USS Cole suspect charges dropped

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By Eli Lake and Stephen Dinan THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The U.S. government has dropped charges for now against the Saudi man it accuses of masterminding the 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors as the ship sat at the dock in Yemen.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Susan Crawford, the convening authority for the military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, made the decision to withdraw charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

However, Mr. Morrell said Thursday night that the dismissal was made "without prejudice," meaning the U.S. government may continue to prosecute him at a later date.

"Should the Obama administration choose to restart the administration's process or choose an alternative means to adjudicate his case, they have that option," Mr. Morrell said.

Mr. Morrell said al-Nashiri will not be set free, in the U.S. or elsewhere, any time soon. For now, he and 243 other detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba will be staying put as a special Cabinet-level review team determines whether to charge the inmates in federal court, send them to foreign courts, release them, or deal with them through some other process.

The White House didn't return messages seeking comment, and President Obama didn't respond to a question a reporter called to him about dismissing the charges as he left the press cabin aboard Air Force One on Thursday night.

However, the White House did announce Mr. Obama will meet Friday afternoon with family members of victims of the Sept. 11 and Cole attacks.

"The president wants to talk with these families about resolving the issues involved with closing Guantanamo Bay while keeping the safety and security of the American people as his top priority," the White House said in a statement announcing the meeting.

On Inauguration Day, Mr. Obama instructed the Defense Department to request 120-day delays in the trials, and the next day judges began to halt the trials.

On Jan. 22, two days after his inauguration, Mr. Obama signed three executive orders and one memorandum directing his administration to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and to conduct a review of all terrorist suspect trials.