Prosecutors Charge Accused Saudi Arabian National, USS Cole Mastermind
WASHINGTON, June 30, 2008 (Reuters) — U.S. military prosecutors have charged the alleged mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole warship that killed 17 U.S. sailors in 2000, the Pentagon said on Monday.
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian national of Yemeni descent being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, faces eight charges including murder and terrorism for the attack in the Yemeni port of Aden on October 12, 2000, that wounded 47 sailors.
Prosecutors have also charged al-Nashiri over a failed attack on another U.S. warship, the USS The Sullivans, in Aden in January 2000 and an attack on the SS Limburg, a French supertanker, in the Gulf of Aden in October 2002.
“Five of the eight charges carry the maximum penalty of death,” said Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, legal adviser to the body that oversees the military commissions system set up to try terrorism suspects.
Al-Nashiri is one of 14 “high value” detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison who are regarded as particularly significant by U.S. officials.
The USS Cole’s attackers rammed a small boat laden with explosives into the side of the warship, ripping a 40-foot hole in the hull. Prosecutors allege al-Nashiri recruited two co-conspirators to carry out the attack.
The CIA has said it used waterboarding on al-Nashiri, and he has alleged he was tortured.
Waterboarding is a form of simulated drowning that human rights activists say amounts to torture — a label the Bush administration does not accept.
Hartmann told reporters at the Pentagon any questions about the admissibility of evidence obtained through waterboarding would be addressed when al-Nashiri came to trial.
“All the evidentiary issues are going to be resolved in the courtroom. That is the beauty of this system,” he said. “We’ll leave that to the trial process.”
Rights groups have said the military commissions system does not give detainees a fair trial.
The United States has alleged that al-Nashiri was al Qaeda’s operations chief in the Arabian peninsula until his capture in 2002. He has met the Islamist militant network’s chief Osama bin Laden several times, U.S. officials allege.
The top official supervising the military commissions must now decide whether to approve the charges against al-Nashiri.
If the charges are approved, an initial hearing should take place within 30 days. A trial should begin within 120 days of the charges being approved, but that time can be extended.
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Hang him. Televise the execution live on some PPV channel and send the proceeds to our military families. “Justice you can believe in.”
June 30th, 2008 at 12:46 pmBomb Iran Now and hang the SOB
June 30th, 2008 at 1:23 pm