WASHINGTON, 16 January 2004 — The director of the FBI said Wednesday he expects the accused conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to be tried by military tribunals rather than by criminal courts.
An aide to FBI Director Robert Mueller said later in the day that Mueller “did not intend to imply” that decisions had been made about Mohammed or the other accused Al-Qaeda conspirators. Administration sources also said that there are no immediate plans to move Mohammed or the other alleged Sept. 11 plotters to the controversial military tribunals.
But Mueller’s comments, made in response to a reporter’s questions at a news media luncheon in Washington, provide a rare hint of the direction the Bush administration might pursue in its treatment of key suspects in the terrorist plot, who have been held secretly and interrogated since their captures.
Mueller’s remarks also appeared to bolster previous indications that the government is reluctant to attempt more criminal prosecutions like the one against alleged Al-Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui, who has bedeviled federal officials with his courtroom antics and has brought the case to a halt with demands to call the alleged conspirators as witnesses.
During the lunch, sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Mueller said the FBI has been gathering evidence for use in a possible legal case against Mohammed and other detainees.
“I would expect that there would be tribunals at some point,” Mueller said.
A Pentagon spokesman said no decisions have been made about trying Mohammed or any other suspects in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A White House spokesman declined to comment.
To date, military authorities have designated only six detainees at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as eligible for the tribunals. The facility holds alleged Al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters.
Mohammed, who was captured by US forces in Pakistan in March 2003, was Al-Qaeda’s operations chief and is believed to have served as the mastermind of the plan to hijack the airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
Also in US custody are Ramzi Binalshibh, who is accused of helping to organize the attacks, and Mustafa Ahmed Hawsawi, the alleged paymaster of the hijackers.
Mueller’s remarks come at a time when the Supreme Court has taken an interest in the executive branch’s assertion that it has the authority to indefinitely detain terrorism suspects without giving them access to courts or lawyers.
The court announced last week that it will consider the appeal of Yaser Esam Hamdi, a US citizen captured in Afghanistan who was designated an “enemy combatant” by President Bush and has been held in a military brig without access to a lawyer. The Justice Department says the Constitution authorizes the president to order the indefinite detention of US citizens fighting for terrorist groups abroad.
The high court has also agreed to consider an appeal by foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, who say that they’re entitled to access to US criminal courts.
Michael Greenberger, a law professor who heads the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland, said that turning to military tribunals in terrorism cases would be “a clear reaction to the problems (the government has) encountered with the criminal approach.”
“They obviously believe they will circumvent the persistent problems that they have found in Moussaoui, particularly his claim that he has a right to interview detainees,” Greenberger said. “They want to appear to be giving these people some kind of process. This idea that they would be held indefinitely is not one that is being well-received by the courts.”
Prosecutors have refused to grant Moussaoui access to Mohammed and other detainees, prompting a judge to eliminate the death penalty as a possible punishment for Moussaoui and to bar the introduction of evidence linking him to the terrorist attacks. The government has appealed that ruling and has indicated that it could transfer Moussaoui to a military tribunal if it loses.
At the media lunch, Mueller was asked whether he believes Mohammed, Binalshibh and other alleged plotters should be put on trial in criminal courts or military tribunals, and whether the FBI is gathering evidence for such proceedings.
“Our general role is obtaining the evidence, and, yes, we have taken steps to obtain evidence in furtherance of any possible future prosecutions of them, absolutely,” Mueller said, according to an FBI transcript.
The reporter then asked if there are any future prosecutions planned.
“I would expect that there would be tribunals at some point, yes,” Mueller said.
