Accused 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed faces New York trial

Obama says "with respect too"???? WTH???

Five Guantanamo Bay detainees with alleged ties to the 9/11 conspiracy, including accused mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be transferred to New York to go on trial in civilian court, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday.

Mohammed, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi will all be transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York -- a short distance from the World Trade Center towers that were destroyed in the September 11 attacks.

"After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for the attacks of September 11th will finally face justice," Holder said.

He said he expected all five to be tried together and for prosecutors to seek the death penalty. The trial would be open to the public, although some portions that deal with classified information may be closed, Holder said.

"Based on all of my experience and based on all of the recommendations and the great work and the research that has been done, I am quite confident that the outcomes in these cases will be successful," he said.

He also expressed confidence that an impartial jury would be found "to ensure a fair trial in New York."

Of the 2,752 people killed in the 9/11 attacks, 2,606 died when terrorists crashed two hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center towers.

Holder also announced that five other detainees held at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be sent to military commissions for trial. They were identified as Omar Khadr, Mohammed Kamin, Ibrahim al Qosi, Noor Uthman Muhammed and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Al-Nashiri is an accused mastermind of the deadly 2000 bombing of the USS Cole; Khadr is a Canadian charged with the 2002 murder of a U.S. military officer in Afghanistan. Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured in July 2002.

Holder said a venue for the military commissions has not been set.

Mohammed "will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice," President Obama said Friday in Japan.

"The American people insist on it, and my administration will insist on it," Obama told reporters at a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

Mohammed is the confessed organizer of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon. But his confession could be called into question during trial. A 2005 Justice Department memo -- released by the Obama administration -- revealed he had been waterboarded 183 times in March 2003.

The CIA has also admitted using waterboarding on al-Nashiri, the first person charged in the United States for the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

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Fort Hood Shooter Hasan; Linked to Sept. 11 Hijackers

Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army major suspected of killing 13 people and wounding 29 others at Fort Hood, worshipped at the same mosque as two of the 9/11 terrorists.

According to the London Sunday Telegraph, Hasan attended services at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Va., in 2001 at the same time as Sept. 11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hamzi and Hani Hanjour. Funeral services for Hasan's mother also was held at that mosque.

The FBI wants to interrogate Hasan to see if he met or knew al-Hamzi or Hanjour, reports the Telegraph.

The imam at the mosque at the time Hasan attended services there was Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric who has been described as a supporter of al-Qaida. A third 9/11 hijacker attended al-Awlaki's lectures in California.

Source

Shooter advised Obama transition; Fort Hood

Fort Hood triggerman aided team on Homeland Security task force

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter in yesterday's massacre at Fort Hood, played a homeland security

advisory role in President Barack Obama's transition into the White House, according to a key university policy institute document.

The Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University

published a document May 19, entitled "Thinking Anew – Security Priorities for the Next Administration: Proceedings Report of the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force, April 2008 – January 2009," in which Hasan of the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine

is listed on page 29 of the document as a Task Force Event Participant.

Hasan received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University School in Bethesda, Md., in 2001.

Noting that the Obama administration transition was proceeding, the GWU Homeland Security Policy Institute report described on the first page the role of the Presidential Transition Task Force as including "representatives from past Administrations, State government, Fortune 500 companies, academia, research institutions and non-governmental organizations with global reach."

While the GWU task force participants included several members of government, including representatives of the Department of Justice and the U.S Department of Homeland Security, there is no indication in the document that the group played any formal role in the official Obama transition, other than to serve in a university-based advisory capacity.

Daniel Kaniewski, deputy director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University affirmed to WND in a telephone interview this morning that the Nidal Hasan listed as attending the meetings of the HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force was the same person as the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood massacre.

Kaniewski said Hasan attended the meetings in his capacity as a member of the faculty of the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine, not as a member of the HSPI Presidential Task Force.

Kaniewski believed Hasan applied on the institute's website to attend the meeting and was accepted because of his professional credentials.

Kaniewski could not tell WND whether or not Hasan made comments from the audience that influenced the task force recommendations or not.

He further confirmed Hasan had attended several meetings held by the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University and that the institute is currently searching conference records to see if it is possible to determine what additional institute conferences he attended.

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As many as 9 killed in Fort Hood shootings, officials say

Two gunmen in military uniforms shot and killed as many as nine people and wounded as many as 20 at Fort Hood in Texas on Thursday, officials said.

One of the shooters has been apprehended, Fort Hood spokesman Sgt. Maj. Jamie Posten told CNN.

"At this point we're looking for the other shooter," Posten said. Asked for a description, he said, "we're trying to develop that information."

The shooters were wearing military uniforms, but it was unclear whether they were soldiers, said U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

Watch Live Delvelopments Here

One of the gunmen was shot and wounded by military police, Hutchinson told CNN. She said she got her information from a general on the base.

Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, said between 20 and 30 were wounded.

President Obama has been informed of the incident, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Officials at Fort Hood, which is the Army's largest U.S. post, were asking people there to stay away from windows, CNN affiliate KXXV said. The incident took place at the sports dome, now known as the soldier readiness area, the station reported.

FBI agents are headed to the scene to assist, said Erik Vasys, spokesman for the FBI office in San Antonio. He had no other details.

On the Fort Hood Web site, the word "closed" is posted with the statement, "Effective immediately, Fort Hood is closed. Organizations/units are instructed to execute a 100 percent accountability of all personnel."

Fort Hood, with about 40,000 troops, is home to the Army's 1st Cavalry Division and elements of the 4th Infantry Division, as well as the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 13th Corps Support Command. It is located near Killeen, Texas.

At least 25,000 people are at Fort Hood on any given day, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon said.

Fort Hood is home to the Warrior Combat Stress Reset Program, which is designed to help soldiers overcome combat stress issues.

VIA

The USS New York

The USS New York, a Navy assult ship built with steel from the World Trade Center, will make its inaugural visit to New York today. The $1 billion ship, was built in Lousiana with using about 7.5 tons of steel in the bow.

　

The ship is scheduled to stop near ground zero today where survivors and families of the

victims, along with the public, have been invited to watch a 21-gun salute. Afterwards, the ship will travel up river to the George Washington Bridge where it will turn around, head south and dock at Pier 88 and remain there until Veteren's Day. On Saturday, an official commissioning ceremony is scheduled. After Veteren's Day, the USS New York travels to Norfolk, Virginia for a year of training and exercises.

The USS New York, which was actually scheduled to be built before the World Trade Center terrorist attack, is 684 feet long, can handle helicopters and the MV-22 osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

Out of the 361 sailors serving aboard the ship 13 percent are from New York state. And the assult ship can carry up to 800 Marines.

Of the other four ships being built two of those will also have names related to the 911 attacks.

They are the USS Arlington, built in honor of the attack on the Pentagon, and the USS Somerset, named after the county in Pennsylvania in which the United Airlines flight 93 crashed.