Prosecutors for the U.S. government amended the charges against Khalid Sheik Mohommed and five other suspects linked to the Sept. 11 attacks. Senior Pentagon officials announced the amended charges “clarified” the activities of the Guantanamo Bay detainees, including KSM, in planning the attacks.
They U.S. says KSM and his co-conspirators, including Ramzi bin Alshid “did, at various locations, from in or about 1996 to in or about May 2003, conspire and agree with Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, Mohammed Atef, 19 individuals who hijacked four commercial airliners on September 11, 2001.”
The new charges include a detailed list of all 2,973 people killed during the Sept. 11 attacks.
KSM and his associates did “willfully join an enterprise of persons with the intent to further the unlawful purpose of the enterprise; to commit the following offenses triable by military commission: attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, murder in violation of the law of war, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, and terrorism, said agreement and enterprise sharing a common criminal purpose, known to the six accused, to attack the United States, its people, and their property, said conspiracy resulting in the deaths of 2,973 persons.”
Though not typically included as a war crime, the conspiracy charges are included in the list of crimes punishable by death. The U.S. is seeking the death penalty for all six defendants.
The move comes as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a package of cases this summer, Al-Odah v. Bush and Boumediene v. Bush, which “will affect virtually all legal matters related to the detainees.” The case weighs the rights of detainees to seek legal review in the civilian court system.
Refiled charges (in a 92 page PDF) are here
