A State Department spokesman swatted aside suggestions that the timing of upcoming war crimes trials of the alleged perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks are politically motivated.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other captives at Guantánamo face arraignment June 5 as alleged co-conspirators in the deaths of 2,973 people, a complex capital terror case.

The Pentagon prosecutor has proposed to open the trial -- to be held at the remote U.S. Navy base with U.S. military officers serving as jurors -- on Sept. 15, at the height of the presidential campaign season.

''I don't think it's any surprise that military tribunals that we've been trying to get going, literally, for years are now getting going,'' deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters at a briefing Friday.

``And I think, again, if you go back and look at the record . . . since Khaled Sheik Mohammed has been in Guantánamo Bay, I think one of the things that's been made clear is that those high-value detainees were going to be some of the first that would be put through the military tribunal process.''

President Bush announced on Sept. 6, 2006, that the CIA had transferred Mohammed to Guantánamo with other ''high-value detainees,'' for trial by military commissions. The president referred to him as KSM, a nickname.

''So to a certain extent,'' said Casey, ``if this comes as a surprise to people, no offense, but I don't think they were paying that much attention.''

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