WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2009
Obama To Meet 9/11, Cole Victims' Families
As Administration Shuts Down Gitmo Trials And Reexamines Cases, Terror Victims' Survivors Seek Answers
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Groups representing families of victims of terror attacks are angry over President Obama's order shutting down the military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, pending investigations about the legality of the government's cases against detainees. The families say they had waited too long already to see the alleged attackers brought to court. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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Play CBS Video Video Controversy At Gitmo Fmr. Vice President Cheney criticized Pres. Obama for ordering the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay be closed. As David Martin reports, some in the Bush Administration wanted to do just that.
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Video Guantanamo Detainees In Limbo As Pres. Obama has ordered the shutdown of the prison at Guantanamo, Pentagon officials are trying to figure out where to place the remaining prisoners at this detention center. Priya David reports.
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Video Notebook: Closing Gitmo President Obama issued an executive order to close down Guantanamo Bay and end harsh interrogations of its prisoners. As Randall Pinkston reports, not all Americans agree with this decision.
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Interactive USS Cole Get the details on the explosion of the destroyer USS Cole in the Yemeni port city Aden.
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Interactive Gitmo Tribunals Detainees on trial, photos and a history of the naval base.
The legal move Thursday by Susan J. Crawford, the top legal authority for military trials at Guantanamo, upholds Mr. Obama's Jan. 22 executive order to halt terrorist court proceedings at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. The charges against suspected al Qaeda bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri marked the last active Guantanamo war crimes case.
Groups representing victims' families were angered by President Obama's order, charging they had waited too long already to see the alleged attackers brought to court.
Retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk S. Lippold, the commanding officer of the Norfolk, Va.-based Cole when it was bombed in Yemen in 2000, said he would be among family members of Cole and 9/11 victims who are meeting with Mr. Obama at the White House on Friday afternoon.
"I was certainly disappointed with the decision to delay the military commissions process," Lippold, now a defense adviser to Military Families United, said in an interview. "We have already waited eight years. Justice delayed is justice denied. We must allow the military commission process to go forward."
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Crawford withdrew the charges against al-Nashiri. However, new charges could be brought again later, and al-Nashiri will remain in prison for the time being.
"It was her decision, but it reflects the fact that the president has issued an executive order which mandates that the military commissions be halted pending the outcome of several reviews of our operations down at Guantanamo," Morrell said.
Crawford's ruling also gives the White House time to review the legal cases of all 245 terror suspects held there and decide whether they should be prosecuted in the U.S. or released to other nations.
Seventeen U.S. sailors died on Oct. 12, 2000, when al Qaeda suicide bombers steered an explosives-laden boat into the Cole, a guided-missile destroyer, as it sat in a Yemen port.
The Pentagon last summer charged al-Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian, with "organizing and directing" the bombing and planned to seek the death penalty in the case.
In his Jan. 22 order, President Obama promised to shut down the Guantanamo prison within a year. The order also froze all Guantanamo detainee legal cases pending a three-month review as the Obama administration decides where - or whether - to prosecute the suspects who have been held there for years, most without charges.
Two military judges granted Mr. Obama's request for a delay in other cases.
But a third military judge, Army Col. James Pohl, defied President Obama's order by scheduling a Feb. 9 arraignment for al-Nashiri at Guantanamo. That left the decision on whether to continue to Crawford, whose delay on announcing what she would do prompted widespread concern at the Pentagon that she would refuse to follow orders and allow the court process to continue.
Crawford was appointed to her post in 2007 by then-President George W. Bush. She was in the news last month when she said interrogation methods used on one suspect at Guantanamo amounted to torture. The Bush administration had maintained it did not torture.
Last year, al-Nashiri said during a Guantanamo hearing that he confessed to helping plot the Cole bombing only because he was tortured by U.S. interrogators. The CIA has admitted he was among terrorist suspects subjected to waterboarding, which simulates drowning, in 2002 and 2003 while being interrogated in secret CIA prisons.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
Posted by RichardJ390 at 02:35 AM : Feb 07, 2009
One of the big questions about 911 was why did bldg #7 fall in a controlled demolition?
The answer has been provided by Mr, Silverstein himself (owner of the twin towers) who admitted that he told firefighters to "pull" bldg #7 on the afternoon of 911. An industry term meaning to professionally demolish. But don''t believe me - its a PBS live interview with Mr. Silverstein himself. Look it up. Listen. Learn.
The really interesting thing is that the building would''ve had to have been wired with explosives and it would''ve taken weeks to rig. Interesting that on 911, building #7 must have already been wired for demolition. How many folks do you know that have their bldgs pre-wired for demolition? You don''t really have a clue as to how gullible you''ve all been.
Those traitors lied about everything else...
Posted by inventagod2 at 12:59 PM : Feb 06, 2009
Anyone with a brain must realize there are so many inconsistencies and unanswered questions about 911 and the Bush/Cheney crime syndicates involvement in it, that it''''''''s high time we held a real investigation into the events of 911 instead of the obvious whitewash the 911 commission report represents.
Posted by notfooled at 03:31 PM : Feb 06, 2009
You two are what we commonly refer to as complete idiots.
Posted by endurorob at 05:57 PM : Feb 06, 2009
And those of you like endurorob who refuse to become informed of the truth of 911 because its simply too inconceivable that the president would be involved in such a horrendous act are the exact reason these criminals are still walking the streets instead of incarcerated.
Gullible fools, I''ve got a bridge I can sell you.
Those traitors lied about everything else...
Posted by inventagod2 at 12:59 PM : Feb 06, 2009
Anyone with a brain must realize there are so many inconsistencies and unanswered questions about 911 and the Bush/Cheney crime syndicates involvement in it, that it''''s high time we held a real investigation into the events of 911 instead of the obvious whitewash the 911 commission report represents.
Posted by notfooled at 03:31 PM : Feb 06, 2009
You two are what we commonly refer to as complete idiots.
Those traitors lied about everything else...
Posted by inventagod2 at 12:59 PM : Feb 06, 2009
Anyone with a brain must realize there are so many inconsistencies and unanswered questions about 911 and the Bush/Cheney crime syndicates involvement in it, that it''s high time we held a real investigation into the events of 911 instead of the obvious whitewash the 911 commission report represents.
Maybe Obama suspects Bu$hCo was really guilty of planning and carrying out the atrocity that was 9/11.
Those traitors lied about everything else...
and after 5 yrs bush/cheney couldn''t even get the mastermind OBL!
what a disgrace! bush is reason for this mess, no doubt about it.
Obama''s pandering for votes again without considering the consequences.
AMEN !!
- by endurorob February 6, 2009 2:30 PM EST
- This is just damned disgaceful. Obama should be ashamed of himself for doing this to these people.
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