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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