WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Pentagon announced charges Monday against the alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind behind the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole and said it would seek the death penalty.
US officials said Abdel Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi national held at the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is suspected of organizing a myriad of terror attacks dating back to the 1990s.
The most notorious was the attack on the navy destroyer USS Cole in the Port of Aden, Yemen, on October 12, 2000 that killed 17 sailors, wounded dozens of others and disabled the ship.
The bombings of the USS Cole and US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7, 1998 were the most serious Al-Qaeda attacks before September 11, 2001, when hijackers flew airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon building.
Officials said that Monday's indictments bring to 20 the number of Guantanamo detainees now facing controversial military tribunals set up by President George W. Bush to try "war on terror" suspects.
Arrested in October 2002 in the United Arab Emirates, al-Nashiri spent several years in secret Central Intelligence Agency prisons. The CIA acknowledged in February that he was among suspects subjected to "waterboarding," a simulated drowning technique widely considered torture.
US authorities say that al-Nashiri was involved in the planning and preparation for the attack on the Cole, when two Yemenis blew themselves up next to the Cole, punching a 12-metre (40-foot) hole in its side.
"It is alleged that two men dressed as civilians piloted what appeared to be a small, civilian garbage barge up to the ship," the Pentagon said, citing a charge sheet.
"The two men allegedly made friendly gestures to several crew members aboard the ship before detonating explosives concealed within their boat.
"The attack killed 17 sailors, wounded 47 sailors, and severely damaged the ship."
The Defense Department charged that al-Nashiri rented apartments and houses near Aden for use in observing the Port of Aden and purchasing the boat used in the attack.
He also allegedly procured the explosives, transported them to a safe house, and concealed them in the boat until the attack was carried out.
The Defense Department said that among the charges al-Nashiri faces are conspiracy to violate the law of war, murder in violation of the law of war, treachery, terrorism, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, providing material support to terrorism, and attempted murder.
The tribunals, or military commissions, operate under different rules than regular military or civilian courts with human rights groups saying the commissions are biased towards securing convictions.
The future of the tribunals remains uncertain after a Supreme Court decision against the Bush administration that affirmed inmates at Guantanamo have the right to challenge their open-ended detention in court.
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