The Hindu : Two charged with war crimes conspiracy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 26, 2004

International

International

Two charged with war crimes conspiracy

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, FEB. 25. For the first time, the United States has brought formal charges against detenus at the Guantanamo Bay Naval base. Two suspected Al-Qaeda members — from Yemen and Sudan — have been charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes.

The Defence Department has said that the charges were made on Saturday and the two detenus would be brought before a military tribunal, a process not seen since the World War II. If convicted, the two could get life in prison and even death sentences though the Pentagon has said that military prosecutors will not be seeking death penalty.

The trials are expected to be held at the Guantanamo Bay base, but no dates have been set nor the panel of American military officers has been selected. The two have been charged with wilfully and knowingly conspiring with Osama bin Laden and others to commit terrorism and murder.

An unnamed Defence official has also been quoted as saying that the decision to file formal charges against Ali Hamza Almed Sulayaman al Bahlul of Yemen and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi of Sudan did not mean that they were the most dangerous of the 650-odd prisoners being held at the naval facility. Rather that these two cases were "ready for charging" now.

The Pentagon has said that al Qosi was at one time a key accountant for Osama when the Al-Qaeda chief was living in Sudan; he has also been the handpicked bodyguard and driver for Osama; and al Bahlul has been called a "key Al-Qaeda propagandist".

In the aftermath of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. President, George W Bush, authorised military trials of non-American citizens captured in the war against terrorism.

While the Pentagon has promised "full and fair" trails, critics say that aside from holding the prisoners without charges, the trials can be manipulated to bring about convictions.

At the Senate Intelligence Committee, the CIA Director, George Tenet, argued that while the Al-Qaeda may have been damaged seriously including on the financial front, it has spread its radical agenda to other groups and remains committed to attack American interests.

"The steady growth of Osama bin Laden's anti-American sentiment throughout the wider Sunni extremist movement and the broad dissemination of Al-Qaeda destructive expertise ensure that a serious threat will remain for the foreseeable future with or without Al-Qaeda in the picture," Mr. Tenet told the panel where Democrats were especially keen on knowing the kind of intelligence mistakes made in the run up to 9/11 and in Iraq.

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