CBS:

KSM to be tried by military commission at Gitmo; Holder set to make announcement today
Posted by Stephanie Condon

Attorney General Eric Holder today will announce that self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad will be tried in a military commission, the CBS News Investigative Unit has learned. A source says the commission will be held at the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Holder is expected to announce the decision in a news conference today at 2 p.m.

Trying Mohammed in a civilian court and closing the Guantanamo prison were once some of the Obama administration's top priorities, but political realities have hamstrung both goals.

In November 2009, Holder announced that Mohammed and four other alleged Sept. 11 plotters would be tried in New York City, but he scrapped that plan in the wake of public consternation. Republicans and some others in Washington said the decision compromised national security, while a CBS News poll at the time showed that most Americans thought such suspects should be tried in a closed military court.

Holder said on CBS' "Face the Nation" last July that he preferred trying the alleged terrorists in civilian court because the United States has an "extremely capable" court system that has proven effective in these kind of cases.

"I think there's a lot of misinformation out there. We have proven an ability to hold in our federal prison system people convicted of, charged with terrorist offenses very effectively, very safely," he said.

Congress in the past year has tried to undermine the administration's goal of closing Guantanamo by restricting funding for such policy changes -- for instance, a defense bill Mr. Obama signed in January blocked the use of Defense Department dollars to transfer Guantanamo suspects to U.S. soil for trial.

Meanwhile, the case of Ahmed Ghailani, the first Guantanamo detainee to be tried in civilian court, last year cracked open the debate over how to bring to justice detainees in the "war on terror." Ghailani was convicted of one conspiracy charge but acquitted of more than 280 other charges related to his role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa.

Last month, Mr. Obama approved the resumption of military trials for detainees at the Guantanamo prison, ending a two-year ban. The move illustrated Mr. Obama's acknowledgment that he will not be able to fulfill his promise to close the prison any time soon -- Mr. Obama said on the 2008 campaign trail that he would close Guantanamo within his first year in office. Still, Mr. Obama said last month that he remained committed to trying terror suspects in federal courts.

"I strongly believe that the American system of justice is a key part of our arsenal in the war against al Qaeda and its affiliates, and we will continue to draw on all aspects of our justice system - including Article III Courts - to ensure that our security and our values are strengthened," Mr. Obama said in a statement announcing the resumption of Guantanamo trials.