Prosecutors filed charges on Tuesday against suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators, bringing the five a step closer to facing a Guantanamo military tribunal.
The charges, which must now be approved by a tribunal official, set the stage for the highest-profile al-Qaeda suspects in custody to finally face justice almost a decade after the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
“The prosecutors have recommended that the charges against all five of the accused be referred as capital,” a Pentagon statement said, meaning the suspects could face the death penalty if convicted.
US President Barack Obama’s administration last month abandoned plans to try the five in a civilian court just blocks from the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, felled by al-Qaeda hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001.
The charges are conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, hijacking aircraft and terrorism.
Almost identical charges were filed in May 2008, but dropped when the Obama administration announced plans to try Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Mustapha Ahmed al-Hawsawi in New York.
Retired US Navy Vice Admiral Bruce MacDonald, who is the military tribunal’s convening authority (CA), will consider the latest charges and decide whether the death penalty can be sought.
The trial has become a huge political football in the US.
Republican gripes at Obama for his U-turn on a military tribunal will intensify now that essentially the same charges have been filed more than three years later.
The Obama administration said that it has reformed the military tribunals to give greater protections to defendants and ensure that statements obtained by brutal interrogation are no longer admitted.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
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Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
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