Gitmo

9/11, al Qaeda, Barack Obama, detainees, Gitmo, Guantanamo, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Military Commissions, New York Times, September 11, World Trade Center

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed plus 4 al Qaeda killers at Gitmo admit they planned September 11

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Anyone remember 9/11?

Anyone remember the World Trade Center?

Anyone remember the Pentagon?

Anyone remember the innocent aboard those four planes?

Someone will have to explain to my family and me what President Barack Obama meant when he said those at Guantanamo will receive, “Swift and certain justice,” why five barbarians were not allowed to plead guilty last year, and why this latest admission of guilt is not reason enough to let them plead guilty immediately at a Military Commission.

The New York Times reports:

The five detainees at Guantánamo Bay charged with planning the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have filed a document with the military commission at the United States naval base there expressing pride at their accomplishment and accepting full responsibility for the killing of nearly 3,000 people.

The document, which may be released publicly on Tuesday, uses the Arabic term for a consultative assembly in describing the five men as the “9/11 Shura Council,” and it says their actions were an offering to God, according to excerpts of the document that were read to a reporter by a government official who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The document is titled “The Islamic Response to the Government’s Nine Accusations,” the military judge at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp said in a separate filing, obtained by The New York Times, that describes the detainees’ document.

The document was filed on behalf of the five men, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has described himself as the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

President Obama halted the military proceedings at Guantánamo in the first days after his inauguration, and the five men’s case is on hiatus until the government decides how it will proceed.

Several of the men have earlier said in military commission proceedings at Guantánamo that they planned the 2001 attacks and that they sought martyrdom. The strategic goal of the five men in making the new filing, which reached the military court on March 5, was not clear.

In their filing, the men describe the planning of the Sept. 11 attacks and the killing of Americans as a model of Islamic action, and say the American government’s accusations cause them no shame, according to the excerpts read by the government official.

“To us,” the official continued reading, “they are not accusations. To us they are a badge of honor, which we carry with honor.”

Remember the 2,975 that were killed and bring “swift and certain justice” now to their murderers.

Barack Obama, detainees, Gitmo, Guantanamo, terror, Yemen

Obama shopping only 27 of 244 Gitmo detainees for release

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According to Hungary’s Budapest Times today, President Barack Obama is only seeking nations to accept 27 of the remaining 244 detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay:

Another meeting was held between deputy Foreign Minister Marta Fekszi Horvath and US Ambassador to Hungary April H. Foley on Hungary’s possible reception of former Guantanamo prisoners, Jan Krc, press attache of the US Embassy in Budapest, told MTI on Tuesday. Marta Fekszi Horvath told MTI earlier in the day that currently 27 inmates were waiting for reception [emphasis added mine] in Guantanamo, and the maximum Hungary would receive is one or two. Hungary wants to wait and see the results of the negotiations of the European Union’s justice and refugee commissioners and the Czech foreign minister in Washington on March 16, on the reception of Guantanamo prisoners, Horvath said. There is no uniform standpoint within the EU on the issue, Horvath said, adding that the former Guantanamo inmates will likely not be granted refugee status in Hungary. Instead, they would receive a special status, which would not allow them to get travel documents, and the authorities would regularly inspect them, she said.

If Mr. Hovath is correct, President Obama is considering what to do with 217 detainees, how many to prosecute, indefinitely detain, or clear for release. From that number, it is not yet clear what the adminstration plans to do with the 97 Yemenis held at Gitmo, including 2 high-value detainees. On January 26, 2009, the Long War Journal reported:

President Saleh announced that the US will repatriate 94 Yemeni detainees within three months. Yemen is building a rehabilitation center with US assistance, and the FBI this week delivered a half million dollars worth of biometric collection equipment including mobile fingerprint sets. President Saleh said Saturday that Yemen had rejected a US plan to release the 94 to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation. In a Jan. 23 interview, US Ambassador to Yemen, Steven Seche noted, “The Yemeni government legitimately can cite capacity issues that hinder its effectiveness against terrorists.”

If both reports are accurate, that leaves the dispositions of an addtional 123 terrorists to be determined.