Free Republic

The next hearing for five Guantánamo prisoners charged with plotting the September 11 attacks has been postponed for two weeks to allow the defendants to observe the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The chief judge in the Guantánamo war crimes tribunals, Army Colonel James Pohl, granted the delay on Monday for the alleged architect of the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and four co-defendants who could face the death penalty if convicted on charges of conspiring with al Qaeda and murdering 2,976 people in the hijacked plane attacks of 2001. … Pretrial hearings are scheduled to resume on Tuesday in another...

Washington -- U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham is trying to prevent the Obama administration from holding criminal trials in civilian courts for the alleged Sept. 11 plotters instead of bringing them before military commissions. Graham, a South Carolina Republican who helped craft the 2006 Military Commissions Act, said Friday that he had attached an amendment to an appropriations bill, which would prohibit funding prosecution and trial of the accused terrorists before federal judges. "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed needs to be tried in a military tribunal," Graham said. "He's not a common criminal. He took up arms against the United States."