US to seek death for six 9/11 detainees

THE Pentagon has charged six detainees at Guantanamo Bay with murder and war crimes in connection with the September 11 attacks.

Officials said yesterday they will seek the death penalty in what would be the first capital trials under the terrorism-era military tribunal system.

“These charges allege a long-term, highly sophisticated, organised plan by al-Qaida to attack the United States of America,” Brig Gen Thomas W Hartmann, the legal adviser to the tribunal system, told reporters. He said a total of 169 charges were sworn against suspects “alleged to be responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks” in 2001 that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Mr Hartmann said the six include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the attacks in which hijackers flew planes into buildings in New York and Washington. Another hijacked plane crashed in western Pennsylvania.

The military wants the six tried together before a military tribunal, but the cases may be clouded because of recent revelations that Mohammed was subject to an interrogation technique known as waterboarding — which critics call torture.

Asked what impact that will have on the case, Mr Hartmann said it will be up to the military judge to determine what evidence is allowed.

The other five men being charged are: Mohammed al-Qahtani, the man officials have labeled the 20th hijacker; Ramzi Binalshibh, said to have been the main intermediary between the hijackers and leaders of al-Qaida; Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, known as Ammar al-Baluchi, a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has been identified as Mohammed’s lieutenant for the operation; al-Baluchi’s assistant, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi; and Waleed bin Attash, a detainee known as Khallad, who investigators say selected and trained some of the 19 hijackers.

The men would be tried in the military tribunal system that was set up by the administration shortly after the start of the counter-terror war and which has been widely criticised for it rules on legal representation for suspects, hearings behind closed doors and past allegations of inmate abuse at Guantanamo. Original rules allowed the military to exclude defendants from their own trials, permitted statements made under torture, and forbade appeal to an independent court. However, the US Supreme Court struck down the system in 2006 and a revised plan set up after Congress enacted a new law has included some additional rights.

Defence lawyers criticise the system for its secrecy.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said yesterday that President Bush and the White House had no role in the decision to seek the death penalty for the six charged.