9/11 mastermind remains held without trial: report --- Trial unlikely before next election, US officials say

Khalid Sheik Mohammed, al-Qaeda leader who was captured in 2003, has been imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay (File)

WASHINGTON (Agencies)
The alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, will likely remain in military detention without trial for the foreseeable future, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Citing unnamed administration officials, the newspaper said the administration of President Barack Obama has concluded that it could not put Mohammed on trial in a federal court because of the opposition of lawmakers in Congress and in New York.

There is also little internal support for a military prosecution at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, because it would alienate Obama's liberal supporters, the report said.
The White House has made it clear that a federal prosecution of Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators has not been ruled out, the paper said.

But officials says a trial is unlikely to happen before the next presidential election and would require a different political environment, The Post noted.
Close to a decision
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday that the Obama administration was close to deciding whether Sheik Mohammed will be tried and whether he will face a military tribunal.

Holder did not provide specifics to reporters and did not respond when asked if a decision on the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would come by the end of the year.

Holder's initial plan to try him and four other accused plotters in a federal court in New York City was put on hold after local officials and members of Congress said he should be tried in a military court for security and other reasons.

"The process is an ongoing one. We are working to make a determination about the placement of that trial," Holder told reporters after meeting with Canadian officials on cross-border security. "We have been working on it and I think we're close to a decision."

Almost a year ago, he announced Mohammed's trial would be held in a U.S. criminal court blocks from the site of the World Trade Center that was destroyed in the attacks. That plan was derailed by concerns about security and complaints the suspects should not be given full U.S. legal rights.

Mohammed, an al-Qaeda leader who was captured in Pakistan in 2003, has been imprisoned at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Congress has strictly limited moving detainees like Mohammed from that location, requiring prior notification to Congress and reports on potential security risks.

By winning a majority in the House of Representatives in November
elections, Republicans may complicate efforts by the Obama administration to prosecute terrorism suspects held at the Guantanamo prison in traditional criminal courts.

Republicans have demanded Guantanamo suspects be given military trials, which limit some of their legal right.

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/11/13/125963.html