September 11 suspects to be tried in New York

The alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and four others will be sent for prosecution in a criminal court in New York from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an Obama Administration official said yesterday.

The five were being prosecuted in US military commissions at Guantanamo, but the Obama Administration has pledged to close the controversial prison and to move some of the cases to traditional US criminal courts for trial.

"I am absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice. The American people will insist on it. My Administration will insist on it," US President Barack Obama said in Tokyo where he was on a weeklong trip through Asia.

In addition to claiming responsibility for the 2001 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, Mr Mohammed has said he was responsible for numerous other attacks and that in 2002 he beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Some other Guantanamo detainees will be tried in military tribunals, including the accused mastermind of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship in Yemen, Abd al-Rahim al Nashiri, the official said.

Seventeen US sailors were killed and 47 wounded in that attack.

The move marks one of the first major steps by the Obama Administration to close the prison, which he has pledged to do by January 22, 2010.

However, Mr Obama and his team have faced numerous political and diplomatic hurdles and some officials admit it may be hard to meet the deadline.

The official who tried to lead the effort to close Guantanamo, White House Counsel Gregory Craig, is resigning from the post, the White House confirmed on Friday.

There are 215 detainees at the detention camp which was set up in early 2002 by the George W. Bush administration to house terrorism suspects.

Trials in New York may provoke strong public reactions, particularly since it was the site of the 2001 attacks that destroyed the World Trade Centre's twin towers and killed nearly 3,000 people.

One Guantanamo detainee, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, has already been sent from Guantanamo to New York to be tried on charges of being involved in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya that killed 224 people.

One difficulty prosecutors may face in pursuing charges against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a Pakistani raised in Kuwait and educated in the United States, was is that he was subjected to harsh interrogations which human rights groups have called torture.

While in US custody, he was subjected 183 times to "waterboarding," which simulates drowning by pouring water over someone's face while they are was restrained.

Among the barriers to closing Guantanamo is the deep resistance by US allies to take detainees from the prison who have been cleared of connections to terrorism. Some of Mr Obama's political opponents in the United States do not want the trials held on US soil.

Factbox

The Obama Administration has decided to send five Guantanamo prisoners accused of plotting the September 11, 2001 attacks to face trial in a US court in New York.

In addition, the Administration decided that five other prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will be prosecuted under US military tribunals.

The military commissions, begun under then-President George W. Bush, have been revamped by the Obama Administration and by Congress to give defendants more rights.

Following is a summary of the background and charges that have already been brought against the prisoners under the military tribunal system at the Guantanamo Bay US naval base in Cuba:

The five accused September 11 plotters: Charged in death penalty case at Guantanamo with conspiring with al-Qaeda and with 2,973 counts of murder for those killed when hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

• Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Pakistani raised in Kuwait, educated in the US. Accused of planning the September 11, 2001, attacks and serving as military operations commander for al Qaeda's foreign operations before his capture in Pakistan in 2003. Known as KSM, he told the US military that he was responsible for the September 11 attacks "from A to Z" and that he beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

• Walid bin Attash, Yemeni raised in Saudi Arabia, lost his right leg in 1997 battle in Afghanistan. Accused of running an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan where he trained two of the September 11 hijackers. The Pentagon said he travelled to Malaysia in 1999 to observe US airline security in order to assist the hijacking plan. Also accused of financing the attack on the USS Cole.

• Ramzi Binalshibh Yemeni national and one-time roommate of suspected September 11 hijack ringleader Mohamed Atta in Hamburg, Germany. Accused of serving as a link between al-Qaeda leaders and the hijackers. US officials say he tried but failed to obtain a visa to enter the United States to take part in the attacks as a pilot-hijacker. The Pentagon said he helped find flight schools for the hijackers in the United States.

• Ali Abdul Aziz Ali Also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, is a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and cousin of jailed 1993 World Trade Centre bomber Ramzi Yousef. He is accused of being an important facilitator of the September 11 attacks, transferring money to US-based operatives and assisting nine hijackers on their way from Pakistan to the US. The Pentagon said he sent about $120,000 to hijackers for their expenses and flight training.

• Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi Saudi accused of being a key financial facilitator of the September 11 attacks. The Pentagon said he provided the hijackers with money, Western clothing, traveller's checks and credit cards. Accused of accepting about $20,000 in wire transfers from two of the September 11, 2001, hijackers in the days before the attack. The US military said his laptop held files that included al-Qaeda expense reports and details of al-Qaeda operatives and their families.

Prosecutions in military tribunals

• Omar Khadr Canadian captured in battle at suspected al-Qaeda compound near the Afghan city of Khost in July 2002, when he was 15, sent to Guantanamo just after he turned 16.

• Ahmed al Darbi Saudi accused of buying boat and global positioning devices and shopping for crewmen as part of an unrealised plot to ram an explosives-laden boat into an unidentified ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

• Ibrahim al Qosi Sudanese, born in Khartoum on July 3, 1960. Accused of acting as Osama bin Laden's driver and bodyguard, helping the al-Qaeda leader escape to the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan after the US-led invasion in 2001.

• Noor Uthman Muhammed Sudanese, accused of being a weapons instructor and logistician at al Qaeda's Khaldan training camp in Afghanistan.

• Abd al-Rahim al Nashiri - Saudi Arabian national of Yemeni descent, accused mastermind of the attack on the warship USS Cole.