US Charges KSM, 9/11 Plotters, Again

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DOD has announced that prosecutors have recommended charges against KSM and the other alleged 9/11 plotters.

The Department of Defense announced today the office of military commissions prosecutors have sworn charges against five individuals detained at Guantanamo Bay:  Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi.

The prosecutors have recommended that the charges against all five of the accused be referred as capital.  Capital charges may only be pursued with the convening authority’s approval.  Under rules governing military commissions, the accused will have the right to counsel learned in applicable law relating to capital cases.

The charges allege that the five accused were responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks on New York, Washington D.C. and Shanksville, Pa. that occurred on September 11, 2001.  Those attacks resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people.

The charges are allegations that the accused committed offenses that are chargeable under the Military Commissions Act of 2009, 10 U.S.C. §§ 948a, et seq. There are eight charges common to all five of the accused: conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, hijacking aircraft, and terrorism.  The accused are presumed innocent and may be convicted only if their guilt is proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

These charges go beyond what is necessary to establish that the 9/11 co-conspirators may be lawfully detained under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, as informed by the laws of war — an issue that each Guantanamo detainee may challenge in a habeas petition in federal court.

In accordance with the Military Commissions Act of 2009, the sworn charges will be forwarded to the Convening Authority, Bruce MacDonald.  The convening authority will make an independent determination as to whether to refer some, all, or none of the charges for trial by military commission.  If the convening authority decides to refer the case to trial, he will designate commission panel members (jurors).  The chief trial judge of the Military Commissions Trial Judiciary would then assign a military judge to the case.

How many times have we faced this stage already? How many times over could we have prosecuted KSM already if we had just used existing, rather than Kangaroo, courts? How many more years will it take to determine whether KSM can plead guilty so as to martyr himself?

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  1. tjbs says:

    The question we would have asked the Godless communists “where are KSM’s children? “Will they be at the kangaroo court ?

    Terror insanity grips the nation with the truth buried under the constitution and they’re buried deep.

    • BoxTurtle says:

      Wonder what a real judge would do if it was shown the prosecutor was illegally holding a defendant’s children, had done so for years, and intended to continue to do so during the trial?

      Boxturtle (Pretty certain the response would be other than “Inadmissable”)

    • greenharper says:

      Thank you. Those poor children. Well, probably not children still — if they’re even alive. Never would I have thought that my country would imprison and torture children who have committed no crime, period, let alone do it in an attempt to locate their father.

  2. BoxTurtle says:

    Either try him in a real court under real rules of evidence, or use the assasination authority the president has claimed and simply whack him.

    The latter is just as constitutional as the Military commissions. No way there’d be even 51 votes to impeach.

    Boxturtle (Perhaps we could auction off the right to cap KSM, with the proceeds to deficit reduction)

  3. nomolos says:

    Where are the charges against Cheney, Bush et al for their admitted war crimes?

    Boxturtle. This is America, they wouldn’t give a shit. Now in a Democracy there might be a problem.

    • BoxTurtle says:

      Unless we can pin a murder on them, those two are SoL safe on any US charges. We are not party to any treaty like ICC that could cause us to have to deport them to face charges. Nobody is capable of forcing us to cough ’em up like what happened in Serbia. And we’d ignore a EU warrant, assuming the EU is willing to stand up to the biblical level of pressure we’re exerting to keep their jurists out of it.

      They’d better hope I never become president.

      Boxturtle (Once again, they’re pretty safe)

  5. lysias says:

    Does KSM still intend to plead guilty? If so, will the rules of the military commission allow him to be executed?

    • bmaz says:

      Dunno, but there ought to be real issues with accepting a guilty plea to a capital offense. In any forum. Curious to see if the dogmatic right to lifers think that would be hunky dory. But I have issues with it from a criminal process standpoint.

  8. bobschacht says:

    EW,
    Do you think this is a case of (1) moving new charges because something was discovered that makes the previous charges unprosecutable or unlikely to succeed, or (2) they’re just trying to drag this out ad infinitum?

    Bob in AZ

  9. milesscott says:

    Let just cut to the chase and say it out loud, The Two Major Crime Families (The Democrats and The Republicans) with strong Machiavellian traits runs everything. Both families are dominated by oligarchs and Plutocrats.Who say “Crime doesn’t pay”?