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9/11 suspects to face military tribunal
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo
At left a March 1, 2003 photo obtained by the Associated Press shows Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind, shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan. At right, a photo downloaded from the Arabic language Internet site www.muslm.net and purporting to show a man identified by the Internet site as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sep. 11 attacks, is seen in detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The picture was allegedly taken in July 2009 by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and released only to the detainee's family under a new policy allowing the ICRC to photograph Guantanamo inmates, ICRC spokesman Bernard Barrett said Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009. A federal law enforcement official says professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators are being referred to the system of military commissions for trial.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
Yielding to political opposition, the Obama administration gave up Monday on trying avowed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged henchmen in civilian federal court in New York and will prosecute them instead before military commissions.
The families of those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks have waited almost a decade for justice, and “it must not be delayed any longer,” Attorney General Eric Holder told a news conference at the Justice Department.
In November 2009, Holder had announced the plan for a New York trial blocks from where the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks destroyed the World Trade Center. That idea was thwarted by widespread opposition from Republicans and even some Democrats, particularly in New York.
Congress passed legislation that prohibits bringing any detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United States.
On Monday, the attorney general called those congressional restrictions unwise and unwarranted and said a legislative body cannot make prosecutorial decisions.
Although President Barack Obama made a campaign pledge to close the U.S. military prison in Cuba, Holder indicated that isn’t going to happen any time soon because of congressional restrictions.
“We must face a simple truth: Those restrictions are unlikely to be repealed in the immediate future,” Holder said.
Even though closing the Guantanamo jail remains the administration’s formal goal, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Obama supported Holder’s decision to move the 9/11 trial from a civilian court to military tribunals.
Most Republicans applauded the turnabout, but Holder said he still is convinced that his earlier decision was the right one. The Justice Department had been prepared to bring “a powerful case” in civilian court, he said. Penalties for terrorists in civilian trials so far have been harsher than those decreed by military commissions.