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Mohammed, four others offer confessions to 9/11 attacks

Confessed al Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his four 9/11 accused co-plotters offered to plead guilty Monday to orchestrating the 9/11 attacks, a move that may leave President-elect Barack Obama to decide whether to execute them. | 12/08/08 10:43:20 By - Carol Rosenberg

Alleged 9/11 plotters at Guantanamo offer to plead guilty

Closing Guantanamo a minefield of critical steps

The Pentagon on Monday begins more hearings for the proposed death penalty trial of reputed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, even as President-elect Barack Obama's transition team and the Bush administration work to possibly close the Navy base prison camps. | 12/08/08 06:54:17 By - Carol Rosenberg

Bin Laden driver released from Guantanamo, headed home

The Pentagon early Tuesday morning sent Osama bin Laden's driver home to Yemen, a month before the first Guantanamo captive convicted of war crimes by a military jury completed his 66-month prison sentence. Salim Hamdan, 40, had been held prisoner by American forces for seven years. The Pentagon had argued that it could continue holding Hamdan even after his sentence expired Dec. 27. | 11/25/08 08:44:03 By - Carol Rosenberg

Guantanamo detainees get a dose of culture

Prison camp staff will soon start offering art and geology classes to long-held war-on-terrorism detainees. English is now being taught as military jailers tinker with how to distract captured jihadists. | 11/23/08 08:27:00 By - Carol Rosenberg

With Guantanamo war court in doubt, 9/11 case gets new judge

The military has assigned an Army colonel to take over the upcoming war crimes trial of alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, a sign that the Pentagon is plunging ahead with plans for military commissions of alleged 9/11 co-conspirators. | 11/18/08 16:10:20 By - Carol Rosenberg

Rights groups urge Obama to mount Guantanamo probe

The commission would systematically examine the U.S. treatment of detainees at Guantanamo and elsewhere since the 9/11 attacks. The groups made the recommendation as they released a two-year study of the impact of U.S. detention and interrogation practices on former captives that was similar to one McClatchy published earlier this year. | 11/12/08 18:09:51 By - Carol Rosenberg

Guantanamo down to 250 detainees; future uncertain

The Pentagon has sent two more Guantanamo detainees home to Algeria, reducing the prison camps' population to about 250. The latest transfer, announced on Monday, has been part of a steady series of departures from the controversial prison camps in southeast Cuba as the Bush administration winds down. | 11/11/08 12:43:18 By - Carol Rosenberg

Bin Laden propagandist convicted of war crimes

A military jury Monday convicted Osama bin Laden's media secretary of war crimes for creating an al Qaeda recruiting video that prosecutors argued incited suicide bombers. Ali Hamza al Bahlul, about 40, of Yemen, did not react as the guilty verdict was announced. The Army prosecutor asked the jurors to return the maximum, life in prison. The jury was to deliberate Bahlul's sentence Monday afternoon. | 11/03/08 17:29:22 By - Carol Rosenberg

Ex-U.S. jihadists testify at Guantanamo terror trial

A jailed ex-jihadist testified at the war court Thursday that, as an American al Qaeda recruit in Afghanistan, he was twice shown a two-hour propaganda film created by Osama bin Laden's media secretary — and was horror-struck. | 10/30/08 17:56:28 By - Carol Rosenberg

Guantanamo war court shows martyrdom video

Osama bin Laden's media secretary joined military jurors Wednesday watching his handiwork -- a crude two-hour recruiting video that spliced gory Muslim suffering with exhortations to holy war offered to prove the filmmaker committed war crimes. | 10/29/08 17:52:42 By - Carol Rosenberg

Guantanamo court judge: Threatening family was torture

In a first, a military judge ruled on Tuesday that a Guantanamo detainee's confession was extracted through torture, and excluded it from the trial of a young Afghan detainee at the war court. | 10/29/08 07:13:50 By - Carol Rosenberg

Guantanamo trial to showcase gadgetry, spy-plane imagery

An Army prosecutor on Tuesday described an alleged al Qaeda propagandist as being at the heart of the Afghan-based terror group by early 2000, a time when Osama bin Laden had decided to spread his message through media and mayhem. | 10/28/08 15:09:29 By - Carol Rosenberg

Pentagon drops charges against 5 held at Guantanamo

The Bush administration's top official overseeing military commissions has dismissed war crimes charges against five men at Guantanamo, a military commissions spokesman said Tuesday. The development followed the high-profile resignation of a prosecutor who'd protested plans to try a sixth man in the case. | 10/21/08 14:33:22 By - Carol Rosenberg

Florida welcome awaits Guantanamo prisoners from China

The Rev. Brant Copeland never heard of a Uighur before Guantanamo. Neither had Imam Naeem Harris, this city's Muslim spiritual leader. Nor had Rabbi Jack Romberg. Now the men have forged a community effort to settle three of the 17 Uighurs -- men from a Muslim minority in China -- whom a federal judge ruled were held for years in a legal limbo while mislabeled as enemies at the prison camps at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. | 10/17/08 14:56:03 By - Carol Rosenberg

Judge: Al Qaida accused to get laptops at Guantanamo

Guantanamo guards must furnish confessed al Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his four alleged co-conspirators with enough battery power to use their prison camp laptops 12 hours a day -- but the 9/11 accused can't surf the Internet, a military judge ruled. | 10/13/08 07:05:27 By - Carol Rosenberg

No death penalty trial for alleged embassy bomber

A Pentagon appointee Friday spurned a prosecutor's request for a death penalty trial in approving war crimes charges against a former CIA-held captive at Guantanamo accused of a role in al Qaeda's 1998 East Africa embassies bombings. | 10/03/08 18:37:07 By - Carol Rosenberg

Prosecutors seek to reverse war court sentence

Pentagon prosecutors are asking a military judge to reverse himself and reassemble the jury that convicted Osama bin Laden's driver at Guantanamo, seeking to overturn a sentence that could make the first war court convict eligible for release by New Year's Eve. | 10/03/08 18:34:41 By - Carol Rosenberg

Army prosecutor quits Guantanamo war court case

An Army prosecutor has resigned from the Guantanamo war court in a crisis of conscience over plans to try a young Afghan accused of throwing a grenade rather than settle the case out of court, according to an affidavit filed with the court Wednesday. | 09/25/08 11:20:55 By - Carol Rosenberg

Alleged 9/11 architect: Guantanamo court an 'inquisition'

Confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed on Wednesday asked his military judge to disqualify himself from the terror trial, declaring, "In your eyes, I'm an Islamic extremist.'" Four of the five men accused in the complex conspiracy case joined in the request. | 09/24/08 15:39:17 By - Carol Rosenberg

Bin Laden's driver still a test case of sorts

It's been six weeks since a military jury made Salim Hamdan a war criminal for working as Osama bin Laden's $200-a-month driver in Afghanistan, and the Pentagon has yet to say precisely when his 66-month prison sentence ends. Or where he will go. | 09/23/08 09:06:42 By - Carol Rosenberg

Alleged 9/11 conspirator sparks war court standoff

Alleged 9/11 go-between Ramzi bin al Shibh refused to leave his prison camp cell Monday, triggering a clash on how to hold a pretrial hearing in the complex conspiracy case for which prosecutors seek the death penalty. | 09/22/08 11:44:32 By - Carol Rosenberg

Pentagon strips a general of his Guantanamo legal role

Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann had been disqualified from his role as impartial legal advisor at the trials by military judges who found that he had a pro-prosecution bias. Instead, Hartmann will be in charge of logistics for the war court. | 09/19/08 18:58:14 By - Carol Rosenberg

Canadian won't be tried at Guantanamo until after election

The Pentagon Tuesday announced a Nov. 10 war crimes trial date for alleged Canadian teen terrorist Omar Khadr, meaning the terror murder trial will follow both the U.S. and Canadian elections and likely straddle American Thanksgiving. | 09/16/08 14:46:15 By - Carol Rosenberg

Judge orders delay in Guantanamo trial of Canadian Omar Khadr

Canadian captive Omar Khadr's terror trial won't go forward as scheduled on Oct. 8, a military judge said Thursday. He did not set a new trial date. Army Col. Patrick Parrish disclosed the delay in pretrial hearings while attorneys at the war court argued over what evidence would be available to the defense at trial. At issue, in part, is whether the judge will order the government to fund and authorize independent mental health experts working for the defense to meet with Khadr at the prison camps. | 09/11/08 16:53:42 By - Carol Rosenberg

Why doesn't the public care about 9/11 war crimes trials?

Seven years ago today, the horrific hijackings united this nation in grief and determination. Now, despite four years of on-again, off-again Guantanamo war crimes tribunals designed to bring to justice the perpetrators of 9/11, there is little evidence that the trials resonate with victims' families or the American public. | 09/11/08 07:08:34 By - Carol Rosenberg

Former Pentagon official says Guantanamo adviser must go

Charles ''Cully'' Stimson, who was in charge of detainee affairs for the Pentagon, says the Pentagon's legal adviser on Guantanamo prosecutions, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, should be replaced because three military judges have now barred him from particiapting in Guantanamo cases, saying he's not objective. If Hartmann's not replaced, Stimson said, the process' fairness can be challenged. | 09/05/08 15:49:46 By - Carol Rosenberg

Pentagon adviser banned again from Guantanamo case

A military judge in the case of a Canadian captive at Guantanamo on Thursday again banned a general at the Pentagon from acting as a legal advisor because of a perception that he favors the prosecution. The judge said Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann appears to have lost his neutrality in his role as the Pentagon's legal advisor to military commissions. | 09/04/08 18:46:15 By - Carol Rosenberg

3 Guantanamo detainees sent to Afghanistan, Pakistan

The Pentagon sent three more war-on-terror captives home from Guantanamo this weekend -- two to Afghanistan and one to Pakistan, the Defense Department said Tuesday. | 09/02/08 12:52:55 By - Carol Rosenberg

Guantanamo gets ready for Hurricane Gustav

The U.S. military sent home two more war-on-terror detainees, both to Algeria, and canceled Red Cross visits to other prisoners Tuesday ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Gustav at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. | 08/26/08 15:25:38 By - Carol Rosenberg

Alleged al Qaida PR man: Convict me next

An accused al Qaeda filmmaker with a flair for the dramatic set the stage for the first no-contest war crimes trial Friday by declaring a boycott until he is sentenced. ''It is a legal farce,'' Ali Hamza al Bahlul, 39, of Yemen, told his military judge, Air Force Col. Ronald Gregory. | 08/15/08 18:36:37 By - Carol Rosenberg

Judge bans general from Guantanamo trial role

For a second time, a military judge Thursday barred a U.S. general at the Pentagon from acting as a legal advisor in the trial of an accused terrorist at the Guantanamo war court. Moreover, Judge Stephen Henley ordered a new top-level review of the charges against Mohammed Jawad, about 23, who is accused of attempted murder for allegedly throwing a grenade as a teen that wounded two U.S. soldiers and their translator in a bazaar in Kabul, Afghanistan. | 08/14/08 13:59:24 By - Carol Rosenberg

Bin Laden driver's story to go Hollywood

It's true that a production company owned by Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney optioned the story of Osama bin Laden's driver. Hollywood publicist Stan Rosenfield told The Miami Herald by telephone Tuesday that Grant Heslov, who wrote "Good Night, and Good Luck" with Clooney, optioned a recently released book on the Hamdan case by New York writer Jonathan Mahler. | 08/13/08 15:23:12 By - Carol Rosenberg

Guantanamo general calls 2nd general 'bullying'

One general testified about another general at the war court Wednesday, describing a Pentagon official fast-tracking trials here as "abusive, bullying, unprofessional.'' Moreover, in testimony, Army Brig. Gen. Gregory Zanetti, deputy prison camps commander, described the approach employed earlier this year by his counterpart, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, this way: "Spray and pray. Charge everybody. Let's go. Speed, speed, speed.'' | 08/13/08 14:17:16 By - Carol Rosenberg

War court resumes, readies Canadian's trial

With one conviction by military jury on the books, the war court gavels back into session Wednesday with pre-trial hearings in the case of the next war-on-terror captive up for trial — Canadian Omar Khadr. Khadr, now 21, is accused of the grenade killing of a U.S. Special Forces soldier in a firefight in Afghanistan in July 2002, when he was 15. | 08/12/08 18:57:01 By - Carol Rosenberg

Bin Laden's driver gets light sentence, thanks military jury

In a stunning rebuke, a six-member U.S. military jury Thursday ignored a Pentagon prosecutor's plea for a 30 years-plus term and ordered Osama bin Laden's driver to 66 months in prison. With credit for time served given by the judge, that means Salim Hamdan, 40, of Yemen will be sent back to the general detainee population of Camp Delta by January, and eligible to return home. | 08/07/08 16:06:27 By - Carol Rosenberg

Pentagon seeks 30 years to life for bin Laden's driver

A Pentagon prosecutor Thursday cast Osama bin Laden's driver as "a hardened al Qaeda member" and asked the six-member U.S. military jury who convicted him of terrorism to lock him up for 30 years, if not for life. | 08/07/08 14:24:37 By -

9/11 victim can't speak at sentencing hearing

A military judge Wednesday spurned a Pentagon plan to have an FBI agent who was in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, testify as a victim at the sentencing hearing of Osama bin Laden's driver. Judge Keith Allred, a Navy captain, also ruled that Salim Hamdan, 37, was entitled to 61 months and seven days of credit to any sentence a jury of six military officers might issue. | 08/06/08 15:38:15 By - Carol Rosenberg

Guantanamo jury gives mixed verdict on Bin Laden's driver

Salim Hamdan was found guilty of lending material support to a terrorist organization. But the jury of military officers acquitted him of more serious charges that he had conspired with al Qaida leaders in a series of terrorist attacks. Hamdan, whose court case overturned the Bush administration's first military tribunal plan, is the first war-on-terror captive convicted by a military tribunal at Guantanamo. | 08/06/08 10:43:10 By - Carol Rosenberg

As Gitmo jury deliberates, driver phones home

While a military jury was deciding the fate of Osama bin Laden's driver, the accused got to phone his wife and kids in their native Yemen. The U.S. military granted Salim Hamdan, 37, a one-hour telephone call home on Monday evening, just as the five U.S. colonels and lieutenant colonels led by a Navy captain began considering the war crimes charges against him. | 08/05/08 19:25:36 By - Carol Rosenberg

Jury deliberates second day without verdict in driver's case

A military jury deliberated a second day without a verdict Tuesday in the case of Osama bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan, accused of 10 counts of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. The jury of six U.S. military officers has deliberated six and half hours across two days. The jury's president, a Navy captain, said they'd resume deliberations at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. | 08/05/08 17:47:55 By - Carol Rosenberg

Military jury gets Guantanamo case of bin Laden's driver

A panel led by a U.S. Navy captain who's commanded a ship at sea began deliberating the case of Salim Hamdan, who faces life in prison if convicted of being an al Qaida terrorist. The other jury members are a female Army colonel, an Air Force colonel, a Marine lieutenant colonel and two Army lieutenant colonels, one of whom has flown Apache helicopters in Panama and Iraq. | 08/04/08 19:08:56 By - Carol Rosenberg

Defense rests in Guantanamo trial of bin Laden's driver

Confessed al Qaida kingpin Khalid Sheik Mohammed testified on paper Friday in the defense of Osama bin Laden's driver, saying he "was not a soldier, he was a driver. He was not fit to plan or execute. But he is fit to change trucks' tires, change oil filters, wash and clean cars and fasten cargo in pickup trucks." The six-man military jury will begin deliberations Monday. | 08/01/08 11:38:40 By - Carol Rosenberg

Agent: Driver pledged allegiance to bin Laden

In a key victory for the Pentagon prosecution, a federal agent was allowed to testify Thursday that Osama bin Laden's driver confessed to him here in 2003 that he had sworn a pledge of allegiance to his boss, the al Qaeda godfather. ''He said he pledged bayat to Osama bin Laden,'' Robert McFadden, an agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said at the terror trial of the driver, Salim Hamdan, 37, of Yemen. | 07/31/08 19:33:40 By - Carol Rosenberg

Military commission takes secret testimony at trial

The military commission hearing the first U.S. war crimes tribunal since World War II took secret testimony on Thursday, a first. Defense lawyers called U.S. Army psychologist Col. L. Morgan Banks III to testify, then all sides agreed that what he was about to say at the trial of Osama bin Laden's driver was secret. So reporters were ushered out of the commissions room, as were observers from the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch. | 07/31/08 18:23:02 By - Carol Rosenberg

Alleged 9/11 mastermind refuses to testify at driver's trial

Reputed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed has balked at testifying in person at the trial of Osama bin Laden's driver, defense lawyers said Wednesday. Instead, the jury will get written statements from the al Qaeda kingpin and another alleged plotter in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. | 07/30/08 19:33:09 By - Carol Rosenberg

Driver doesn't fit terrorist profile, expert witness says

Al Qaeda terrorists are the elite of Osama bin Laden's followers, gifted linguists with college degrees plucked from paramilitary training camps — and don't fit the profile of a Yemeni truck driver with a fourth-grade education, a defense witness testified Wednesday. ''I don't see Salim Hamdan by any stretch of the imagination fitting this profile,'' said Brian Glyn Williams, in live video testimony beamed from the U.S. air base at Incirlik, Turkey. | 07/30/08 18:57:14 By - Carol Rosenberg

Driver told FBI agents U.S. could have killed bin Laden

In his seventh of month of U.S. captivity, Osama bin Laden's driver told a pair of FBI agents that it was America's fault that the al Qaida leader was still alive. The message was, ''You had these opportunities, America. You didn't do anything,'' FBI agent George Crouch Jr. testified Friday at Salim Hamdan's war crimes trial. | 07/25/08 18:15:05 By - Carol Rosenberg

Court orders Bush administration to preserve possible evidence of torture

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., issued a preliminary order on Tuesday directing the Bush administration to preserve any evidence that might show that a former Baltimore resident was tortured during his three years in secret CIA detention. | 07/25/08 16:04:42 By - Carol Rosenberg

Guantanamo detainee asks court to declare that he was tortured

In a filing made public Friday, lawyers for a Guantanamo detainee have asked a federal court to examine the way he was questioned while in secret CIA custody for three years and decide whether he was tortured. | 07/25/08 16:04:18 By - Carol Rosenberg

Bin Laden's driver wins another trial delay

A military commission judge Friday delayed the scheduled trial of Osama bin Laden's driver until after the U.S. Supreme Court has decided another key detainee case.Navy Capt. Keith Allred said delaying the start of Salim Hamdan's trial until July 21 "avoids the potential embarrassment, waste of resources and prejudice to the accused that would" result were the Bush administration to lose the Supreme Court case. | 07/25/08 16:03:16 By - Carol Rosenberg

Pentagon sets trial date for one Guantanamo detainee, charges another

A military judge declared Osama bin Laden's former driver an "unlawful enemy combatant" in a ruling released Thursday, clearing the way the driver to be tried on war crimes charges in May before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. | 07/25/08 15:08:15 By - Carol Rosenberg

9/11 Guantanamo trials unlikely before Bush leaves office

The U.S. military is scrambling to assemble defense teams for six Guantanamo detainees who are facing the death penalty for their alleged roles in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Knowledgeable legal experts, however, said it's unlikely that they can be tried speedily, meaning the cases probably won't be heard before the Bush administration leaves office next January. | 07/25/08 15:07:40 By - Carol Rosenberg and Nancy A. Youssef

Bush allows terror detainees some rights under Geneva Convention

In a major reversal of a keystone policy in its war on terrorism, the Bush administration announced Tuesday that all detainees in U.S. military custody, including those at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are entitled to Geneva Convention protections that prohibit humiliating treatment and torture. The change reflects the Pentagons response to the Supreme Courts 5-3 decision last month that struck down the administrations makeshift formula for military tribunals at Guantanamo, declaring their procedures unconstitutional and a violation of Geneva Convention obligations. The two-page Pentagon memo repudiates a core element of the legal foundation of President Bushs approach to dealing with terrorism. Bush and his legal advisers initially had said the Geneva Conventions didnt apply to the war on terrorism because it was a new type of conflict that demanded more aggressive action. | 07/25/08 15:07:13 By - Carol Rosenberg and Margaret Talev

Supreme Court ruling could free scores from Guantanamo

Within hours of the court's decision granting Guantanamo detainees access to federal courts, attorneys were preparing to demand hearings for detainees long held without charges. These hearings will force the Bush administration to reveal its evidence and expose publicly how the detainees have been treated. Some attorneys think that the administration simply will start releasing detainees to avoid the potentially embarrassing hearings altogether. | 07/25/08 15:06:30 By - Michael Doyle and Carol Rosenberg

Bush lawyers told to speed Guantanamo detention appeals

A federal judge told Justice Department lawyers to give the cases of Guantanamo detainees appealing their imprisonment priority over all other cases. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan made the admonition at the first hearing since the Supreme Court ruled last month that the detainees had the right to challenge their imprisonment in court. | 07/25/08 15:05:09 By - Marisa Taylor

General who probed Abu Ghraib says Bush officials committed war crimes

"There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes," retired Army Major Gen. Antonio Taguba wrote in a new report on medical evidence that U.S. troops abused prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo. "The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account." | 07/25/08 15:04:48 By - Warren P. Strobel

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