U.S. Weighs Guilty Pleas In 9/11 Cases

Report: Gitmo Detainees Facing Death Penalty May Be Allowed To Take Plea, Skip Full Trial

(AP)  A plan under consideration by the Obama administration would permit Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainees facing the death penalty to plead guilty without a full trial, it has been reported.

This option would principally be aimed at a group of detainees accused of planning the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, five people who have already indicated they prefer this resolution of the case, The New York Times said in a story posted late Friday on its Web site.

The terrorism-era U.S. military commission format has come under withering criticism from legal and human rights quarters, and American military prosecutions employing this structure and legal rules have for the most part been put on hold since January while the new administration considered other options.

President Barack Obama recently approved the continued use of these commissions. And the Times reported in its story that the possibility of permitting guilty pleas under some circumstances is among a series of options circulated within the administration by a special task force. The newspaper cited individuals who had been briefed on the proposal or had studied it.

Traveling in France with Mr. Obama, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said: "The president has been clear that he hopes to work with Republicans and Democrats in Congress to improve the military commissions act to ensure that we can ensure more due process and deliver what has been long in coming: swift and certain justice. To suggest that any of the decisions have been made is not accurate."

The possible elements of legislation on tribunals and how to handle difficult Guantanamo cases are not developed enough yet to even have been presented to the president for discussion, said a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the entire matter is still in the early stages.

The White House views the fresh talk in the media about the possibility of allowing detainees to enter guilty pleas, an idea presented previously by military prosecutors, as the work of lower-level players in the debate who want to gain currency for one approach, a strategy that usually has the opposite effect with President Obama, this official said.

Mr. Obama already has said that he wants to close Guantanamo by January 2010, declaring it has caused the United States more harm than good and has served as a recruitment tool for the al Qaeda terrorist network.

One advantage of permitting guilty pleas by defendants in the Sept. 11 case would be that the government would not have to expose harsh interrogation techniques during full trials that would otherwise have to be carried out, the Times said.

It said the proposal to permit guilty pleas - which are not allowed in the legal framework the U.S. military uses in trials for its own personnel - would in effect permit the Sept. 11 defendants to achieve a self-proclaimed desire for martyrdom.

The theory behind the ban on such pleas in trials for U.S. military personnel is that prosecutors would have to prove their case in court against any individual facing such a serious charge.

The proposal is that Congress would take up a bill clarifying uncertainty that was built into the 2006 law that it passed authorizing the creation of the military commissions. That 2006 law left unclear the question of whether guilty pleas could be accepted in capital cases conducted via the military commission format.

These pleas under U.S. law are allowed in federal civilian courts and in the courts of most states with capital punishment statutes.

[inventagod]

I can't help but wonder who REALLY planned 9/11 -

The lying greedy Bu$h administration sure worked hard to get others to 'admit' they were the baddies...

[inventagod]

Let's move on to DlCK CHENEY!

Guilty!

[krisd999-2009]

You don't have any evidence for even a flimsy millitary comissions show trial, you torture them, drive them to insanity so they will plead guilty to eating their own mother, you execute them. Change we can believe in!

[hermitdave]

SURE would be the safest method for the government. Otherwise some of these guys might get a good lawyer and embarrass Cheney in a legit trial where they proved that the alleged terror dude was innocent and had been bought by the CIA from a Afghan war lord. There are only two kinds of Cheney's worst of the worst in prison without being charged with a crime. Those just glad to be free humans again when released, and those so damn mad at the country that allowed them to be caged for years they are willing to take up arms and get revenge. Every American should decide which they would be if it happened to them. Again remember Cheney is a LIAR and this whole torture Muslim men thing was to try and get someone to SAY that Saddam was part of the Osama Bin Laden planning group for 9/11/01. It was going to be part of the speech George the play president would make to justify his SHOCK & AWE slaughter of innocent women and children in Iraq.

[randomlybanned]

Wow, Bennings, still shouting I see. Don't worry, these guys will get off because King Barry will make sure of it. They were just poor little terrorists who didn't know what they were doing. 3,000+ American souls is nothing to Dear Leader. I mean his own pastor relished it just like you seem to.

Also, Bush and Cheney will not go to prison either but you keep dreamin' okay? They were trying to keep us safe because they actually LOVE America and the people who live here - a concept that is completely lost on mindless liberal moonbat trolls.

[nofoolling]

BUCH/CHENEY BELONG IN PRISON

Posted by BENNINGSSCHOOLFORBOYS

see we free the most dangerous enemies we have in the world, and lock up the people who kept us safe?
Posted by jgg00000008

No one kept us safe, if you'll only remember back to 911, Bush the Boy Blunder and Darth the Cheney God of Invented War were too busy blowing up bldgs in New York for that.

Tell us the one about the WMD's again Uncle Darth, I love it when sheeple loose their minds and offer to be chained like slaves so they can be safe from you!

There will be no justice, no truth, and absolutley zero trust in our puppet government until the Bush/Cheney crime syndicate are behind bars for genocide and crimes against humanity.

Start the real war-crime trials now.

[Audrey_Dern]

I am very upset with Obama about this. I hope this does not mean that the BUSH administration is going to get away with war crimes.

[Scimajor]

I agree with barbaraf4. Since torture was used to gain these confessions pretty much anything that came from their mouths and subsequently comes from their mouths can't be considered reliable.

Furthermore, if these people do end up having a proper trial then any evidence based on their testimony MUST be thrown out.

I'd admit to having caused anything from global warming to the extinction of the dinosaurs if I was being waterboarded.

Amelia Erhart disappeared because I was hungry and ate her. Well, she landed on my deserted island and I was hungry. What are you going to do? :-)

[barbaraf4]

How do we know who is and who is not actually guilty? I suspect I would confess to just about anything if I were being waterboarded.