The United States Takes the September 11 Masterminds to the Gallows

The Obama administration gives the green light to a military trial at Guantanamo Bay for five al-Qaida terrorists accused of orchestrating the attacks of September 11, 2001, opening the door for their possible death sentences.

No Civilian Hearing, Obama Forced to Follow Bush Plan

The decision, announced by the Pentagon yesterday, brings the reversal of the White House position on Guantanamo to extreme consequences. If during the election campaign of 2008 Barack Obama pledged to close Guantanamo, once elected he admitted the impossibility of doing so because of Congress’ opposition to transferring the last prisoners being held to American soil. The next attempt, in 2010, was to carry out hearings for those responsible for Sept. 11 before civil courts in the United States, but, in this case too, the resistance of Congress, the military, and the intelligence community forced the White House to change direction.

In particular, Attorney General Eric Holder criticized the inability to hold a civil trial against Congress’ opposition to “fund the trial in a New York court,” where, in reality, even Mayor Michael Bloomberg was opposed, invoking security reasons.

Every other option having failed, the White House had no alternative left but to return to the track that was already chosen by the Bush administration, or to have a military tribunal prosecute, at Guantanamo, the five al-Qaida detainees involved in the design and implementation of the attacks that claimed the lives of 2,976 people in New York, Washington, and the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. These are Khalid Sheik Mohammed – the one who thought up the attacks using the hijacked planes, his Pakistani nephew Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, the Yemenis Ramzi Binalshibh and Walid bin Attash, and Saudi Mustafa al-Hawsawi. Within 30 days, the trial will begin on the U.S. military base on the island of Cuba, and, as the Pentagon confirmed, the defendants face the death penalty.

All five were held in secret prisons run by the CIA until 2006, and military code impedes the consideration of statements made during interrogations conducted with the technique of “waterboarding” simulated drowning which the Obama administration equated to torture. But the fact remains that defense lawyers are preparing to do battle specifically regarding the secret detention, which they consider so illegitimate as to render invalid the legality of the entire trial. This means that the Pentagon’s military prosecution under Leon Panetta will have to defend in court the practices adopted by the Bush administration in order to sentence the defendants. The American Civil Liberties Union is ready for the fight: “Whatever verdict comes out of the Guantanamo military commissions will be tainted by an unfair process.”