Community | November 13, 2009 | 36 comments

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 suspects will be tried in New York

source: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/11/13/us/AP-US-Guantanamo-US-Trial.html?_r=1&hp

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Chod77
Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama administration official said Friday.

The official said Attorney General Eric Holder plans to announce the decision later in the morning.

The official is not authorized to discuss the decision before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Bringing such notorious suspects to U.S. soil to face trial is a key step in President Barack Obama's plan to close the terror suspect detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama initially planned to close the detention center by Jan. 22, but the administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline.

It is also a major legal and political test of Obama's overall approach to terrorism. If the case suffers legal setbacks, the administration will face second-guessing from those who never wanted it in a civilian courtroom. And if lawmakers get upset about notorious terrorists being brought to their home regions, they may fight back against other parts of Obama's agenda.

The New York case may also force the court system to confront a host of difficult legal issues surrounding counter-terrorism programs begun after the 2001 attacks, including the harsh interrogation techniques once used on some of the suspects while in CIA custody. The most severe method -- waterboarding, or simulated drowning -- was used on Mohammed 183 times in 2003, before the practice was banned.

Holder will also announce that a major suspect in the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, will face justice before a military commission, as will a handful of other detainees to be identified at the same announcement, the official said.

It was not immediately clear where commission-bound detainees like al-Nashiri might be sent, but a military brig in South Carolina has been high on the list of considered sites.

The actual transfer of the detainees from Guantanamo to New York isn't expected to happen for many more weeks because formal charges have not been filed against most of them.

The attorney general has decided the case of the five Sept. 11 suspects should be handled by prosecutors working in the Southern District of New York, which has held a number of major terrorism trials in recent decades at a courthouse in lower Manhattan, just blocks from where the World Trade Center towers once stood.

Holder had been considering other possible trial locations, including Virginia, Washington, DC, and a different courthouse in New York City. Those districts could all end up conducting trials of other Guantanamo detainees sent to federal court later on.

The attorney general's decision in these cases comes just before a Monday deadline for the government to decide how to proceed against 10 detainees facing military commissions.

In the military system, the five Sept. 11 suspects had faced the death penalty, but the official would not say if the Justice Department would also seek capital punishment against the men once they are in the federal system.

The administration has already sent one Guantanamo detainee, Ahmed Ghailani, to New York to face trial, but chose not to seek death in that case.

more at link....
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36 comments // Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 suspects will be tried in New York

  • sidewaysclyde
    • 0
      sidewaysclyde  

    • I truly hope justice is served and that those responsible for the attacks are held accountable. I believe that having it in NY might be really hard for the people who were so deeply affected, but I hope that we, as a public, get to witness the trial.

    • 2 years ago
  • Jenime
  • 2hellnwait
  • 2hellnwait
  • cynker
  • cynker
  • 2hellnwait
    • 0
      2hellnwait  
    • Image
    • 2hellnwait:

      If Muslim immigration continues, the impending fall of France could mark the starting point of the Balkanization of much of Europe, perhaps later even North America. I fear this is a world war. Maybe future historians will dub it the Multicultural World War. Just as WW1 was caused by Imperialism, WW2 by Fascism and the Cold War by Communism, this one will be caused by Multiculturalism. The term "the Multicultural World War" has been coined by Fjordman. I find this to be more accurate than "The Islamic World War" because what will cause this world war is Western cultural weakness, through Multiculturalism and Muslim immigration, rather than Islamic strength. As poster DP111 says, this world war may very well be in the form of a global civil war, where you get a succession of civil wars instead of countries invading other countries. Multiculturalism and uncontrolled mass-immigration destroy the internal cohesion of the decadent West, which will slowly fall apart as it has lost the will to defend itself and the belief in its own culture. The wars in the Balkans in the 1990s will in hindsight be seen as a prelude to the Multicultural World War. Rather than a Westernization of the Balkans, we get a Balkanization of the West.

      http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1101

      And you don't see the seeds of chaos here in America?. . . I do, after six plus decades, I've witnessed the erosion of our freedom and moral clarity first hand, and if you lack perception, no amount of explanation can free one from ideological blindness. . .

    • 2 years ago
  • current89
    • 0
      current89  

    • Mayor Bloomberg backed the decision and many of the New Yorker's I know support the decision. Anyway, the fact is that it isn't up for debate., Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be prosecuted by the United States Federal Government, in NYC.

    • 2 years ago
  • 2hellnwait
    • 0
      2hellnwait  

    • Islam is an insidious mental dis-ease that preys upon the souls of the weak of mind and spirit - - 1400 hundred years of darkness, denigration, degradation, and violence. . . all to enlighten mankind to the greatness of Allah. . . the greatest theological lie ever to plague this planet.!

    • 2 years ago
  • mrEddie
    • 0
      mrEddie [removed]  

    • Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who confessed to be the mastermind of the 9/11 terror attack, will be tried at a federal courthouse in lower Manhattan with the same rights as any US citizens. What is the purpose of this trial if Mr. Mohammed has already confessed? For the Obama administration, the trial will kill two birds with one stone and neither one is to seek justice for Mr. Mohammed since we all already know he did it.

      The purpose of the trial is to embarrass the Bush administration and America itself and to give Arabs a golden opportunity to indulge in propaganda to convince the West with falsehoods regarding the root causes of Islamic terrorism; mainly that it is the consequence of US foreign policy, old grievances and America’s supports Israel.

      Mr. Mohammed will have a chance to make a case against the US for the waterboarding used on him during his interrogation. That will be a confirmation to Attorney General Eric Holder’s reopening of the waterboarding investigation.

      The war between Islamism and the rest of the world is largely a cultural and ideological war. Jihad, violent and non-violent, is a cornerstone of Islam that seeks to penetrate the West by any means. Jihadists are commanded to strike terror in the hearts of non-believers, as the Quran says. Deep fear resulting from such terror, renders some Americans vulnerable to appeasement rather than fight it. Islamists understand that dynamics very well and have used it throughout their history. Now that they have already done the terror, which softened some Americans, it is time to play with American’s minds; to desensitize Americans to Islamic tyranny and as to who is right and who is wrong. In the process, Islamists want us to hear their manufactured propaganda of Arab grievances and put the West on the defensive. That will not be very difficult in Western culture where many are eager to blame America first.

      The purpose of jihadists is to make the victims of jihad (America on 9/11), confused as to Islam’s jihadist goals. That is why teaching violent jihad to Muslims must go hand in hand with teaching them hatred of the West, the object of jihad. Jihad education won’t work unless it is simultaneously accompanied by promoting fear and lies about non-Muslim nations Islamists want to conquer. Islamists must also convince the West that Muslim countries are their victims. This is the only way to justify jihadist aspiration. Jihad will go much easier and faster if it is packaged as self defense both to the West and to the Jihadist Muslim youth. Muslim victim-hood image must always be maintained.

      The coming civil trial of Mohammed in New York is perhaps the best gift Obama has given to the Saudi Kind Abdullah, leader of the country that produced 15 of the 19 terrorists. He is giving him a chance to save face and present Islam as the victim. When Obama bowed to the Saudi King, it was a sign of subservience to Islam, whether Obama wants to admit it or not. This trial will solidify the claims by some of Obama’s czars that America had it coming on 9/11. The Arab world must be celebrating.

      Nonie Darwish: Author: “Cruel and Usual Punishment; the terrifying global implications of Islamic law”

    • 2 years ago
  • Chod77
  • flyingkick
  • cynker
  • 2hellnwait
  • samthesixth
  • mrEddie
    • 0
      mrEddie [removed]  

    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsgspDyTxDc&feature=player_embedded

      Khalid Sheikh Mohammed decapitation of Daniel Pearl

      Obama kisses the bloody fists of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and bestows upon one of America's most lethal enemies in the world the gift of the constitutional rights given to an American citizen. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on March 1, 2003.

      Obama is our worst nightmare. This is evil.

      Khalid Sheikh Mohammed decapitation of Daniel Pearl, censored.

      KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED, al Qaeda mastermind of 9/11, divulged information – ONLY AFTER BEING WATERBOARDED – that allowed the U.S. government to stop a planned terrorist attack on Los Angeles. (here)

      Who will be on trial? Khalid the devout Muslim murderer or Bush and those who "waterboarded"? In an America run by her enemies, probably Bush and the "waterboaders". Too bad the thousands of people whose lives were saved in LA can't hop a Redeye to NY and testify.

      Khalid Sheikh Mohammed proudly confessed to a U.S. military tribunal that he “decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew,Daniel Pearl ,” more than five years after the American reporter’s execution was shown in a video, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon.

    • 2 years ago
  • JonRaymond
  • vincius
    • 0
      vincius  

    • ...Show trial will begin with the terrorists as stars.... now they final made it to Broadway... This proves 911 has been trivalized... it would be on friday the 13th... Now we get to find out in a forum how they feel.... Is Oprah going to get their first interview? I pray for the fAmilys and pray for our Country.... we have lost our direction and Constitution

    • 2 years ago
  • kampungboy
  • NuclearLullaby
    • 0
      NuclearLullaby  

    • Tell me again why people think this is a bad thing??? This dude is responsible for some of the 9-11 stuff right??? It doesn't matter one damn bit where they have the trail really! Now sure it would make more sense to have the trial where these terrorist are from (THAT'S NOT IRAQ BY THE WAY!!!) But hey there being tried & they will get full punishment for their actions & that,I would THINK is what America wants!!! Now I COULD be wrong about that,but lets see now...Last time I checked America didn't like terrorist!!! PEOPLE THESE DAYS!!!! DAMN!!! If we can't realize as a nation that Bush,Chaney & General Betray us ,made things WORSE in the middle east, then we deserve to get attacked, because it's just so stupid that ANYONE could back ANYTHING those idiots have done!!!

    • 2 years ago
  • panichead
    • 0
      panichead  

    • Is everyone afraid that if there is a trial in NYC that it will be hit with a terrorist attack? You could put these clowns on trial in Gitmo, Geneva, Garland Texas or Mecca and it still will not stop them from trying to hit us again. When we convict these guys to die it isn't gonna matter where the trials are. Personally if I lost someone on 9/11 I would want to be there for the trial and see these guys convicted. Holder said they have the evidence to convict plus some other evidence that hasn't ever been disclosed. All we can do is go after these guys and stop them before they attack us. Bush had 7 years to figure out what to do with these guys, and just ignored it. Everyone is afraid that if this comes to trial in a civilian court, the charges may be thrown out cause, Kahlid was waterboarded 183 times in less then a month. Are the powers to be trying to protect Bush & Cheney, and that is why they want to have a military tribunal, cause the torture would be thrown out. If Osama Bin Laden actually was the mastermind how come he isn't charged with the 9/11 attacks? If you go to the FBI website, Bin Ladens profile says he is wanted for the American Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, it says nothing about 9/11. I'm just an average guy asking questions.

    • 2 years ago
  • Ares
  • carmalite
    • 0
      carmalite  

    • The only thing Obama could get the Republicans to agree upon would be more tax cuts for the rich and more long expensive wars using privatized armies.

    • 2 years ago
  • larrysnotes
  • ras_menelik
  • vincius
    • 0
      vincius  

    • ACLU sneak attacks New York this morning.... welcome to the new world.... Change just hit new york..... Eric the Holder of Change......

    • 2 years ago
  • Tyrannous
  • NuclearLullaby
  • flyingkick
  • My_America
  • Incredulous
    • 0
      Incredulous  

    • "Today we announce a step forward in bringing those we believe were responsible for the 9/11 attacks and the attack on the USS Cole to justice," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "For over two hundred years, our nation has relied on a faithful adherence to the rule of law to bring criminals to justice and provide accountability to victims. Once again we will ask our legal system to rise to that challenge, and I am confident it will answer the call with fairness and justice."

      Hmmmm...wonder if that statement includes Bush and Cheney.

    • 2 years ago
  • 2hellnwait
  • samthesixth
  • Chod77
  • samthesixth
  • afitzgerald
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