United States v. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
United States v. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, et al. is the trial of five alleged al-Qaeda members for aiding the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The charges,[3] which were brought in 2011, are the following: attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, murder in violation of the law of war, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, hijacking or hazarding a vessel or aircraft, terrorism, and providing material support for terrorism.
The U.S. Department of Defense has built a $12 million "Expeditionary Legal Complex" in Guantánamo with a courtroom designed to protect classified information, and capable of trying the alleged co-conspirators before one judge and jury.
Media and other observers may watch unclassified proceedings only, sequestered in a room behind thick glass, located at the back of the large court facility.
On December 8, 2008, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants told the judge that they wished to confess and plead guilty to all charges.
The plea was to be delayed until mental competency hearings for Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi and Ramzi bin al-Shibh could be held regarding which Mohammed said, "We want everyone to plead together.
"[18][19] Spencer Ackerman, writing in the Washington Independent, reported that Presiding Officer Stephen Henley had to consider whether he was authorized to accept guilty pleas.
Andrew McCarthy, the former Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney who led the prosecution of the 1993 World Trade Center attack, spoke at this rally declaring that Eric Holder didn't "understand what rule of law has always been in wartime".
In a letter to president Barack Obama, Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, suggested that holding a trial in New York was dangerous.
"[27] The White House spokesperson's statement has been criticized as violating the principle of the presumption of innocence and has been characterized as egregious by an attorney of Guantanamo Bay detainees.
Camp authorities told them that all future access to the captives had to be approved by Jeh Johnson, the Department of Defense's General Counsel.
The president objected to the provision in the bill before signing it, calling it "a dangerous and unprecedented challenge to critical executive branch authority" but also said his team would work with the US Congress to "seek repeal of these restrictions".
[29] On April 4, 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 terror suspects will face a military trial at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
In announcing his decision, Holder criticized Congress for imposing restrictions on the Justice Department's ability to bring the men to New York for civilian trials.
[37] On July 8, 2016, Judge Pohl rescinded the temporary order, citing that under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the United States government has legitimate interests in "gender-neutral staffing to promote detention facility security, full integration of women into the Armed Forces, and prevention of gender discrimination".
On August 12, 2013, the military commission ruled that information related to the black site would be admissible as evidence in court, and protected under the law as such.
[40] In June 2014, the military commission issued an ex parte order authorizing the substitution of documented evidence provided by the government, in lieu of preserving the black site for further investigation.
In response, the prosecution stated this error was "simple miscommunication, resulting in inaction", between the military commission and government, each believing the task of notifying the defense team was that of the other.
[42] On August 19, 2016, defense attorneys submitted a request "seeking all documents and information regarding the authorization for and destruction of the black site" including all actions taken by the government concerning the issue, communications between all parties involved, and documentation regarding any efforts taken by the government to notify the defense team about destruction of the black site.
On January 17, 2017, Judge Pohl granted this motion in part: the government is to provide the defense team with specified information from a limited number of classified documents pertaining to the decommission of the black site.
Finding that the case "will face a host of administrative and logistics challenges requiring coordination between [the prosecution, the defense], the Convening Authority, classified information equity holders, and installation management officials", the Commission also introduced a scheduling order for the trial.
In December 2022, hearings were further postponed into 2023, with speculation that they may be delayed even more as the Biden administration weighs a possible plea deal that would take the death penalty off the table.
This news attracted criticism from Republicans, with US Representative Jim Jordan tweeting, "Joe Biden's allies are negotiating lesser sentences for 9/11 attackers.
"[47] In a letter dated August 1, 2023, Pentagon officials informed families of 9/11 victims of the possibility of a plea agreement which would spare the lives of the accused.
[50][51] In April 2014 Wright went on record that he felt the United States Army was making him choose between his military career and his responsibilities to his client.
Wright described how he had spent the previous three years building a rapport with Mohammed, and that the military would undermine his right to a fair trial by reassigning him.
On January 8, 2019, Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald reported that partially redacted transcripts from a pre-trial hearing seemed to indicate that Gina Haspel had been the "Chief of Base" of a clandestine CIA detention site at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in the 2003–2004 period.
