February 11, 2008

Six Gitmo Detainees To Be Charged with Thousands of Murders

OK I understand they have to charge what they have the proof on, but how about charging bin Attash with the USS Cole bombing?

Yahoo News: The Pentagon is charging six detainees at Guantanamo Bay with murder and war crimes in connection with the Sept. 11 terror attacks on America, and will seek the death penalty....

The New York Times reported in Monday's editions that the others (besides KSM) are Mohammed al-Qahtani, the man officials have labeled the 20th hijacker; Ramzi Binalshibh, said to have been the main intermediary between the hijackers and leaders of Al Qaeda; Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, known as Ammar al-Baluchi, a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has been identified as Mohammed's lieutenant for the 2001 operation; al-Baluchi's assistant, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi; and Waleed bin Attash, a detainee known as Khallad, who investigators say selected and trained some of the hijackers.

From my article, The USS Cole Bombing, A Seven Year Prespective:

Bin Laden made a deal with the Yemeni government in 1999, according to the 9/11 Commission Report. After A l-Qaeda operative Khallad bin Attash was arrested in Yemen, Bin Laden contacted a Yemeni official and bargained for Attash’s release. The Yemeni regime released Attash and promised not to confront al-Qaeda. In exchange, Bin Laden pledged not to attack Yemen. This pattern of negotiation continues today.

In 1999, Attash returned to Afghanistan. In January 2000 Attash along with Yemeni Fahd al-Quso attended a high level al-Qaeda meeting in Malaysia at which the attacks on the USS Cole and the World Trade Center were discussed and planned. Attash, who was captured by US forces in Pakistan in 2003, confessed to organizing the Cole attack according to a military transcripts released at his hearing held at Guantanamo Bay. Al-Quso who helped prepared the bombing of the USS Cole was found guilty in a Yemeni court.