Pentagon faxed confirmation 5 will face Sept. 11 charges
By Carol Rosenberg | Miami Herald
The Pentagon has formally approved death penalty charges against reputed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other men in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, setting the stage for proceedings to begin before a military commission in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, sometime in June.
The Pentagon made no announcement that a civilian appointee known as the convening authority, Susan Crawford, had signed off on the charges.
But defense attorneys for the men in Washington, D.C., said they received copies of the 93-page charge sheet by fax after the close of business Monday.
Navy Capt. Prescott Prince, who's been appointed to defend Mohammaed, called the after-hours faxed delivery of the charges "arrogant."A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, declined to release the charges publicly, or discuss them. ''When we have something to announce, we will,'' he said in an e-mail Monday evening.
The Pentagon had originally sought charges against six defendants, but Crawford deleted from the charge sheet a Saudi captive at Guantánamo, Mohammed al Qahtani, who is often referred to as the 20th hijacker.
more...
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/36828.html