9/11 suspects have no response to announcement of trial in New York
The alleged 9/11 plotters were `stoic' and polite upon hearing that they will moved to New York City for a federal trial.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nati...y/1338879.html

BY CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- The alleged 9/11 conspirators neither greeted with joy nor trepidation the news that they would be taken to New York City to face a civilian trial for the Sept. 11 attacks.

"They were stoic," detention center commander Rear Adm. Tom Copeman said Tuesday.

"They did not seem surprised," he added. "They basically just said, `Thank you for the information.' There was nothing dramatic one way or the other."

Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Friday that confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his four co-defendants, all former CIA captives, would be charged by federal prosecutors "to answer to their alleged crimes in a courtroom just blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood."

He urged a death penalty trial.

The five men got the notice over the weekend, said Copeman, from the chief Army jailer at Guantánamo, Col. Bruce Vargo, and the prison camps staff attorney, Navy Capt. Don Martin. They delivered copies of Holder's announcement in English and, for those who needed translation, in Pashto and Arabic.

All five have bragged about their alleged roles in the attacks. They said they welcomed martyrdom.

The five accused -- two Yemenis, a Saudi and the Pakistani Mohammed and his nephew -- are still charged before a military commission with the mass murder of nearly 3,000 people for allegedly directing, financing and providing training to the 19 hijackers who commandeered the aircraft that struck the Twin Towers, Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001.

So, they will continue to meet twice monthly to plan a common defense strategy, Copeman said, as well as keep laptop computers the military prosecutor loaded with the evidence against them to help them prepare for their now aborted military tribunals.

Military Commissions spokesman Joe DellaVedova said the prosecution had no immediate plans to ask for the laptops back. They have had them for about a year.

The five alleged plotters had a defense strategy meeting Nov. 9 at the high-security courtroom at Camp Justice, called the Expeditionary Legal Complex. They were slated to meet again Nov. 30.

All five men are segregated on the base in a secret prison, called Camp 7. Unlike other portions of the detention center, the prison camp for former CIA captives has no live satellite television. That means they have not seen the massive TV coverage of the decision of plans to return them to the scene of the crime.

It also was not known if they had yet received newspaper clippings, which in the aftermath of Holder's announcement reported Republican denunciations and domestic security fears.