Saudi Charged In USS Cole Bombing

2000 Attack Killed 17 U.S. Sailors; Pentagon Focuses Charges On Alleged Mastermind

(CBS/ AP)  The Pentagon said Monday it is charging a Saudi Arabian with "organizing and directing" the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole - and will seek the death penalty.

Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, legal adviser to the U.S. military tribunal system, said charges are being sworn against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi of Yemeni descent, who has been held at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006.

The charges still must be approved by a Defense Department official who oversees military tribunals set up for terrorism suspects.

Hartmann said the allegations include conspiracy to violate laws of war, murder, treachery, terrorism, destruction of property and intentionally causing serious bodily injury.

Seventeen American sailors were killed when the Norfolk, Va.-based Navy destroyer was attacked in the Yemeni port of Aden as it refueled.

Al-Nashiri told a hearing at Guantanamo Bay last year that he confessed to helping plot the bombing only because he was tortured by U.S. interrogators.

CIA Director Michael Hayden said early this year that al-Nashiri was among terrorist suspects subjected to waterboarding in 2002 and 2003 while being interrogated in secret CIA prisons.

Asked at a Pentagon press conference how a trial could go forward under those circumstances, Hartmann said all evidence - including the issue of torture or abuse - would be before the tribunal.

Last October, Yemen set free one of the al Qaeda masterminds of the attack. Jamal al-Badawi, who is wanted by the FBI, was convicted in 2004 of plotting, preparing and helping carry out the USS Cole bombing and received a death sentence that was commuted to 15 years in prison.

Al-Badawi had escaped prison once before with nine other suspects of the attack on the Norfolk-based Cole in April 2003, but was rearrested.

Al Qaeda used to have an active presence in Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden. The group was blamed for the bombing of the Cole and the attack on a French oil tanker that killed one person two years later.

[reptilian96]

BRIT HUME, HOST: It has been more than 16 years since a civilian working for the Navy was charged with passing secrets to Israel. Jonathan Pollard pled guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage and is serving a life sentence. At first, Israeli leaders claimed Pollard was part of a rogue operation, but later took responsibility for his work.



Now Fox News has learned some U.S. investigators believe that there are Israelis again very much engaged in spying in and on the U.S., who may have known things they didn''t tell us before September 11. Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron has details in the first of a four-part series

[standncount]

Wow, swift justice! And in only 8 years! I am so impressed!

[babooph]

The Salem witches confessed-some non Christians are still a bit unsure of their guilt-I can never be sure of this guys now that he has been treated to Bush torture for so many years.

[neoconrcrazy]

terror-sliced-salami

how about you uniting us by disappearing?

your desparation is duly noted by your capitals!

maybe you''re in the last throes, last agonies?

let us hope

[terrorislamj]

HUSSEIN BELONGED TO A CHURCH THAT DIVIDES US RATHER THAN UNITE US,,,

HUSSEIN STAFFS HIS CAMPAIGN WITM MEMBERS OF THE NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY THAT DIVIDES US RATHER THAN UNITES US,,,

HUSSEIN STAFFS HIS CAMPAIGN WITM MEMBERS OF THE NATION OF TERRORISLAM THAT DIVIDES US RATHER THAN UNITES US,,,

HUSSEIN IS A RACIST WHICH DIVIDES US RATHER THAN UNITES US,,,

HUSSEIN IS A BIGOT WHICH DIVIDES US RATHER THAN UNITES US,,,

HUSSEIN IS A ANTI-JEW WHICH DIVIDES US RATHER THAN UNITES US,,,

HUSSEIN IS A ANTI-AMERICAN WHICH DIVIDES US RATHER THAN UNITES US,,,

[babooph]

What about the Saudi bunch Bush rushed out of the States after he left the hole he hid in after 9/11?The propaganda system shut that up fast . They helped get him elected-far worse than 9/11 for the world !

[ginahannon]

Is any suprised a Saudi Man was involved? Saudi''s are the very worst ********** on the face of the planet, yet we call them "Friends"?
Join Americans against Slimy Saudi''s at www.theseriouspolice.com

[neoconrcrazy]

What a HUMILIATING admission for you to make!!

Posted by juwboy

wrong again jewboy - it is an illustation of how a political lobby, investing tens of millions of dollars to influence our political system - has corrupted it - by defaming honest Americans who dare to ask why 2nd rate apartheidist country claims as it own - our money and our military to their dirty works.

This AIPAC pushed for war in iraq, now iran.

And jewboy, your simplistic sidestep into jew-hater comparisons shows you have no other arguement - an agrement I might add, Americans are tired of and have seen through.

Shalom.

[juwboy]

NeoNaziCrazyConMan:

Once again, you''re implying that Jews control America.

Gentile-Americans outnumber Jewish-Americans by about 50-to-1.

Gentile-Americans outnumber Jews by about 20-to-1.

Gentiles outnumber Jews by almost 400-to-1.

So, you are saying that an infinitesimal fraction of any Jew is more than a match for a weak, ineffective Gentile like yourself.

What a HUMILIATING admission for you to make!!!

[neoconrcrazy]

Here is how wars are started, without your knowing about it;

"Introduced less than a month ago, Resolution 362, also known as the Iran War Resolution, could be passed by the House as early as next week.

The bill is the chief legislative priority of AIPAC. On its Web site, AIPAC endorses the resolutions as a way to ''''''''''''''''Stop Iran''''''''s Nuclear Program" and tells readers to lobby Congress to pass the bill. In the Senate, a sister resolution, Resolution 580, has gained co-sponsors with similar speed. The Senate measure was introduced by Indiana Democrat Evan Bayh on June 2. It has since gained 19 co-sponsors.

The bill''''''''s key section "demands that the president initiate an international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities by, inter alia, prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran''''''''s nuclear program."

"Imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran" can be read to mean that the president should initiate a naval blockade of Iran. A unilateral naval blockade without UN sanction is an act of war."