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The Obama administration has shelved the planned prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged coordinator of the Oct. 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, according to a court filing. The decision at least temporarily scuttles what was supposed to be the signature trial of a major al-Qaeda figure under a reformed system of military commissions. And it comes practically on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the attack, which killed 17 sailors and wounded dozens when a boat packed with explosives ripped a hole in the side of the warship in the port of Aden. In...

WASHINGTON - Pakistani authorities have captured a man accused of playing a leading role in the Sept. 11 attacks and the bombing of an American warship in Yemen, a catch President Bush called a "major, significant find" in the war against the ailing al-Qaida network. Waleed bin Attash, also known as Tawfiq Attash or just Khallad, coordinated the activities of at least two of the hijackers who crashed into the Pentagon during the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. counterterrorism officials said. He is also one of two figures described as masterminds of the bombing of the U.S. Navy destroyer on Oct....

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Former and current U.S. officials say a CIA report details the U.S. agency’s threatened use of a drill and gun in the interrogation of an al-Qaida suspect. The unidentified officials said the report, due for release to the public next week, details how captured al-Qaida commander Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was threatened with a power drill and a gun by CIA interrogators in an attempt to procure information, The Washington Post said Saturday. The anonymous officials said he gun and drill were not used on Nashiri but placed nearby in an attempt to instill fear in...

ABC News has learned that on Friday, President Obama will likely order the Department of Defense's Military Commission to withdraw charges against terrorist suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. The charges may later be reinstated in a military commission or pursued in a civilian court. Al-Nashiri will remain in custody. The announcement will not be made until after President Obama meets with the families of victims of terrorist attacks on 9/11 and on the U.S.S. Cole, where he will assure them that this step is not being done to be lenient towards al-Nashiri. The move is being done to stop the continued...

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com: Charges Withdrawn Against Alleged U.S.S. Cole Bombing Mastermind [7:59 pm ET]

A military judge has refused the Obama administration's request to delay proceeding for 120 days in the case of a detainee held at the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who is accused of planning the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship, an al-Qaeda strike that killed 17 service members and injured 50 others. The decision throws into some disarray the administration's plan to buy some time as it reviews individual detainee cases as part of its plan to close the prison. The Pentagon may now be forced to withdraw the charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a...

Note: The following text is a quote: IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 1028-08 December 19, 2008 Charges Referred Against One Detainee, Charges Dismissed Against Another Today the Convening Authority, Office of Military Commissions, referred charges to trial by military commission against 'Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri of Saudi Arabia. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is charged with participating in the planning and preparation for the attack on the USS Cole in the Port of Aden, Yemen, on Oct. 12, 2000. The attack killed 17 sailors, wounded 47 sailors, and severely damaged the ship. The Convening Authority directed that the charges be tried as a capital case,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. military prosecutors have requested the death penalty for the alleged mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole warship that killed 17 U.S. sailors in 2000, the Pentagon said on Monday. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian national of Yemeni descent being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, faces eight charges, including murder and terrorism, for the attack in the Yemeni port of Aden on October 12, 2000, that wounded 47 sailors. Prosecutors have also charged al-Nashiri over a failed attack on another U.S. warship, the USS The Sullivans, in Aden in January 2000 and an attack...

A Saudi man held in US custody for five years has told a military hearing he was tortured into confessing a role in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 41, said he had faced years of torture after his arrest in 2002, a Pentagon transcript from the closed-door hearing said.

<p>November 23, 2002 -- WASHINGTON - The newest prize al Qaeda captive has given U.S. intelligence agents chilling details about massive terrorist plots to attack commercial and military ships in the Persian Gulf region with planes and scuba divers, The Post has learned.</p>

ABC News is reporting that Current and former CIA officers speaking to ABC News on the condition of confidentiality say the United States scrambled to get all the suspects off European soil before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived there today. The officers say 11 top al Qaeda suspects have now been moved to a new CIA facility in the North African desert. The disgrunted intelligence officers even disclosed an actual list of 12 high-value targets allegedly held by the CIA, and ABC is reporting it : Abu Zubaydah: Held first in Thailand then Poland Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi: Held in...

SAN`A, Yemen - Yemen's former interior minister helped the alleged mastermind of the attack on the USS Cole to pass through security checkpoints in the months leading up to the 2000 bombing, according to a document read out in court Wednesday by a lawyer for five of the accused plotters. Defense lawyer Abdul Aziz al-Samawi read out an official letter by former Interior Minister Hussein Arab, who was removed in April 2001, instructing security authorities to give "safe passage to Sheik Mohammed Omar al-Harazi with three bodyguards without being searched or intercepted. All security forces are instructed to cooperate with...