9/11 mastermind to be formally charged at Guantanamo Bay

Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the self-confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and four co-accused were due to be charged formally at Guantanamo Bay, the US detention center in Cuba.

A military tribunal will formally charge Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants for planning and executing the September 11, 2001, attacks that killed 2,976 people in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The incrimination marks the second time the United States has attempted to prosecute the 9/11 suspects, which is considered trail of the century.

This step comes over ten years after the most fatal attacks on American territory and just about one year after Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, the man behind the entire saga, was killed in Abbottabad, the garrison city of Pakistan.

Khalid Sheikh Muhammad along with Ramzi Binalshibh of Yemen, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali of Pakistan, Walid bin Attash and Mustapha al-Hawsawi of Saudi Arabia will face the trail.

All of them have been held for years at the US-run prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Legal and political battles occurred in the past few years how and where they should be prosecuted.

Chief Prosecutor Brigadier General Mark Martins said it’s key to have transparency in the military commission.

The Pentagon has opened four military bases on US territory to allow families of the 9/11 victims to watch the case unfold on a giant screen, showing a sign of the acute public interest in the proceedings.

President Obama’s efforts to hold Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s trial in New York foundered in the face of political and public opposition and it will now be held at a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay, as previously planned.

The military tribunal system however has come under scrutiny, and some of the sharpest criticism has come from former chief prosecutor Morris Davis. In his view, it will be a mistake and history will judge it.

He observed “It is fair to anticipate that we will raise the delay as an issue in the case. The fact that KSM has not been pushed to trial earlier is a testament to the failure of the military commissions system”.

The trial could still be years away, unless Mohammed pleads guilty to be put to death sooner and become a martyr for al Qaeda.

He was captured in Pakistan in March 2003 and has been detained at Guantanamo Bay since 2006.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on May 5 2012. Filed under Latest News, USA, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.