THE ALLEGED mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, known as KSM, and four co-conspirators will be tried by a military commission at Guantánamo, not by a civilian court in Manhattan, US attorney general Eric Holder announced yesterday.
It was an about face from Mr Holder’s November 2009 announcement that the trial would take place a few blocks from Ground Zero. The Obama administration had wanted to demonstrate the rule of law by abolishing George W Bush’s secret military courts.
Mr Holder said he had no choice but to ask prosecutors to dismiss indictments against KSM, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al Shibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed Hawsawi.
“We were prepared to bring a powerful case against Khalid Sheikh Mohamed and his four co-conspirators,” Mr Holder said regretfully. “It was one of the most well-researched and documented cases I have ever seen.”
The department of justice could have proven their guilt, he said.
The Obama administration had no choice because “Congress tied our hands in a way that could have serious ramifications”, Mr Holder said.
Republicans and Democrats, as well as New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, expressed fears about bringing Guantánamo detainees to the US for civilian trials.
Mr Holder spent much of his statement condemning members of Congress who “intervened and imposed restrictions blocking the administration from bringing any Guantánamo detainees to trial in the US, regardless of the venue”.
Mr Holder accused Congress of undermining counter-terrorism efforts and harming national security. Decisions regarding prosecution “have always been and must remain the responsibility of the executive branch”.
The administration will continue to seek repeal of the restrictions imposed by Congress, but in the meantime, turning the accused over to military commissions was the most effective way to “ensure justice . . . for the victims of those horrendous attacks and their family members”.
Military prosecutors may seek the death penalty, but it was “an open question” whether someone could plead guilty in a military commission and still receive the death penalty, Mr Holder said.