9/11 trial likely to be a slow, lengthy process

DOUBTS were raised yesterday over the outcome of the trial of the September 11 six, only a day after it was announced they would face criminal charges.

Given the slow pace of the military panels at Guantanamo Bay where they are all held, verdicts are unlikely before US President George W Bush leaves office in January 2009.

The trials themselves may not even be under way by then and the next president may be less keen on the military tribunal system.

Throwing the process into further doubt, the Supreme Court is expected to rule in a few months on whether Guantanamo detainees can bring cases in civilian courts to challenge their confinement.

General Thomas Hartmann, the legal adviser to the US military tribunal system, said the trial for the six Guantanamo detainees is at least 120 days away, “and probably well beyond that”.

Critics of the untested military commissions system say the high-profile trial will expose its flaws.

In 2006, a previous system was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Months later, Congress and President Bush resurrected the tribunals in an altered form under the Military Commissions Act.

The cases are also complicated by recent revelations that alleged September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the six charged, was subjected to a harsh interrogation technique known as waterboarding — which critics say is a form of torture.

Gen Hartmann said it would be up to the military judge to determine what evidence is allowed. He said the six defendants would get the same rights as US soldiers tried under the military justice system, including the right to remain silent, to call witnesses and to know the evidence against them.

But questions of due process could overshadow the proceedings, according to Jennifer Daskal, senior counter-terrorism counsel for Human Rights Watch. “By trying these men before flawed military commissions in Guantanamo Bay, the US makes the system the centre of attention rather than the defendants and their alleged crimes,” she said.

Steven Shapiro, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, said “the administration now has placed itself in a terrible bind because it subjected at least some, if not all, the six men to harsh interrogation techniques that the world regards as torture”.

Under the Military Commissions Act, statements obtained through torture are not admissible. But some statements obtained through “coercion” may be admitted at the discretion of a military judge.