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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Guantanamo

Guantanamo Lawyers: Obama Gets Away With Legal Moves Bush Wouldn't Have

Ryan J. Reilly | April 17, 2012, 5:31AM

More than two years after President Barack Obama blew his self-imposed deadline to shut down the extrajudicial prison at Guantanamo Bay, close observers and defense lawyers with clients making their way through the reformed military tribunal system say the public isn't paying attention.

"I think what you'll find is the interest in the process will never get back up again," Bryan Broyles, the Pentagon's deputy chief defense counsel at Guantanamo, told TPM. "It's fatigue and the thought that 'Well, it must be okay now because Obama said it's okay.'"

Broyles and other observers believe that some policy changes instituted under the Obama administration would have sparked outrage if President George W. Bush was still in the White House. One change he said should have been "extremely alarming" to the legal community: the rule allowing death penalty defendants to plead guilty and still receive the death penalty.

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Guantanamo

Guantanamo Prepares For Media Storm At Trial Of KSM, 9/11 Conspirators

Ryan J. Reilly | April 16, 2012, 3:50PM

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA -- Pentagon officials preparing for next month's arraignment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other accused terrorists charged with plotting the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are expecting about 600 journalists to apply for the 60 spaces available for members of the media at Guantanamo Bay's Camp Justice.

The military has not yet begun accepting credentials requests for the KSM arraignment, which is scheduled to begin on May 5, but one Pentagon public affairs official already received 100 inquires from press.

Last week's pre-trial hearings for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the Saudi Arabian man accused of plotting the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, served as a sort of dry run for Guantanamo's media operation, though the five reporters who attended represented just 1/12th of the 60-person capacity.

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Guantanamo

Gitmo Transfer Ban, Pushed By Illinois Republicans, Was Part Of DADT Deal

Rachel Slajda | December 20, 2010, 10:50AM

Mark Kirk

A provision banning the Obama administration from transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the United States, even for trial, made its way into the National Defense Authorization Act that passed the House Friday. According to reports, it was part of a deal worked out with Illinois Republicans to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Congress hammered out a compromise last week that stripped controversial measures like DADT repeal (passed instead in a standalone bill) from the defense spending bill. But Illinois Republicans, lead by Sen. Mark Kirk, warned the negotiators not to take out the Gitmo transfer ban if they wanted the bill to pass both houses.

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Guantanamo

Senate Aims To Follow House In Blocking Gitmo Detainees Transfer

Rachel Slajda | December 15, 2010, 10:12AM

Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay

Following in the House's footsteps, the Senate is trying to block the Obama administration from bringing any Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States, even for trial.

The Senate Appropriations Committee released the text of a 2,000-page omnibus spending bill yesterday, a bill that would fund the government through next September. Like the House's spending bill, the Senate's includes a provision that would ban any funds from being used for the transfer of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or any other Guantanamo Bay detainees to the U.S.

As TPM reported Monday, the House bill was written solely by Democrats -- meaning Democrats put the detainee transfer ban in. Attorney General Eric Holder wrote to the Senate's majority and minority leaders after that vote, pleading with them to keep such a provision out of the Senate's version.

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Congress

Democrats Added Ban On Gitmo Detainee Transfer To Omnibus Spending Bill

Rachel Slajda | December 13, 2010, 12:32PM

Detainees at Guantanamo Bay

The Obama administration has loudly opposed a provision of the omnibus spending bill, passed last week by the House, that would ban the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees to U.S. soil, even for trial.

"This provision goes well beyond existing law and would unwisely restrict the ability of the Executive branch to prosecute alleged terrorists in Federal courts or military commissions in the United States," Attorney General Eric Holder wrote in a letter to Senate leadership, calling the provision "dangerous" and asking that it be stripped before the Senate votes on the bill this week.

"We strongly oppose this provision. Congress should not limit the tools available to the executive branch in bringing terrorists to justice and advancing our national security interests," White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said just before the bill passed.

So you would think, then, that this was perhaps a provision snuck into the must-pass government funding bill by Republicans intent on derailing Holder's plan to try self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in civilian criminal court.

You'd be wrong.

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Alberto Gonzales

Gonzales: I Was 'Aware' Of Waterboarding

Ryan J. Reilly | November 22, 2010, 9:15AM

Fmr. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told TPM in an exclusive interview that he was aware of the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques used against suspected terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

He wouldn't say, however, whether he remembered when George W. Bush approved KSM's waterboarding. Bush recalled in his book that he told the CIA "Damn right" when asked whether to waterboard the man accused of planning Sept. 11.

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'Decision Points'

Bush: Waterboarding Legal 'Because The Lawyer Said It Was' (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | November 9, 2010, 9:01AM

President George W. Bush in an interview with Matt Lauer

Former President George W. Bush was asked during an interview last night why he believes waterboarding is legal.

"Because the lawyer said it was," Bush said. "He said it did not fall within the Anti-Torture Act. I'm not a lawyer, but you gotta trust the judgment of people around you and I do."

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KSM Trial

Gitmo Detainee Trial Starts In NYC With Little Fanfare Despite Initial Opposition

Ryan J. Reilly | October 6, 2010, 10:13AM

Opponents of trying terrorism suspects in a federal court in New York City openly anticipated a disaster last November after Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Sept. 11 so-called mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other terrorism suspects would be tried in the Big Apple. The civilian court system just wasn't capable of handling these type of issues, they said. The terrorists could get off scot-free, they added, on some technicality and be roaming the streets in no time.

But this week, admitted Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad -- whose case was handled entirely in the domestic courts despite calls for him to be tried in a military tribunal -- was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. And, today, another accused terrorist, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, faces the start of his trial in New York City with virtually no fanfare.

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Lindsey Graham

Is Lindsey Graham Playing Both Sides On DOJ Lawyers Fracas?

Zachary Roth | March 10, 2010, 11:20AM

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Is Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) playing both sides on the "controversy" over Justice Department lawyers who represented Guantanamo detainees?

Yesterday, the South Carolina senator joined a growing chorus of conservatives in slamming a recent ad by Liz Cheney's advocacy group that questioned the loyalties of seven DOJ attorneys who had previously represented Gitmo detainees. The ad, by Keep America Safe, referred to the lawyers as "the Al Qaeda Seven," and asked "Whose values do they represent?"

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