Pentagon Announces Charges on 9/11 Terror Suspects

By Andrew Benfield
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States – On 11 February 2008, Pentagon officials announced charges against six Guantanamo Bay prisoners.  The charges stem from the six prisoners’ role in the 11 September 2001 attacks.  These charges are the first to stem from the attacks on 11 September 2001.  Currently the charges are being translated into each prisoner’s native language and the charges will promptly be served on them. 

In total, the Pentagon alleges 169 “overt acts” that were “allegedly committed” by the six prisoners in furtherance of the attacks.  More specifically, the principle charges advanced by the Pentagon include conspiracy, murder in violation of the laws of war, attacking civilians, destruction of property and terrorism.  Two of the charged prisoners also face the charges of hijacking or hazarding an aircraft. 

Judge Susan Crawford will preside over the initial court proceedings.  Crawford must rule on the permissibility of the prosecutor’s request to seek the death penalty.  Seeking the death penalty has raised concerns from members of the United States and the international community.  A former United States Navy attorney asserted that “trying and executing the men unfairly could make them martyrs in the eyes of extremists.” 

Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann of the Air Force, legal adviser to the Defense Department’s Office of Military Commissions assured the public that the prisoners would be “treated like members of the United States military during their judicial proceedings.”  While the proceedings will not be televised, Hartmann says that “relatively little amounts of evidence will be classified.” 

In the wake of CIA Director Michael Hayden’s acknowledgement that United States interrogators “used waterboarding in questioning Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (one of the six prisoners),” the judge of the military tribunal will have to make a controversial decision whether to allow the prosecution to used the confession elicited from the waterboarding interrogation. 

If the prisoners were convicted and sentenced to death, the military tribunal faces a greater question.  The military justice system provides for execution by lethal injection, yet Guantanamo Bay contains no death chambers at the detention facility. 

Critics feel that the death penalty will “bog down the untested system” and “amplify the attention” on cases that will already draw intense scrutiny. 

For more information, please see:

BBC News – US charges six suspects over 9/11 – 11 February 2008

USA Today – U.S. to seek death penalty for 9/11 suspects – 11 February 2008

New York Times – U.S. Charges 6 With Key Roles in 9/11 Attacks – 11 February 2008

CNN – 6 Gitmo detainees to face trial for 9/11 – 11 February 2008