Profile: Key 9/11 suspects

Six prisoners being held by the US in Guantanamo Bay are to face charges over their alleged involvement in the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.

The following profiles and what is known of the allegations against the suspects are compiled from BBC and news agency reports and information released by the Pentagon and US intelligence officials.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Ramzi Binalshibh
Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi
Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali
Walid Bin Attash
Mohammed al-Qahtani

Via BBC.


Comment:

It will be interesting to see how they'll plan their respective defenses (and they will defend themselves; to waste our time if for no other reason). KSM and Ramzi bin al-Shibh are both dead men; all the prosecution needs to do is play the jury the Al Jazeera documentary they appeared in.

As for al-Hawsawi, the his defense thus far seems to be, yes, he did know virtually everyone involved, and yes, Ramzi bin al-Shibh did tell him on September 10 to flee to Pakistan because a huge attack was about to occur, and yes he did receive large sums of money from the hijackers right before the attack, but that doesn't mean that he was involved in any way. I mean, who hasn't received $17,860 from a group of known terrorists? I'm not sure what he has to say about all the al-Qaeda expense accounts and payroll lists he was captured with. He was probably "holding" them for a "friend."

Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, on the other hand, may well be innocent. Going by the evidence raised at his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, it appears that he may have just been used by his uncle, KSM, and had no knowledge of the plot itself. This is strongly supported by the fact that when he left the country right before 9/11 due to his work visa being revoked, he was caught off-guard and didn't even have time to pack. Also, much of the government's evidence is either classified or ridiculous (e.g. he was in frequent contact with his uncle). It also seems kind of peculiar that the plot would have two head financiers. This will be an interesting trial to follow.

Walid bin Attash appears to have been a mid-level administrator involved in the Embassy Bombings and the U.S.S. Cole attack. He has already confessed, so his trial should be fairly short.

Muhammad al-Qahtani's case is also tricky. He was tortured pretty extensively once his identity became known, causing the DoD to call him "unprosecutable." On the other hand, he was definitely a member of al-Qaeda, and tried to enter the States shortly before 9/11 with a one-way ticket, and he probably wasn't sight-seeing. Also, if I recall, he is named as the 20th hijacker in KSM's confession.

We will have to see.

USS Cole attack: Sudan ruled guilty

Sudan is responsible for the bombing of the USS Cole which killed 17 sailors in 2000, a US judge has ruled.

Robert Doumar, a district judge, said: "There is substantial evidence in this case presented by the expert testimony that the government of Sudan induced the particular bombing."

The victims' relatives had argued in the civil trial that the attack could not have happened without Sudan's support.

Sudan sought unsuccessfully to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that too much time had passed between the bombing and the filing of the lawsuit in 2004.

Suicide bombings

Sudan is accused of providing economic support, places for the suicide bombers to train and false documents.

The judge is still to decide on the amount of compensation

Experts testified that Sudan had given safe haven to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network since 1991 – long before Yemeni operatives blasted a 12m hole in the side of the USS Cole in Yemen's port of Aden on October 12, 2000.

Lawyers representing the Sudanese government declined to comment after Wednesday's ruling.

Doumar said that he would issue a written opinion later to fully explain his ruling.

Damages demanded

Shalala Swenchonis-Wood, whose brother died in the attack, said on Wednesday: "Words can't express the loss my family has gone through.

"It's not financial, it's not material, it's always the things, the little things you don't see."

The families want $105m in damages, but potential damages could be reduced to $35m.

The judge, however, has said he is inclined to apply the 'Death on the High Seas Act', which permits compensation for economic losses but not for pain and suffering.

Four experts on terrorism, including R. James Woolsey, CIA director from 1993 to 1995, also testified to support the families' position that al-Qaeda needed the African nation's help to carry out the attack.

Intelligence report

"It would not have been as easy - it might have been possible - but it would not have been as easy,'' Woolsey said in a videotaped statement.

The experts cited testimony from other trials, a declassified Canadian intelligence report, US state department reports and their own studies as they testified that Sudan let terrorist training camps operate within its borders.

They also accused Sudan of giving al-Qaeda members diplomatic passports so they could travel without scrutiny and diplomatic pouches to ship explosives and weapons without being searched.

The US has listed Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism since 1993.

Via al Jazeera.