Accused 9/11 plotters due in Guantanamo court

[laststeamtrain]

Source: AP

Accused 9/11 plotters due in Guantanamo court

By ANDREW O. SELSKY, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 16 minutes ago

Almost seven years after terrorists hijacked airliners and used them as missiles to kill 2,973 people, five men who allegedly plotted the attacks face a military tribunal Thursday.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the confessed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, will be arraigned simultaneously with four other detainees inside a high-security courthouse at the remote U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Mohammed boasted of numerous attacks and plots against the United States in a closed military hearing last year, and the al-Qaida kingpin and his confederates will be given the chance to speak out again in their war crimes trial, according to a top tribunal official, Air Force Brig. Gen. Tom Hartmann.

"In the course of trial they'll have opportunity to present their case, any way they want to present it subject to rules and procedures," Hartmann told The Associated Press. "That's a great freedom and a great protection we are providing to them. We think ... it is the American way."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080605/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_sept11_trial

[EVDebs]

1. Mark Levey's post re Jack Abramoff ... wonder if this info will make it into the trial

"In the months immediately after 9/11, Abramoff worked with Grover Norquist to lobby the Bush Administration on behalf of a Saudi banker, Saleh Abdullah Kamel, Chairman of Dallah al Baraka Group (DBG), accused of being a longtime financier of Osama bin Laden. Kamel, who is worth a reported $2.6 billion, was the primary owner of the Sudanese and Saudi banks used by bin Laden to build his al-Qaeda network after his 1991 expulsion from Saudi Arabia. As owner of Dallah Avco, Kamel employed Omar al-Bayoumi, who shepherded the Flight 77 hijackers immediately after their arrival in the U.S. http://houseoflabor.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/8/16/233950/... ; reproduced at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph... ? The 373-page Senate Indian Affairs Committee Final Report mentions neither Kamel’s name nor Dallah al Baraka. (See, http://indian.senate.gov/public/_files/Report.pdf )"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3384539

Hmmmm.