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Holder: Alleged 9/11 Mastermind to be Tried at Guantanamo

   VOA News  April 04, 2011
   A photo of alleged Sep 11, 2001 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed soon
   after he was arrested (file photo)

Photo: VOA

   A photo of alleged Sep 11, 2001 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed soon
   after he was arrested (file photo)

   U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says the alleged mastermind of the
   September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be
   tried by a military commission at the U.S. detention center in
   Guantanamo, Cuba, instead of in a U.S. federal court.
   Holder told reporters Monday that he still believed federal courts were
   the best place to try Mohammed and his four alleged co-conspirators -
   but that Congress had instituted restrictions that blocked any
   Guantanamo detainee from being transferred to the United States.
   He said based on the restrictions, he was forced to recommend the
   suspects be tried by a military commission. But he expressed confidence
   in that system and said he is looking for swift justice.
   He said it is still the intention of the administration to close the
   Guantanamo prison.
   In March, President Barack Obama approved the resumption of military
   trials for detainees at Guantanamo after a two-year freeze.
   The trials were suspended shortly after Mr. Obama took office in
   January 2009, when he ordered a review of detainee policy. President
   Obama missed a self-imposed deadline to close the Guantanamo detention
   center within one year after taking office, but he consistently
   maintained that he does wants to close it.
   Also Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from two Yemenis
   and a Kuwaiti man who are protesting their indefinite detention at
   Guantanamo. The court did not rule on a separate appeal from a group of
   Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, who have been cleared for release, but had
   turned down an offer to be resettled in the tiny Pacific nation of
   Palau.

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