Khalid Sheik Mohammed

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Khalid Sheik Mohammed

Military Trial Of 9/11 Accused Already A Mess

Ryan J. Reilly | May 8, 2012, 6:37AM

For a system whose credibility has long been in dispute, Saturday's arraignment of Khalid Sheikh Muhammed and his fellow accused 9/11 co-conspirators in front of a military commission at Guantanamo Bay offered little hope that the "trial of the century" has much chance at success.

KSM and his four co-defendants refused to answer during the 13-hour long hearing, removing their headphones so they couldn't hear the proceedings in Arabic. They took extended prayer breaks, once even in the midst of the arraignment proceeding. One placed a paper airplane on the microphone, two leafed through a copy of The Economist. At another point a defendant compared guards at the base to the late Muammar Qaddafi and suggested the guards might kill them and say they committed suicide.

This wasn't how things were supposed to go. This arraignment wasn't even supposed to happen. Saturday's hearing marked a failure for the Obama administration, which had put a stop to military commissions shortly after Obama took office. Attorney General Eric Holder later announced that KSM and his cohorts would be tried in federal court in New York, a decision that faced stiff political opposition and was ultimately moved back to Guantanamo. The arraignment of Khalid Sheikh Muhammed and his four co-defendants took place just over a year after Holder announced it was moving back to the military system.

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Topics: Guantanamo, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Osama bin Laden

Holder: I Don't Know If Enhanced Interrogation Helped Catch Osama Bin Laden

Ryan J. Reilly | May 3, 2011, 11:55AM

Attorney General Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that he didn't know if any information obtained from detainees undergoing enhanced interrogation techniques lead to the killing of Osama bin Laden.

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Topics: Eric Holder, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Osama bin Laden

KSM Trial

Holder On KSM Trial: 'I Know This Case In A Way That Members Of Congress Do Not'

Ryan J. Reilly | April 4, 2011, 4:15PM

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Attorney General Eric Holder

Despite his announcement today that the trials of five alleged Sept. 11 co-conspirators will be held in a military court, Attorney General Eric Holder is standing by his original decision to hold civilian trials for five alleged Sept. 11 conspirators in federal court and blames Congress for forcing his hand in sending them to the military system.

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Topics: Eric Holder, Guantanamo, Justice Department, KSM Trial, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, September 11

Guantanamo

Human Rights Group Says Obama's KSM Trial Decision Is 'Clearly' Political

Ryan J. Reilly | April 4, 2011, 1:55PM

President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder

The Obama administration's forthcoming announcement that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and other Sept. 11 conspirators prisoners will be tried in military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, is "clearly just a political decision," Daphne Eviatar, a senior associate at Human Rights First, told TPM in an interview.

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Topics: Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Guantanamo, KSM Trial, Khalid Sheik Mohammed

Reports: In Major Reversal, Holder To Announce KSM Trial Will Be Held At Guantanamo

Ryan J. Reilly | April 4, 2011, 12:20PM

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Attorney General Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder will announce today that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind, will be tried in a military commission -- a complete reversal of his initial announcement that the trial would be held in New York City -- CBS News reports.

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Topics: Eric Holder, KSM Trial, Khalid Sheik Mohammed

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Are Military Tribunals Really Tougher On Terrorists Than Criminal Courts?

Justin Elliott | February 3, 2010, 1:27PM

Flight 253 bomb attack suspect Umar Abdulmutallab

With the debate over how to handle captured terrorists heating up, it's a good time to look back at the record of how military tribunals have worked in practice, and examine the uninterrogated assumption underlying the debate: that tribunals are tougher on terrorists than the criminal justice system.

A recent study by the liberal Center for American Progress found that in the very few cases of captured terrorists being tried in tribunals, the defendants were given lighter sentences than comparable cases in the criminal justice system.