WASHINGTON, 9 November 2005 — Five war-on-terror detainees were charged Monday with terrorism related offenses, raising to nine the number of prisoners who now face trial by military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon said Monday.
The Pentagon forged ahead with the charges on the same day that the US Supreme Court said it would rule on the legality of the military commissions in response to a challenge by lawyers of another prisoner, Salim Ahmed Hamdan.
“We don’t expect any changes to our current commissions procedures or schedules,” a Pentagon official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Center for Constitutional Rights, a rights group that has challenged the legality of the military commissions, called the government’s move “a brazen and cynical act of disdain for our democratic institutions.”
The Pentagon identified those charged as Ghassan Abdullah Al-Sharbi and Jabran Said bin Al-Qahtani of Saudi Arabia; Sufyian Barhoumi of Algeria; Binyam Ahmed Muhammad of Ethiopia; and Omar Ahmed Khadr of Canada.
In addition, the authority who appoints the military commission, John Altenburg, lifted a stay on a military trial of another prisoner who had previously been charged, Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman Al-Bahlul.
With the latest action, charges have now been brought against nine war-on-terror suspects held at Guantanamo.
A trial date has been set only in the case of Australian David Hicks, who is scheduled to go before a military commission at Guantanamo on Nov. 18.
Four of those charged Monday — Al-Sharbi, Al-Qahtani, Barhoumi and Binyam Muhammad — were accused of conspiracy to attack civilians, to attack civilian objects, commit murder by an unprivileged belligerent, destruction of property and terrorism.
Robbed of Youth
Khadr, a 19-year-old who was born in Toronto but raised in Pakistan, was charged with murder of a US soldier, attempted murder, aiding the enemy as well as the other conspiracy charges.
Khadr’s lawyer, Muneer Ahmad, said in a statement that his client was only 15 at the time of his capture.
“Through torture, abuse, and three years of illegal detention, this government has robbed Omar of his youth. Now, they are demanding his appearance before a kangaroo court, wholly lacking in fundamental principles of due process,” he said.
Khadr’s charge sheet said he killed Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer with a grenade during a firefight in which two Afghan militia members were shot and killed and several US service members wounded.
Binyam Muhammad, an electrical engineer and recent convert to Islam, was accused of receiving explosives training and sent to the United States with Jose Padilla to carry out bombings there, according to his charge sheet.
Padilla, a US national, was later captured in Chicago in April 2002 and charged with conspiring to set off a dirty bomb in the United States.
According to the charges, they met with two top Al-Qaeda operatives, Saif Al-Adel and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, in Karachi before leaving for the United States.
They told Binyam Muhammad that “their mission would involve targeting high-rise apartment buildings that utilized natural gas for its heat and also targeting gas stations,” the charges said.
“The apartment building plan called for renting an apartment and utilizing the natural gas in the buildings to detonate an explosion that would collapse all of the floors above,” it said.
Binyam Muhammad was captured at the Karachi airport on April 10, 2002 trying to get on a plane to London with a forged passport, the charge sheet said.
