US Seeks Death Sentences for Guantanamo Six

The US has decided at long last to try six of the men it is holding at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The prosecutors have said they are after the death penalty in all six cases. The men will be tried under the military tribunal laws Congress passed after the attacks of September 11, 2001, meaning the death sentence is probable. In a uniquely American fashion, though, these show trials will be held in secret, which sort of undermines the whole idea.

The odds are that the accused are, indeed, guilty. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the biggest fish in the bunch, has confessed to being in charge of planning the attacks “from A to Z.” According to CNN, the other five who have been incriminated are “Mohammed al-Qahtani, the so-called 20th hijacker in the 9/11 attacks; Ramzi bin al-Shibh, accused of being an intermediary between the hijackers and al Qaeda leaders and finding flight schools for the hijackers; Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, alleged to have sent approximately $127,000 to hijackers and arranging travel for nine of them; Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, accused of providing the hijackers with money, clothes and credit cards; Walid bin Attash, who is accused of training two of the 9/11 hijackers and assisting in the hijacking plan.”

These men have had literally hundreds of US officials working to develop evidence against them. This has included the waterboarding of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. No doubt his lawyers will raise that issue and try to put the government on trial. However, military law being what it is, this tactic will probably be ruled out of order. The main struggle will be for the 7 lawyers available to defend these men to simply get through all the evidence to even prepare a defense.

Not that many Americans are interested in such niceties. For example, New York’s Daily News ran an editorial yesterday that included, “At the end of the road for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and five confederates, if prosecutors have their way: death. Death so ordered by law. Burn in hell!” And later, “The evidence of 2,974 families grieving, a city that was left in turmoil, a world changed forever. And, when guilt is documented, justice is limited to only one punishment for the barbaric murderers who deserve far worse: Death. Death so ordered by law. Die, you bastards.”

Since the trials will be held in secret in Cuba, whatever benefit might be derived from going through a trial is lost. The ritual will merely be seen as a prelude to revenge. Not that there is anything wrong with revenge, but why go through the nonsense of a secret trial? Summary execution would be as useful, cheaper, and in the end, more honest.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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