US Naval Base At Guantanamo Bay: The main
suspect in the USS Cole bombing will be arraigned on Wednesday at
Guantanamo, in the first case under a US military tribunal
since President Barack Obama reversed course and ordered their
resumption.
Saudi-born Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 46, faces the death
penalty for allegedly planning and preparing the October 2000
attack on the US Navy destroyer in Yemen`s port of Aden that
killed 17 sailors and wounded 40 more.
It will be the first public appearance in years for a
terror suspect who has been essentially invisible since his
2002 capture in the Gulf and subsequent incarceration at
secret CIA prisons.
Nashiri, who is believed to have met several times with
late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is accused of murder,
acts of terrorism, conspiracy to commit terrorism and attacks
against civilians.
The Pentagon believes he bought the small boat and
explosives used in the Cole attack.
He is also accused of involvement in a January 2000
attempted attack against another American warship in Aden, the
USS The Sullivans, and a French oil tanker near Yemen.
Along with five men accused of orchestrating the attacks
of September 11, 2001, Nashiri is among the "high-value
detainees" held by the United States, and he could be the
first terror suspect sentenced to death by a military court
under the Obama administration.
A congressional investigation found that Nashiri was
waterboarded while in custody and that handlers loaded a gun
and powered a drill near his head.
Obama has denounced waterboarding -- a type of simulated
or near-drowning -- as torture, and Nashiri`s defense team
said yesterday that the US had lost "all moral authority" to
try their client by torturing him in a secret prison.
PTI
