VARIOUS/FILE: "High value" terrorism suspects get Guantanamo hearing

U.S. military officials have held initial hearings for three terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, including the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, the Pentagon said on Monday (March 12). Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said a three-member panel examined the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed at a closed hearing on Saturday at the U.S. military prison camp on Cuba. Mohammed is among 14 prisoners identified by U.S. authorities as "high-value" terrorism suspects and transferred to Guantanamo last September from secret CIA prisons abroad. The hearings to determine whether the suspects meet U.S. authorities' definition of an enemy combatant began on Friday, the Pentagon said. The cases of two suspects -- Ramzi bin al Shaibah, a Yemeni also accused of involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks, and alleged senior al Qaeda figure Abu Faraj al Libi of Libya -- were examined on Friday, Whitman said. Whitman said not all the prisoners had chosen to participate in their hearings but he declined to give any more details. The Pentagon has said it will release an edited transcript of each hearing some days after it is held.

ITN Source | March 14, 2007

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