9/11 plotters face death penalty in trial near 'Ground Zero'

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-accused are to be tried in a civilian court just blocks from where Al-Qaeda hijackers crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center, the US government announced Friday.

Attorney General Eric Holder said prosecutors would seek the death penalty against the five, who are held at Guantanamo Bay but will be transferred to a New York prison ahead of their trial in a civilian court.

"After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for the attacks of September 11 will finally face justice," Holder said, without giving a date for the trial.

"They will be brought to New York to answer to their alleged crimes in a courthouse just blocks away from where the twin towers once stood."

Five other Guantanamo detainees whose alleged crimes were committed overseas, including Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, accused of plotting the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen at the cost of 17 US sailors, will be tried before military commissions, he said.

Holder assured that a New York jury could still be impartial and said all legal requirements would be met before the suspects are brought onto US soil with Congress being given a 45-day warning.

Friday's announcement is key to President Barack Obama's plans to close Guantanamo and further announcements on releases and more trials are expected to leave less than 100 of the current 215 inmates to be accounted for.

The move also signals a major shift in the treatment of "war on terror" suspects and raises serious legal questions about evidence potentially tainted by harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding.

"Bringing terrorists to justice is an integral part of our national security," said Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "The reform of military commissions and today's announcement are important steps in that direction."

Holder, citing information he said had not yet been made public, asserted the harsh interrogation techniques would not prevent a "successful" outcome of the trials.

He did not say where the military tribunals, which have been mired in controversy since they were established by Bush in late 2001 to deal with "war on terror" suspects, would be held.

Families of the September 11 victims branded Friday's decision "a terrible mistake."

"To allow a terrorist and a war criminal the opportunity of having US constitutional protections is a wrong thing to do and it's never been done before," said Ed Kowalski of the 9/11 Families for a Secure America Foundation.

Peter Gadiel, who lost his 23-year-old son James in the north tower of the World Trade Center, accused Obama of trying to set up some kind of "show trial" that would end up being "a circus."

"I'm going to say this president is either insane or he's on somebody else's side other than the United States. Bringing them to New York is a separate issue which is equally insane because of the security problems in lower Manhattan."

The decision also drew flak from Obama's Republican foes in Congress, who have mounted a vigorous campaign to block the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to US soil.

Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the move "a step backwards for the security of our country and puts Americans unnecessarily at risk."

Senior officials have acknowledged the Obama administration is unlikely to meet the January 22 deadline to close the prison.

Greg Craig, the man charged by the White House with shutting Guantanamo, resigned on Friday after criticism of his handling of the closure.

Sheikh Mohammed and co-defendants Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, Walid bin Attash and Mustapha al-Hawsawi had already been charged with murder by a military commission at Guantanamo. Those hearings were suspended when Obama launched his sweeping policy review.

In addition to the September 11 attacks, Sheikh Mohammed has claimed some 30 operations against the West, including the 2002 beheading in Pakistan of US journalist Daniel Pearl.

After his March 1, 2003 capture in Pakistan, the Kuwaiti of Pakistani origin was handed over to US agents who held him in secret prisons for over three years before sending him to Guantanamo in September 2006.

He is known to have been "waterboarded" or subjected to simulated drowning 183 times during his years in US custody.

"I'm looking to be a martyr for long time," he told a Guantanamo hearing in June 2008, the first time he had been seen in public since being captured.