the cases may be clouded because of recent revelations that Mohammmed was subject to a harsh interrogation technique known as waterboarding — which critics call torture.
Asked what impact that will have on the case, Hartmann said it will be up to the military judge to determine what evidence is allowed.
Prosecutors have been working for years to assemble the case against suspects in the attacks that prompted the Bush administration to launch its global war on terror.
The other five men being charged are: Mohammed al-Qahtani, the man officials have labeled the 20th hijacker; Ramzi Binalshibh, said to have been the main intermediary between the hijackers and leaders of Al Qaeda; Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, known as Ammar al-Baluchi, a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has been identified as Mohammed's lieutenant for the 2001 operation; al-Baluchi's assistant, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi; and Waleed bin Attash, a detainee known as Khallad, who investigators say selected and trained some of the hijackers.
White House press secretaryt Dana Perino said that President Bush had no role in the decision to seek the death penalty.
"Obviously 9-11 was a defining moment in our history," she said, "and a defining moment in the global war on terror. And this judicial process is the next step in that story. The president is sure that the military is going to follow through in a way that the Congress said they should."
The men would be tried in the military tribunal system that was set up by the administration shortly after the start of the counterterror war and has been widely criticized for it rules on legal representation for suspects, hearings behind closed doors and past allegations of inmate abuse at Guantanamo. Original rules allowed the military to exclude the defendant from his own trial, permitted statements made under torture, and forbade appeal to an independent court; but the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the system in 2006 and a revised plan set up after Congress enacted a new law has included some additional rights.
Defense lawyers still criticize the system for it's secrecy.
But Hartmann said Monday that the defendants will get the same rights as U.S. soldiers tried under the military justice system including the right to remain silent, call witnesses, and know the evidence against him. Appeals can go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
He called the charges sworn Monday "only allegations" and said the accused will remain innocent until proven guilty.
The decision to seek the death penalty also is likely to draw criticism from within the international community. A number of countries, including U.S. allies, have said they would object to the use of capital punishment for their nationals held at Guantanamo.
The military tribunal system requires that a panel of 12 unanimously find the defendant guilty for capital punishment cases, Hartmann said.
Officials plan to hold the trial in a specially constructed court at Guantanamo that will allow lawyers, journalists and some others to be present, but leave relatives of Sept. 11 victims and others to watch the trial through closed-circuit broadcasts.
Mohammed was among 15 so-called "high-value detainees" who were held at length by the CIA in secret overseas prisons — some subject to what critics call torture — before being handed over to the military in 2006.
Last week, for the first time, the Bush administration acknowledged that Mohammed was among three suspects who were waterboarded. CIA Director Michael Hayden said that waterboarding was used, in part, because of widespread belief among U.S. intelligence officials that more catastrophic attacks were imminent.
Waterboarding involves strapping a person down and pouring water over the suspect's cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It has been traced back hundreds of years, to the Spanish Inquisition, and is condemned by nations around the world. Critics call it a form of torture.
In Guantanamo Bay hearings that have been criticized as unfair, Mohammed confessed to the 9/11 attack and a chilling string of other terror plots last March.
"I was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z," Mohammed said in a statement read during the session, according to hearing transcripts later released by the Pentagon.
Under the system, the charges are forwarded to the convening authority for military commissions, Susan Crawford. She can refer some or all of them for trial.
And it could be months or longer before trials begin for the six Sept. 11 defendants. With the appeals process, it would likely be some time after any convictions before executions would be possible.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind, is seen shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan in this file photo from March 1, 200 obtained by the Associated Press. The Pentagon is planning to charge and seek the death penalty for Mohammed and five other detainees at Guantanamo Bay for the Sept. 11 terror attacks on America. (AP Photo-File)
This undated file photo provided by ABC News shows Waleed bin Attash. Bin Attash, a Yemeni portrayed as an al-Qaida operative and a member of a terrorist family, confessed to plotting the bombings of the USS Cole and two U.S. embassies in Africa, killing hundreds, according to a Pentagon transcript of a Guantanamo Bay hearing, released Monday March 19, 2007. The Pentagon has charged bin Attash and five other detainees at Guantanamo Bay with murder and war crimes in connection with the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and officials said Monday Feb. 11, 2008, the United States will seek the death penalty. (AP Photo/ABC News)
This undated handout photo, made available during a news briefing in Karlsruhe, southern Germany, on Sept. 21, 2001, shows Ramzi Binalshibh. The Pentagon has charged Binalshibh and five other detainees at Guantanamo Bay with murder and war crimes in connection with the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and officials said Monday Feb. 11, 2008 the United States will seek the death penalty. (AP Photo/Winfried Rothermel)
Good, but waaaaaaaaaaaaay toooooooooooo slooooooooow ....
Awesome. I hope they get the chair and not the honor of a rifle squad.
I hear by publicly declare that I will volunteer for the firing squad and even provide my own weapon and ammo...
posted earlier
U.S. Said to Seek Execution for 6 in Sept. 11 Case ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1968322/posts
U.S. May Ask Death for 9-11 Suspects ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1968441/posts
Thanks, I saw the link to the thread and
Alouette’s after I did search and such..
It looks strange seeing the charges coming out of the Pentagon instead of DoJ. Oh well, they’ll hang well enough either way, I reckun..
Better kill them before Hussein Obama or Hillary becomes President.
PING, BTTT
They better get a military tribunal to try them. And make it secret and quick.
If they get a civilian trial in federal court, the judge will probably give Mohammed a lollipop and probation, and issue a profuse apology for the waterboarding he had to endure.
US charges six suspects over 9/11
**************************EXCERPTS***************************
Gen Hartmann said the charges included conspiracy, murder in violation of the laws of war, attacking civilians, destruction of property and terrorism.
All but Mr Qahtani and Mr Hawsawi are also charged with hijacking or hazarding an aircraft.
SUSPECTS CHARGED
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Walid Bin Attash (above)
Ramzi Binalshibh
Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali
Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi
Mohammed al-Qahtani
The charges listed "169 overt acts allegedly committed by the defendants in furtherance of the September 11 events".
Gen Hartmann said: "The accused will have his opportunity to have his day in court.
"It's our obligation to move the process forward, to give these people their rights."
In listing more details of the charges against the defendants, Gen Hartmann alleged that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had proposed the attacks to al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in 1996, had obtained funding and overseen the operation and the training of hijackers in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a Kuwaiti of Pakistani extraction, was said to have been al-Qaeda's third in command when he was captured in Pakistan in March 2003.
He has reportedly admitted to decapitating kidnapped US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 but these charges do not relate to that.
The BBC's Vincent Dowd in Washington says Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has said he planned every part of the 9/11 attacks but that his confession may prove problematic as the CIA admitted using controversial "waterboarding" techniques.
Human rights groups regard the procedure as torture.
One of their lawyers was on Fox earlier talking about how the U.S. Government is not playing fair and their trials are already stacked against them since the Govt. is not releasing a ton of files and keeping things sealed.
I don’t know how lawyers can defend these pukes.
.
NEVER FORGET
.
The Man who predicted 9/11 =
9/11 Lifesaver RICK RESCORLA, ..R.I.P.
http://www.RickRescorla.com/The%20Statue.htm
http://www.ArmchairGeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24361
.
NEVER FORGET
.
I have a new bumper sticker for you all..
“Save the 9/11 Six - Vote Democrat...”
Sadly, it won’t be more than an hour or two before a bunch of leftards picks up the cry of “Free the Guantanamo Six”...
I would glady go pay per view, or in person, to see them hung, or shot. hopefully they wont get lethal injection.
To be fair, they should be hauled up 1000’ in a helicopter and thrown out.
To be fair, they should be hauled up 1000’ in a helicopter and thrown out.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Nah, too easy. Look up execution by elephant sometime. It seems that the condemned was tied down with his head on a block, if they felt really diabolical they would position him so that he could see in the far distance as the elephant approached and seemed to grow from a speck on the horizon until the huge beast reached the appointed spot when the Mahout would command the elephant to raise its huge forefoot and bring it down on the condemned man’s head. I suspect the unfortunate one would have thouroughly evacuated his bowels while watching the slow walk of the approaching beast. Of course the Romans had methods that would make even the elephant treatment seem like an easy way to go.
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