The Pentagon's "Convening Authority" for Military Commissions has issued capital murder charges against five detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, naming them as alleged conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. They were arraigned June 5, 2008. Their next court date is July 10.
Khalid Sheik Mohammed, called KSM, is accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks by proposing the idea to Osama bin Laden in 1996, overseeing the operation, and training the hijackers in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The CIA subjected him to an interrogation technique called waterboarding before his 2006 transfer to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In March 2007, according to a military transcript, he boasted: ''I was responsible for the 9/11 operation -- from A to Z."
Waleed bin Attash allegedly ran an al Qaeda training camp in Logar, Afghanistan, where two of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were trained. Osama bin Laden allegedly selected him as a Sept. 11 hijacker but he was prevented from participating when he was arrested and briefly detained in Yemen in early 2001. The Pentagon also says he traveled to Malaysia in 1999 to study U.S. airline security.
Ramzi bin al Shibh, a Yemeni, allegedly helped find flight schools for the hijackers, helped them enter the United States, and helped finance the operation. He allegedly was selected to be one of the hijackers and made a ''martyr video," but couldn't get a U.S. visa to enter the United States. He also is believed to have been a lead operative for a foiled plot to crash aircraft into London's Heathrow Airport.
Ammar al Baluchi, also known as Ali Abd al Aziz Ali, is alleged to have sent approximately $120,000 to the hijackers for their expenses and flight training, and helped nine of the hijackers travel to the United States. He is believed to have served as a key lieutenant to Khalid Sheik Mohammed in Pakistan. He was born in Pakistan's Baluchistan province, raised in Kuwait, and is described as KSM's nephew.
Mustafa Ahmad al Hawsawi, a Saudi, is alleged to have helped the hijackers with money, Western clothing, traveler's checks and credit cards. Hawsawi served as a witness in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial, saying he had seen Moussaoui at an al Qaeda guesthouse in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in the first half of 2001, but was never introduced to him nor conducted operations with him.
Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann is the trial judge. He is a New Jersey native and 1980 U.S. Naval Academy gradiate. He got his law degree in 1987 from the Delaware School of Law at Widener University. He first became a military judge in 1998. He also served in an earlier effort to stage the first U.S. war crimes tribunals since World War II -- until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that version unconstitutional. He presided at the March 2007 proceedings that accepted a guilty plea by al Qaeda foot soldier David Hicks of Australia, who in exchange got a nine-month prison sentence.
Charges include conspiracy in the Sept. 11 attacks, specifically with Osama bin Laden, other senior al Qaeda members and the hijackers, plus eight other charges including murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, and providing material support for terrorism. Mohammed, bin Attash, Bin al Shibh and Baluchi are also charged specifically with hijacking four aircraft -- two that hit the World Trade Center towers in New York, the one that hit the Pentagon and the one that crashed in the western Pennsylvania countryside. According to the Pentagon, the attacks killed 2,973 people, including eight children. The charges describe 169 "overt acts" that led to the 9/11 attacks.
The Pentagon has built a $12 million Expeditionary Legal Complex with a snoop-proof courtroom capable of trying six alleged co-conspirators before one judge and jury. Media and other observers are sequestered in a soundproofed room behind thick glass, at the rear. The judge at the front and a court security officer have mute buttons to silence the feed to the observers' booth -- if they suspect someone in court could spill classified information.
The lead 9/11 case prosecutor is retired Army Col. Robert Swann, formerly the Pentagon's chief prosecutor for military commissions. The rest of his 9/11 prosecution team includes: Edward Ryan, a civilian attorney with the Department of Justice; Clayton G. Trivett Jr., a retired Navy lieutenant currently a civilian employee of the Department of Defense; George Toscas, Thomas P. Swanton and Jordan Goldstein of the Department of Justice and U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Jeffrey Groharing, a judge advocate general who is also prosecuting the Omar Khadr non death penalty case.
The lead military defense attorneys detailed by the Department of Defense, from left: Navy Reserves Capt. Prescott "Scott" Prince, for Khalid Sheik Mohammed; Navy Lt. Cmdr. James E. Hatcher, for Waleed bin Attash; Navy Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, for Ramzi bin al Shibh; Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, for Ammar al Baluchi; Army Maj. Jon S. Jackson, for Mustafa al Hawsawi.
On Sept. 6, 2006, President Bush disclosed the transfer of the defendants to Guantánamo and urged legislative approval for the trials: "As soon as Congress acts to authorize the military commissions I have proposed, the men our intelligence officials believe orchestrated the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001, can face justice.” The full White House text
