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Jun

Lawyers urge 9/11 charges dismissal

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Categories: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", Abuse, Black Site, Children, Death Penalty, Detainee, Detainee Abuse, Extended Solitary Confinement, Extraordinary Rendition, Family, Ghost, Guantanamo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Military Commission, Torture, human rights and waterboarding

Lawyers defending Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and four other Guantanamo detainees have asked for the presiding military judge to dismiss their cases, saying the timing is politically motivated.

The men are to stand trial over the attacks on September 15, according to the court filing quoted by AP.

However the men’s lawyers say the date for the trials, coming only a few weeks before the US presidential election, is politically motivated.

The news comes as three other detainees were charged on Thursday with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism.

‘Strategic value’

Mohammed and the four other detainees are to be arraigned in a US military court on June 5 on charges including murder and conspiracy.

“It is safe to say that there are senior officials in the military commission process who believe that there would be strategic political value to having these five men sitting in a death chamber on November 4, 2008″

Navy Lieutenant-Commander Brian Mizer

However, Navy Lieutenant-Commander Brian Mizer, one of the men’s lawyers, said in Thursday’s court filing that their trial date could prejudice the outcome of the case.

The other men facing charges include Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who was captured in Pakistan in 2002, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, known as Ammar al-Baluchi and a nephew of Mohammed, al-Baluchi’s assistant Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, from Saudi Arabia, and Waleed bin Attash, reportedly from Yemen.

A sixth man, Mohammed al-Qahtani, whom the Pentagon had alleged was the “20th hijacker” in the September 11 attacks, had charges against him dropped.

Controversy over the upcoming trial of Mohammed arose after the US authorities admitted earlier this year that he had been “waterboarded” - an interrogation method designed to simulate the sensation of drowning - by CIA investigators before he reportedly confessed.

Further charges

Also on Thursday, three more Guantanamo Bay detainees were charged with identical counts of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism.

The men are Ghassan Abdullah al-Sharbi, from Saudi Arabia, who is alleged to have visited al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and met Osama bin Laden, Jabran Said bin al-Qahtani, also from Saudi Arabia, and Algerian detainee Sufyian Barhoumi.

Al-Qahtani is also accused of attending an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and learning how to make explosives, while Barhoumi is accused of being an explosives trainer for the group.

The proposed charges will be reviewed by Susan Crawford, the US defence department official in charge of the military commissions, who must approve them before the men can face trial.

http://tinyurl.com/4frqm6

May

FBI assists with detainee cases, differs with CIA

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Categories: Abuse, Bush Blowback, C.I.A., Death Penalty, Detainee, Detainee Abuse and F.B.I.

By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI is helping to get information from detainees and prepare terrorism cases against suspects at Guantanamo Bay, despite differences with the CIA over harsh interrogation techniques, the bureau’s director said on Friday.

But, in an appearance at the National Press Club, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller declined to say whether a single U. S. interrogation standard was needed to prohibit coercive tactics like waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning widely criticized as torture.
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May

U.S. moves forward on Sept. 11 detainees

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Categories: Death Penalty, Detainee and Military Commission

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, May 13 (UPI) — Five of six detainees accused of involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks will be brought before a military tribunal, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Earlier, charges against the sixth detainee were dismissed by the U.S. Defense Department’s Convening Authority in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The reasons were not made public.

But the Defense Department said in a statement that it still has the option of renewing the charges though the sixth detainee would not be tried with the other five.

Each of the five could face the death penalty.
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Mar

U.S. Embassy 1998 bombing suspect charged

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Categories: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", Black Site, C.I.A., Death Penalty, Detainee, Disappeared, Ghost, Guantanamo, High Profile, Military Commission, Military Tribunal and Tanzania

WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) — Charges were sworn against the man the U. S. military said it believes was a key player in the 1998 attack on the U. S. Embassy in Tanzania, officials said.

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani of Zanzibar, Tanzania, now a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was accused of participating in planning and preparing the attack that killed 11 people and injured hundreds, the U. S. Defense Department said Monday in a news release.

Among other things, the document alleged Ghailani was involved in buying and transporting bomb components to Dar es Salaam, where the U. S. Embassy was located, and scouting the facility with the suicide bomb driver.

Ghailani also was charged with providing material support to terrorism, alleging Ghailani worked for al-Qaida as a document forger, a trainer at a training camp, and as a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, the Defense Department said.

The charges will be forwarded to the convening authority, Susan J. Crawford, who will determine which, if any, of the charges will be referred to trial by military commission.

The chief prosecutor recommended charges against Ghailani be referred as capital offenses, which would make Ghailani eligible for the death penalty.

Mar

Human rights in Iraq disastrous after war: Amnesty International

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Categories: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", Death Penalty, Death in Custody, Detainee, Iraq and Torture

* Report claims law and order and economic recovery remain distant prospect
* Criticises extensive use of death penalty

LONDON: Amnesty International on Monday said the rights situation in Iraq five years after the US-led invasion was “disastrous” and that the country had turned into one of the world’s most dangerous zones.

“Five years after the US-led invasion that toppled (former president) Saddam Hussein, Iraq is one of the most dangerous countries in the world,” it said in a 24- page report, entitled “Carnage and Despair: Iraq Five Years On”.

Distant prospect: Against a backdrop of insecurity, law and order and economic recovery are a “distant prospect”, while most Iraqis are living in poverty, with food shortages, lack of access to safe drinking water and high unemployment.

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Mar

Military commission charges confirmed against Guantanamo detainee al-Qosi

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Categories: Death Penalty, Guantanamo, High Profile, Military Commission and USA

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Patrick Porter at 6:04 PM ET

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense said Wednesday that two charges have been referred [PDF text; press release] against Guantanamo Bay detainee Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi [DOD materials; GlobalSecurity profile]. The military commission charges referred are “providing material support to terrorism and conspiring with Usama bin Laden and other al Qaeda members to target, attack and murder civilians; attack civilian objects; commit murder and destroy property in violation of the law of war; commit terrorism; and provide material support to terrorism.”

According to the Defense Department’s statement Wednesday:

The charges allege that between 1996 and 2001, Al Qosi personally served as an armed guard and driver for Usama bin Laden. Until about 1998, Al Qosi is alleged to have provided logistical support by obtaining supplies and provisions for Al Qaeda, an international terrorist group dedicated to opposing non-Islamic governments with force and violence, at a compound near Jalalabad known as the “Star of Jihad.” It is further alleged that from 1998 through 2001, al Qosi lived at an al Qaeda compound near Kandahar, Afghanistan, with other al Qaeda members, including Usama bin Laden, where he provided security, transportation, and supply services. Between 1998 and 2001 he allegedly traveled from the Kandahar compound to the front line near Kabul, where he fought in support of al Qaeda as part of a mortar crew.

The charge sheet sets out that in 2001, Al Qosi, armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, evacuated the Kandahar compound and traveled to Kabul, then to Jalalabad, and then into the Tora Bora Mountains to provide transportation, security and support to Usama bin Laden and other al Qaeda members.

Charges were first sworn [JURIST report] against al Qosi last month. If convicted on both charges, al Qosi faces a life sentence. Reuters has more.

Mar

In letter to Bush, ABA criticizes plan for trials of 9/11 detainees

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Categories: Death Penalty, Detainee, Guantanamo, High Profile, Military Commission, September 11 Six and USA

The American Bar Association’s letter to President Bush contends that the detainees held in Guantánamo will not receive fair trials.

Posted on Sun, Mar. 02, 2008

BY CAROL ROSENBERG

crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/GETTY IMAGES

Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, the legal adviser for the Defense Department’s Office of Military Commissions, announces on Feb. 11, 2008 that the Pentagon has prepared death penalty charges against six detainees as co-conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

» More Photos

Reacting to Pentagon plans to stage its first death-penalty trial, the American Bar Association has written President Bush, again, protesting the war court at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

ABA President William Neukom cited inadequate resources at the office of the Chief Pentagon Defense Counsel as well as an inherent lack of due process at the upcoming trials.

”Detainees who plotted terrorist attacks against our country and killed thousands of innocent Americans should be brought to justice and be held fully accountable for their horrific crimes,” Neukom wrote in the letter dated Feb. 27. “At the same time, no matter how outrageous the conduct, we must ensure that detainees receive fair trials that meet the highest standards of due process and justice.”

Specifically, he wrote, Guantánamo detainees “cannot challenge their detention by habeas corpus, and the standards for admissibility of evidence could allow for convictions based on rank hearsay.”

Moreover, he said, “statements secured through coercion could be introduced against a defendant.”

WHITE HOUSE’S STANCE The Bush administration, which persuaded Congress to approve the latest war court format, says the trials will be fair and mostly transparent as officials balance the need to preserve national security secrets in wartime.

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Feb

U.S. charges top al-Qaida suspects

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Categories: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", Afghanistan, Death Penalty, Detainee, Extraordinary Rendition, Ghost, Guantanamo, High Profile, Military Commission, Minor and Torture

Steven Edwards Canwest News Service

Monday, February 11, 2008

NEW YORK - The United States unveiled sweeping charges Monday against six top al-Qaida suspects it says were central architects of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The Pentagon says it will seek the death penalty against the six, who are among 15 “high value detainees” the U. S. is holding in a secret camp at the U. S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

It plans a single trial for all six before a specially constituted military commission the Bush administration sees as a central pillar of its war on terror.

The proceeding will be the most high-profile war-crimes trial since the Allied powers mounted the Nuremberg trials after the Second World War to prosecute Nazi leaders.

“The charges allege a long-term, highly sophisticated, organized plan by al-Qaida to attack the United States of America,” said Brig.-Gen. Thomas Hartmann, legal advisor to the commission’s oversight authority at the Pentagon.

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