Capital Charges Announced Against Six Accused Sept. 11 Plotters
Updated: Charges were announced today against six men accused of planning and participating in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty.
Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, a legal adviser on the prosecutions, told reporters that prosecutors have recommended that the charges be tried jointly before a military tribunal, USA Today’s On Deadline blog reports.
Among those charged is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has claimed credit for serving as mastermind of the attacks and participating in other terrorist plots. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reported earlier that the charges would be announced today.
“There will be no secret trials,” Hartmann said, according to the USA Today blog post. “Every piece of evidence, every stitch of evidence, every whiff of evidence that goes to the finder of fact, to the jury, to the military tribunal, will be reviewed by the accused, subject to confrontation, subject to cross examination, subject to challenge.”
The Wall Street Journal story examines the tortured history of the Guantanamo prosecutions and the once-thwarted efforts of the new chief prosecutor, Col. Lawrence Morris. Six years ago, when Morris headed the Army’s criminal-law branch, he proposed swift public trials based on traditional court-martial rules that gave defendants the right to confront witnesses and attend all the proceedings.
But Morris and his ideas were “sidelined by the Bush administration,” the story says. Instead of following Morris’ suggestions, the administration adopted rules that would allow the military to bar defendants from their trials, use evidence derived from torture, and prevent appeals to independent courts. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down that system in 2006.
Nor did the administration agree with Morris’ proposal for trying top al-Qaida plotters in a joint trial that would reveal their “shocking criminality.” Instead the military commission program hoped it would obtain quick guilty pleas by charging “peripheral figures as Osama bin Laden’s driver and an Australian kangaroo skinner who carried a rifle for the Taliban,” the Wall Street Journal story says. Once again, the administration plan failed as defense lawyers mounted spirited challenges. So far, only one case has been completed, after a plea bargain by the accused.
“Instead of racking up rapid convictions, the prosecution effort stumbled through internal disarray and legal setbacks,” the Wall Street Journal says. “Meanwhile, Guantanamo’s reputation was stained by allegations of inmate abuse, erroneous detentions and a sense that the U.S. saw itself free to act outside existing law.”
Both articles say several challenges remain. The capital charges are likely to draw worldwide attention to the prosecutions, the New York Times says. A former Guantanamo defense lawyer, Army Reserve Maj. Tom Fleener, said legal questions include whether the trials will be closed to the public, whether experienced death penalty lawyers will be required to defend the accused, and whether evidence through torture will be allowed.
Morris has refused to rule out evidence obtained through waterboarding, the controversial interrogation technique that simulates drowning.
Updated at 10:16 a.m. to report that the charges were announced this morning.
