Alleged Mastermind Of 9/11 Attacks Unlikely To Stand Trial
The alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks against World Trade Center in New York and four of his accomplices will most likely remain in jail without standing any trial, at least in the near future. According to an anonymous source cited by the media, the Obama administration concluded that Khaled Sheikh Mohammed cannot be transferred to the United States and brought before a federal court due to the opposition of some members of the Congress as well as of the New York City officials. Neither a special military commision and a trial at Guantanamo Bay is a solution, as President Barack Obama fears that such a trial would pull away some of his more liberal supporters.
The same official said that the trial is unlikely to take place before the presidential elections from 2012 as it would require a different political enviroment, after the Republicans won last weekʼs midterms and formed a new majority in the House. And their are well-known supporters of military trials for the Gitmo suspects, a procedure which limits some of their legal rights.
On Wednesday the Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Obama administration is close to reaching a decision on the location and the type of jurisdiction before which the five men accused of organizing the 9/11 attacks would compare. Last year Holder said that most probably Mohammed would face a civilian trial in a downtown federal courthouse right in the heart of New York, rather than a military trial at Guantanamo. But he faced the stiff opposition of the Democratic Senator Charles E. Schumer and Republican Representative Peter King, both of New York, who expressed their concern about the security and the costsʼ of such a trial. And eventually the White House announced that it would review that decision.
Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and the other four defendants are currently imprisoned at Guantanamo. He was captured in 2003, two years after the attacks, in Pakistan and then held and, most probably, tortured, at secret CIA prisons overseas. He was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in September 2006, where he is held along with other high-value detainees at a small, highly secure facility. Two years later the administration of president George W. Bush began military-commision proceedings against Mohammed, charging him with murder and war crimes. But after the presidential election from 2008, the new Obama administration suspended legal proceedings and earlier this year withdrew military charges against Mohammed and the other four in anticipation of a federal trial in Manhattan.
From the beginning president Barak Obama made it clear that he is in favour of prosecuting Mohammed and other detainees in federal court as part of a larger plan to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. And his officials intend to proceed with a number of military commission cases at Guantanamo, including the prosecution of the man accused of plannung the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen ten years ago. And even transfer some low-profile Gitmo prisoners to the United States to be trialed in federal courts as a way of building everyoneʼs confidence is such proceedings. But all their efforts are expected to face the stiff opposition of the congressmen, especially now when there is a Republican majority in the House.
Neverthelss, a first step had been made with the transffer and the trial of Ahmed Ghailani, the only Guantanamo Bay prisoner transferred to the United States and prosecuted in a federal court. Ghailani, who is considered a key person in the 1998 bomb attacks against two US embassies in Africa, had been in US custody for the last six years. His trial lasted for only a month are now the jurors are deliberating. If found guilty, some analysts believe, might allow the US authorities to bring other Gitmo detainees before civilian courts. But a not-guilty verdict might be the end for any further federal prosecutions of Guantanamo prisoners.
Now there are 174 persons held at Guantanamo military prison, 67 fewer than when Obama took office. And their number continues to reduce through the resettlement or repatriation of detainees cleared for transfer by an interagency task force. But the Obama administration intends to close the prison altogheter and transfer all the prisoners to the Unoted States, provided it secures the funds and the legal authority from the Congress.
