Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 8, 2006 1:15:36 GMT -5
Alleged 9/11 plotters may face death penalty
2 of the alleged architects of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington
face military commissions in January, where they will be handed the death
penalty if convicted.
The pair have been transferred from secret CIA prisons outside the US to a
maximum security unit at Guantanamo Bay.
President George Bush acknowledged for the 1st time that the CIA runs
secret prisons at undisclosed locations around the world.
He said that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged chief planner of 9/11,
and Ramzi Binalshibh, a senior associate, and 12 other terrorist leaders,
had given CIA interrogators, using "tough" techniques, information that
had foiled planned terrorist attacks in America and around the world.
The group includes the Indonesian extremist leader known as Hambali, who
is blamed for bombings in Bali and the Philippines. Officials said the
group also includes suspects in the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in
2000 and the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Mr Bush said these 14 alleged terrorists had no further intelligence to
offer and so had been turned over to the US military at Guantanamo where
they would be treated under new guidelines released by the Pentagon that
ban torture, sexual humiliation, the use of dogs to intimidate prisoners
and "water boarding", a form of simulated drowning.
In a speech at the White House on Wednesday, Mr Bush gave a remarkably
detailed account of the information that the 14 CIA detainees had given
up, including the way their information had led to the arrest and
detention of some of their colleagues. Mr Bush referred specifically to
what he described as a foiled plot by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed KSM as he
called him to crash hijacked aircraft into Heathrow Airport.
He also said the interrogations techniques used by the CIA were tough, but
they did not amount to torture. The CIA interrogators would not be covered
by the interrogation rules announced by the Pentagon, and the CIA secret
prisons would not be closed because the system was needed to get "vital
information" that could stop major terrorist attacks.
An intelligence official briefed reporters after the President's speech
and said that "fewer than 100 suspects" had been detained by the CIA and
that about 50 % of the information about al-Qaeda had come from
interrogations.
The revelation that members of the group would face military tribunals
overshadowed Mr Bush's release of his Administration's proposed
legislation for new military commissions following a Supreme Court ruling
that the old commissions designed to try detainees at Guantanamo,
including David Hicks, contravened the Geneva Conventions.
The proposed legislation, under which the 14 senior alleged terrorists
would be tried as well as up to 80 of the 445 detainees at Guantanamo
addresses some of the Supreme Court's concerns. However, it insists that
the rules of ordinary court martial proceedings, including the exclusion
of hearsay evidence and access to classified information, should not apply
to the proposed military commissions.
Major Michael Mori, the military lawyer for Hicks, said the proposed
legislation did not address the major issues raised by the Supreme Court.
"There is very little difference between these new proposed commissions
and the old ones," he said. "Whatever happens, David Hicks is likely to
remain at Guantanamo uncharged ... for many months."
(source: The Age)
2 of the alleged architects of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington
face military commissions in January, where they will be handed the death
penalty if convicted.
The pair have been transferred from secret CIA prisons outside the US to a
maximum security unit at Guantanamo Bay.
President George Bush acknowledged for the 1st time that the CIA runs
secret prisons at undisclosed locations around the world.
He said that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged chief planner of 9/11,
and Ramzi Binalshibh, a senior associate, and 12 other terrorist leaders,
had given CIA interrogators, using "tough" techniques, information that
had foiled planned terrorist attacks in America and around the world.
The group includes the Indonesian extremist leader known as Hambali, who
is blamed for bombings in Bali and the Philippines. Officials said the
group also includes suspects in the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in
2000 and the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Mr Bush said these 14 alleged terrorists had no further intelligence to
offer and so had been turned over to the US military at Guantanamo where
they would be treated under new guidelines released by the Pentagon that
ban torture, sexual humiliation, the use of dogs to intimidate prisoners
and "water boarding", a form of simulated drowning.
In a speech at the White House on Wednesday, Mr Bush gave a remarkably
detailed account of the information that the 14 CIA detainees had given
up, including the way their information had led to the arrest and
detention of some of their colleagues. Mr Bush referred specifically to
what he described as a foiled plot by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed KSM as he
called him to crash hijacked aircraft into Heathrow Airport.
He also said the interrogations techniques used by the CIA were tough, but
they did not amount to torture. The CIA interrogators would not be covered
by the interrogation rules announced by the Pentagon, and the CIA secret
prisons would not be closed because the system was needed to get "vital
information" that could stop major terrorist attacks.
An intelligence official briefed reporters after the President's speech
and said that "fewer than 100 suspects" had been detained by the CIA and
that about 50 % of the information about al-Qaeda had come from
interrogations.
The revelation that members of the group would face military tribunals
overshadowed Mr Bush's release of his Administration's proposed
legislation for new military commissions following a Supreme Court ruling
that the old commissions designed to try detainees at Guantanamo,
including David Hicks, contravened the Geneva Conventions.
The proposed legislation, under which the 14 senior alleged terrorists
would be tried as well as up to 80 of the 445 detainees at Guantanamo
addresses some of the Supreme Court's concerns. However, it insists that
the rules of ordinary court martial proceedings, including the exclusion
of hearsay evidence and access to classified information, should not apply
to the proposed military commissions.
Major Michael Mori, the military lawyer for Hicks, said the proposed
legislation did not address the major issues raised by the Supreme Court.
"There is very little difference between these new proposed commissions
and the old ones," he said. "Whatever happens, David Hicks is likely to
remain at Guantanamo uncharged ... for many months."
(source: The Age)