Holder: Gitmo 9/11 suspects face trial in N.Y.

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U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday that self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York for trial in a civilian federal court, and he expects to seek the death penalty.

“After eight years of delays, those responsible … will be brought to justice,” Mr. Holder said at a press conference at Justice Department headquarters.

Mr. Holder said the trials in New York will take place “just blocks away from where the Twin Towers stood” and will be handled by prosecutors working in the Southern District of New York, which has held other major terrorism trials.

Mr. Holder identified the four others as Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali — all accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in which more than 2,970 people were killed by hijacked planes.

The five other detainees will face military commissions.

Among them is Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged USS Cole bombing mastermind.

The other four are Ahmed Mohammed al Darbi, Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, Noor Uthman Muhammed and Omar Khadr — the Canadian national who was 15 when he was captured by U.S. forces after a firefight in Afghanistan.

It will likely be several weeks before the detainees arrive in New York because some formal charges have yet to be filed.

The decision to bring the detainees came just before the government’s deadline Monday for deciding how to proceed against 10 detainees facing a military commission.

President Obama vowed that the self-described mastermind of the September 11 attacks will feel “the most exacting demands of justice.”

Bringing the detainees to the U.S. for trial is a big step in Mr. Obama’s plan to close the detention center. However, Mr. Holder said Friday that meeting its Jan. 22 deadline for closing the facility is unlikely.

Mr. Holder’s official announcement followed news of the resignation of White House counsel Greg Craig — the man designated by the president to unravel the tangle of legal questions surrounding the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

Mr. Craig’s departure had been the subject of persistent speculation since the president’s promise to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison by January began to falter. Veteran Washington lawyer and Obama adviser Bob Bauer will replace Mr. Craig as the White House’s top attorney.

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