Up to six Guantanamo detainees will face charges related to the September 11 terror attacks on the United States, according to a New York Times.Citing people who were briefed on the case, the report said those charged would include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a former top aide to Osama bin Laden, who admitted being the main planner of the attacks. Military prosecutors are considering seeking the death penalty for Mohammed, the Times reported, but no final decision has been made.
The prosecutors are focusing on the September 11 attacks to bolster the military commission system's credibility before a new president takes office in January 2009, the Times reported. "The thinking was 9/11 is the heart and soul of the whole thing. The thinking was: go for that," the unnamed official told the Times.
CIA director Michael Hayden for the first time admitted publicly that the agency had used "waterboarding", or simulated drowning, in interrogations of three top al-Qaeda detainees nearly five years ago. The technique, which critics say is tantamount to torture, was used on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd Al-Rahim al-Nashiri at a time when further catastrophic attacks on the United States were believed to be imminent, Hayden said.