5 face new, military charges in 9/11 attacks

WASHINGTON - Military prosecutors have refiled terrorism and murder charges against the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and four other men under a revamped trial process at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The charges against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a Pakistani citizen, and the others allege that they were responsible for planning the attacks that sent hijacked commercial airliners slamming into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Prosecutors have recommended that the trial be a capital case, which could bring the death penalty.

The five men were charged previously in connection with the attacks, but those charges were dropped in 2009 when the Obama administration hoped to close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo and do away with Bush-era military commissions for trying terror suspects.

The four other alleged coconspirators are:

Waleed bin Attash, better known as Khallad, a Yemeni who allegedly ran an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and researched flight simulators and timetables.

Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni who allegedly helped find flight schools for the hijackers.

Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, accused of helping nine of the hijackers travel to the United States and sending them $120,000 for expenses and flight training.

Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, a Saudi accused of helping the hijackers with money, Western clothing, traveler's checks, and credit cards.

All five were charged with conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, hijacking aircraft, and terrorism.

The men initially were charged with the same offenses in February 2008, but that plan stalled in 2009 as President Obama ordered a review of the military-commission system. That November, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced that the five would face trial in a civilian court in New York City.

The plan was opposed by Republicans in Congress as well as some New York Democrats, and Congress passed legislation prohibiting any move to bring Guantanamo detainees to the United States.

About two months ago, the Obama administration bowed to the pressure and backed off the plan, saying it would instead bring them before a military commission. The chief prosecutor in the office of military commissions, Capt. John Murphy, said he would recommend a joint trial at Guantanamo for all five.