Self-professed 9/11 mastermind awaits trial 2 many years later

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NEW YORK — Hours earlier than daybreak on March 1, 2003, the U.S. scored its most thrilling victory but towards the plotters of the Sept. 11 assaults – the seize of a dishevelled Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, hauled away by intelligence brokers from a hideout in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

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The worldwide manhunt for al-Qaida’s No. 3 chief had taken 18 months. However America’s try to convey him to justice, in a authorized sense, has taken a lot, for much longer. Critics say it has change into one of many conflict on terror’s biggest failures.

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As Sunday’s twenty first anniversary of the phobia assaults approaches, Mohammed and 4 different males accused of 9/11-related crimes nonetheless sit in a U.S. detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, their deliberate trials earlier than a army tribunal endlessly postponed.

The newest setback got here final month when pretrial hearings scheduled for early fall had been canceled. The delay was yet another in a string of disappointments for family members of the practically 3,000 victims of the assault. They’ve lengthy hoped {that a} trial would convey closure and maybe resolve unanswered questions.

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“Now, I’m undecided what’s going to occur,” mentioned Gordon Haberman, whose 25-year-old daughter Andrea died after a hijacked airplane crashed into the the World Commerce Heart, a ground above her workplace.

He’s travelled to Guantanamo 4 occasions from his residence in West Bend, Wisconsin, to look at the authorized proceedings in particular person, solely to depart pissed off.

“It’s necessary to me that America lastly will get to the reality about what occurred, the way it was accomplished,” mentioned Haberman. “I personally need to see this go to trial.”

If convicted at trial, Mohammed might face the demise penalty.

When requested concerning the case, James Connell, an legal professional for one in every of Mohammed’s co-defendants – one accused of transferring cash to 9/11 attackers – confirmed studies each side are nonetheless “making an attempt to succeed in a pretrial settlement” that would nonetheless keep away from a trial and end in lesser however nonetheless prolonged sentences.

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David Kelley, a former U.S. legal professional in New York who co-chaired the Justice Division’s nationwide investigation into the assaults, referred to as the delays and failure to prosecute “an terrible tragedy for the households of the victims.”

He referred to as the trouble to place Mohammed on trial earlier than a army tribunal, quite than within the common U.S. courtroom system, “an amazing failure” that was “as offensive to our Structure as to our rule of regulation.”

“It’s an amazing blemish on the nation’s historical past,” he mentioned.

The issue in holding a trial for Mohammed and different Guantanamo prisoners is partly rooted in what the U.S. did with him after his 2003 seize.

Mohammed and his co-defendants had been initially held in secret prisons overseas. Hungry for data that may result in the seize of different al-Qaida figures, CIA operatives subjected them to enhanced interrogation strategies that had been tantamount to torture, human rights teams say. Mohammed was waterboarded – made to really feel that he was drowning – 183 occasions.

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A Senate investigation later concluded the interrogations didn’t result in any worthwhile intelligence. Nevertheless it has sparked infinite pretrial litigation over whether or not FBI studies on their statements can be utilized towards them – a course of not topic to speedy trial guidelines utilized in civilian courts.

The torture allegations led to issues that the U.S. may need ruined its probability to place Mohammed on trial in a civilian courtroom.

However in 2009, President Barack Obama’s administration determined to strive, asserting that Mohammed could be transferred to New York Metropolis and placed on trial at a federal courtroom in Manhattan.

“Failure isn’t an choice,” Obama mentioned.

However New York Metropolis balked at the price of safety and the transfer by no means got here. Ultimately, it was introduced Mohammed would face a army tribunal. After which over a dozen years handed.

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Kelley mentioned speak of army tribunals 20 years in the past shocked many within the authorized group who had been efficiently prosecuting terrorism circumstances within the decade earlier than. The idea of a tribunal, he mentioned, “got here out of the blue. No one knew it was coming.”

Then-Lawyer Normal John Ashcroft was not in favor of tribunals and had been supportive of the Manhattan federal terrorism prosecutions, he mentioned.

Now, Kelley mentioned, with the passage of time it will likely be rather more troublesome to prosecute Mohammed in a tribunal, a lot much less a courtroom. “Proof goes stale, witness reminiscences fail.”

The passage of time hasn’t dulled the reminiscences of the victims’ households or dampened their curiosity in witnessing justice.

Eddie Bracken’s sister Lucy Fishman was killed on the commerce centre. The New Yorker opposed Obama’s proposal to maneuver the trial to federal courtroom – Mohammed is charged with “a army act,” and must be tried by the army, he reasoned. And whereas he’s considerably pissed off by the delays, he understands them.

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“The entire world is us and saying, ‘What are they doing in any case this time?”‘ he mentioned. However he realizes the case is “a course of that the world is seeing, that must be accomplished beneath a microscope. … It’s as much as the US to do their due diligence, be certain it’s accomplished proper.”

“The wheels of justice flip. They flip slowly, however they flip. And when the time comes, and it’s mentioned and accomplished, the world will know what occurred,” he provides.

Whereas Mohammed has lingered at Guantanamo, the U.S. killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid and deputy-turned-successor Ayman al-Zawahri in a drone strike simply this August.

Investigators with the army fee at Guantanamo Bay mentioned he plotted the 9/11 assaults for 3 years. They cited a pc arduous drive seized at his arrest which they mentioned contained pictures of the 19 hijackers, three letters from bin Laden and details about some hijackers.

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Mohammed, at his tribunal listening to, conceded in a written assertion that he swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden, that he was on al-Qaida’s council and that he served as operational director for bin Laden for the organizing, planning, follow-up and execution of the Sept. 11 plot “from A to Z.”

In line with the assertion, he additionally took credit score for the 1993 bombing of the World Commerce Heart; an try to down U.S. jetliners utilizing bombs hidden in footwear; the bombing of a nightclub in Indonesia; and plans for a second wave of assaults after the 2001 assaults concentrating on landmarks just like the Sears Tower in Chicago and Manhattan’s Empire State Constructing.

He additionally claimed credit score for different deliberate assaults, together with assassination makes an attempt towards then-President Invoice Clinton in 1994 or 1995 and an assassination plot towards Pope John Paul II at about the identical time, the assertion mentioned.

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Mohammed’s practically 20 years in authorized limbo differs from the destiny of his nephew, Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Commerce Heart bombing that killed six individuals, injured 1,000 others and left a crater within the parking storage beneath the dual towers.

Yousef is serving life in jail after being convicted at two separate civilian trials. He was additionally captured in Pakistan, in 1995, however was dropped at the US for trial.

On the time, Yousef mentioned his proper to kill individuals was akin to the U.S. determination to drop a nuclear bomb in World Battle II. Mohammed has provided an analogous justification, saying via an interpreter at a Guantanamo continuing that killing individuals was the “language of any conflict.”

Bracken travelled to Guantanamo in 2012 to look at one listening to for Mohammed and his co-defendants, and would in all probability go once more if a trial ever occurred.

“I don’t know if I need to go there once more to convey again all of the harm and ache. But when I’m allowed to go, then I assume I’d go. Yeah. My sister would do this for me.”

“She’s that kind of a lady,” he added. Then he corrected himself: “She was that kind of a lady.”

— Antlfinger reported from West Bend, Wisconsin. Related Press writers Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington and Tom Hays in New York contributed to this story.