Guantanamo dudes to be deaded
Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 12:07 pm
The United States will seek the death penalty against six Guantanamo Bay detainees who are suspects in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, two U.S. defense officials said.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one of six Guantanamo detainees to be charged, an official says.
The government is expected to announce Monday that it will submit criminal charges against the detainees, who include alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, according to the officials.
The detainees will be charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attacking on civilians, and hijacking, the officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the government has not made an official announcement. Watch how the trials could prove to be difficult ยป
The head attorney in the case will make the announcement at 11 a.m. ET at the Pentagon. The announcement will be shown live on CNN TV and CNN.com.
A 90-page document will be released, listing the names of those killed on the three airplanes.
All six suspects are accused of helping plan the September 11 attacks in which hijackers flew two jets into the World Trade Center in New York and another jet into the Pentagon in Washington. Another hijacked plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The New York Times quoted an official familiar with the case as saying that the other five detainees expected to be charged are: Mohammed al-Qahtani, the so-called 20th hijacker in the 9/11 attacks; Ramzi bin al-Shibh, accused of being an intermediary between the hijackers and al Qaeda leaders; Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, who has been identified as Mohammed's lieutenant; al-Baluchi's alleged assistant, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi; and Walid bin Attash, who is accused of selecting and training some hijackers.
Military prosecutors will submit the charges along with a request to seek the death penalty in the cases, and a judge will have to approve charges and the request, the defense officials told CNN.
A military commission would thereafter be held at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
If a judge approves the charges, it will mark the first time that Guantanamo detainees have been charged in the September 11 attacks.
About 380 foreign nationals are being held at Guantanamo. The detainees' lawyers have repeatedly complained that their clients are being denied due process.
The U.S. Supreme Court also has twice expressed reservations about how the government handles detainees at the U.S. naval base.
In 2006, the high court struck down the Bush administration's use of military tribunals to try terror suspects, saying the process was unconstitutional because the system did not allow prisoners to challenge their detention.
Congress last year passed the Military Commissions Act, which provided terror suspects with a limited right to appeal any conviction. It also reduced the jurisdiction of federal courts.
The commissions were specifically established to try crimes related to the war on terror. The exact charges that the six detainees face are unclear.
Not much is known about the commissions system. The detainees will have lawyers, and they will be allowed to see at least some of the evidence against them.
However, several legal and political challenges remain, and CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said it could be five years before any of the detainees go to trial.
"One thing's clear about Guantanamo is that the next president is going to have to resolve this," Toobin said.
Bob Hughes, whose 30-year-old son died in the World Trade Center, said he was disappointed with the slow legal process, but he applauded the government's efforts to impose the death penalty on any conspirators.
"Anyone involved that helped these people get to America to do what they did, they definitely deserve the death penalty," he said.
One legal issue expected to stall the process is whether prosecutors will be able to use confessions or other information gleaned using controversial interrogation techniques.
On Tuesday, CIA Director Michael Hayden for the first time publicly confirmed Mohammed and two other terror suspects were subjected to a technique called waterboarding, which is intended to simulate drowning.
The technique was used on top al Qaeda detainees in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Hayden said.
"The CIA has not used waterboarding for almost five years," Hayden said. "We used it against these three high-valued detainees because of the circumstances of the time."
He later defended the use of waterboarding as necessary when "an unlawful combatant is possessing information that would help us prevent catastrophic loss of life of Americans or their allies."
But he raised doubts about whether the technique would be considered legal today and reiterated that the technique is not presently part of the interrogation program.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one of six Guantanamo detainees to be charged, an official says.
The government is expected to announce Monday that it will submit criminal charges against the detainees, who include alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, according to the officials.
The detainees will be charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attacking on civilians, and hijacking, the officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the government has not made an official announcement. Watch how the trials could prove to be difficult ยป
The head attorney in the case will make the announcement at 11 a.m. ET at the Pentagon. The announcement will be shown live on CNN TV and CNN.com.
A 90-page document will be released, listing the names of those killed on the three airplanes.
All six suspects are accused of helping plan the September 11 attacks in which hijackers flew two jets into the World Trade Center in New York and another jet into the Pentagon in Washington. Another hijacked plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The New York Times quoted an official familiar with the case as saying that the other five detainees expected to be charged are: Mohammed al-Qahtani, the so-called 20th hijacker in the 9/11 attacks; Ramzi bin al-Shibh, accused of being an intermediary between the hijackers and al Qaeda leaders; Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, who has been identified as Mohammed's lieutenant; al-Baluchi's alleged assistant, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi; and Walid bin Attash, who is accused of selecting and training some hijackers.
Military prosecutors will submit the charges along with a request to seek the death penalty in the cases, and a judge will have to approve charges and the request, the defense officials told CNN.
A military commission would thereafter be held at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
If a judge approves the charges, it will mark the first time that Guantanamo detainees have been charged in the September 11 attacks.
About 380 foreign nationals are being held at Guantanamo. The detainees' lawyers have repeatedly complained that their clients are being denied due process.
The U.S. Supreme Court also has twice expressed reservations about how the government handles detainees at the U.S. naval base.
In 2006, the high court struck down the Bush administration's use of military tribunals to try terror suspects, saying the process was unconstitutional because the system did not allow prisoners to challenge their detention.
Congress last year passed the Military Commissions Act, which provided terror suspects with a limited right to appeal any conviction. It also reduced the jurisdiction of federal courts.
The commissions were specifically established to try crimes related to the war on terror. The exact charges that the six detainees face are unclear.
Not much is known about the commissions system. The detainees will have lawyers, and they will be allowed to see at least some of the evidence against them.
However, several legal and political challenges remain, and CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said it could be five years before any of the detainees go to trial.
"One thing's clear about Guantanamo is that the next president is going to have to resolve this," Toobin said.
Bob Hughes, whose 30-year-old son died in the World Trade Center, said he was disappointed with the slow legal process, but he applauded the government's efforts to impose the death penalty on any conspirators.
"Anyone involved that helped these people get to America to do what they did, they definitely deserve the death penalty," he said.
One legal issue expected to stall the process is whether prosecutors will be able to use confessions or other information gleaned using controversial interrogation techniques.
On Tuesday, CIA Director Michael Hayden for the first time publicly confirmed Mohammed and two other terror suspects were subjected to a technique called waterboarding, which is intended to simulate drowning.
The technique was used on top al Qaeda detainees in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Hayden said.
"The CIA has not used waterboarding for almost five years," Hayden said. "We used it against these three high-valued detainees because of the circumstances of the time."
He later defended the use of waterboarding as necessary when "an unlawful combatant is possessing information that would help us prevent catastrophic loss of life of Americans or their allies."
But he raised doubts about whether the technique would be considered legal today and reiterated that the technique is not presently part of the interrogation program.