US to seek death penalty in 9/11 case ! HTSR 021108

Harry Thomas Special Report 021108
http://harrythomas.info

US to seek death penalty in 9/11 case

The Pentagon is charging six detainees at Guantanamo Bay with murder and war crimes in connection with the Sept. 11 terror attacks on America, and will seek the death penalty.

Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann says the charges lay out a long-term sophisticated plan by the al-Qaida organization to attack the United States of America. The attack over six years ago killed nearly 3,000 Americans.

Hartmann, the legal adviser to the military tribunal system, says the six include Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the attacks, in which hijacked planes were flown into buildings in New York and Washington. Another hijacked plane crashed in the fields of western Pennsylvania.

Military prosecutors will ask for the death penalty for the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, according to a second official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the charges had not been announced.

Among those held at Guantanamo is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the attack six years ago in which hijacked planes were flown into buildings in New York and Washington. Five others are expected to be named in sworn charges.

"The department has been working diligently to prepare cases and bring charges against a number of individuals who have been involved in some of the most grievous acts of violence and terror against the United States and our allies," Whitman said.

Prosecutors have been working for years to assemble the case against suspects in the attacks that prompted the Bush administration to launch its global war on terror.

"The prosecution team is close to moving forward on referring charges on a number of individuals," Whitman said, declining to name the defendants.

The New York Times reported in Monday's editions that the others 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 Qaeda; 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 2001 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 hijackers.

The men would be tried in the military tribunal system that was set up by the administration shortly after the start of the counterterror war and has been widely criticized 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 the defendant from his own trial, permitted statements made under torture, and forbade appeal to an independent court; but the U.S. 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.

Defense lawyers still criticize the system for it's secrecy.

The decision to seek the death penalty also is likely to draw criticism from within the international community. A number of countries, including U.S. allies, have said they would object to the use of capital punishment for their nationals held at Guantanamo.

Officials plan to hold the trial in a specially constructed court at Guantanamo that will allow lawyers, journalists and some others to be present, but leave relatives of Sept. 11 victims and others to watch the trial through closed-circuit broadcasts.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was among 15 so-called "high-value detainees" who were held at length by the CIA in secret overseas prisons — some subject to what critics call torture — before being handed over to the military in 2006.

Last week, for the first time, the Bush administration acknowledged that Mohammed was among three susects who were waterboarded. CIA Director Michael Hayden said that waterboarding was used, in part, because of widespread belief among U.S. intelligence officials that more catastrophic attacks were imminent.

Waterboarding involves strapping a person down and pouring water over the suspect's cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It has been traced back hundreds of years, to the Spanish Inquisition, and is condemned by nations around the world. Critics call it a form of torture.

In Guantanamo Bay hearings that have been criticized as unfair, he confessed to the 9/11 attack and a chilling string of other terror plots last March.

"I was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z," Mohammed said in a statement read during the session, according to hearing transcripts later released by the Pentagon.

Under the system, prosecutors issue sworn charges, which then are forwarded to the convening authority for military commissions, Susan Crawford. She can refer some or all of them for trial.

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[DeathSquadJustice]

i think they should torture them all again and then kill em all at gitmo America needs to grow some balls

[harrythomasinfo]

grow up

[sugarpuffsandwich]

these were probably 6 guys in afghanistan gone out one morning for their daily newspaper or get a haircut or something, and were rounded up and thrown in the G-bay. i'm convinced they will be found guilty and given the death sentence.

but, if you were held in G-bay for 6 years and tortured...you would admit to anything too! - JFK assassination, lincoln, john lennon etc etc!!!

wake up people ffs!

[TommyCr7]

brilliant cross analysis! 5stars. Bush is up to pull out another crazy stunt.

[dezldummi]

just another diversion... or a way to put down 9/11 truthers as fanatics.... they could say look at the evidence... proves the terrorists with box cutter conspiracy... who knows how the real scenario will unfold, or I should say... the scenario given to the propaganda machine to distrubute to the population

[OmarThePug]

Let's see. Shredded Constitution. Violated international law. Illegal Rendition and detention. Torture camps. Shock and Awe!  Invaded countries based on lies.

And many Americans are still convinced their govt has got the right guys. WOW. That TV is some powerful shit!!!

[rolldatweed]

then you should should maybe consider hanging your own government

[zuluqueen22]

I think if these pieces of shit are found guilty they should be taken to the top of the empire state building and dangled over the side and dropped. So they can feel the fear of those people that day who were so scared they threw themselves out of the towers.

[panterajoey]

my god, what a heap of shit. I wonder how long these guys were tortured before they agreed to take the full rap for 9/11. its just a way to lullify the public thru media. dont be blind. they are controlling you with fucking fear. its no conspiracy. The term conspiracy theory was invented by "them". Fuck the American government in the asshole big time!

[pitolove71]

Why isn't Osama Bin Laden charged? The courts charge people in absentia all day long here in America, why aren't there charges against Osama? Makes me wonder...

[2242bzo]

There is no terror other than what our own American government finances and does itself. Wake the fuck up, cheetos-eatin' fucking morons.

[themange59]

Iraq didn't make sense, but Afghanistan did.

[godzillaislarge]

please mention it

[unixaaron]

Wal*mart is america's god. People can't trust that everything is going to be fine and dandy. its a lot of work to survive. When Noah was building a boat everyone laughed. now they're dead. We now have to build a boat of knoweledge and its going to be a lot of work. I'm on my way to getting informed about world governments and import policies and taxes. All this stuff about 9-11, its about taxes. Basicly EVRYTHING is about taxes. I have a theory about taxes but its to0 scary to mention here.