transcript

This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI's THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI's THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: I'm Marco Werman. This is The World. President Obama's order to close the Guantanamo detention camp fulfilled a campaign promise. It also heightened the pressure on his administration to come up with a new way of handling terrorism suspects. That pressure grew yesterday when a military judge turned down a request to delay the trial of one Guantanamo detainee. About 250 terrorism suspects are still being held at the US base in Cuba. We're going to hear updates on two of them. We begin with this report from The World's Matthew Bell.

MATTHEW BELL: Khalid Sheik Mohammed is probably the highest-value detainee at Guantanamo. According to the Pentagon, KSM – as he's often referred to – openly admits that he's a leader of Al-Qaeda, a long time associate of Osama Bin Laden, and the military planner of the 9/11 attacks, along with dozens of other terrorist plots. He's also said to have confessed to the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. At a court hearing in Guantanamo last month, Khalid Sheik Mohammed reportedly said he wanted to plead guilty to all charges. He wanted to get on with the legal process so he could be put to death and become a martyr. But that wish is on hold for now while the Obama administration figures out what to do with the remaining Guantanamo detainees, including KSM. David Cole is an international law expert at Georgetown University.

DAVID COLE: I think you can be certain that he's not going to be released, he's not going to be let go. He will in all likelihood face a criminal trial.

BELL: It's just not clear if that will be a civil trial in US court, a military court martial, or some new system devised by the Obama administration. Cole says KSM's case is tricky because he was tortured while in US custody.

COLE: That problem can't be wiped away by having the trial at Guantanamo as opposed to the United States. That's a problem that any fair trial, wherever it's held, is going to have to deal with. I think it can be dealt with in Khalid Sheik Mohammed's case, but it needs to be dealt with in a fair and just way or again the world is not going to see the result as a legitimate one.

BELL: Obama administration officials have to be worried about being able to convict Khalid Sheik Mohammed for his worst crimes. That's according to military law expert, Eugene Fidell.

EUGENE FIDELL: It would be unfortunate although it may be unavoidable if we wound up having to prosecute him for something else that didn't have the same moral stigma. This is the Al Capone problem. At times, you do wind up prosecuting people for things other than the worst things they've done, because you don't have an alternative. I think that would be unfortunate, but I wouldn't rule it out. Those are choices that prosecutors have to make from time to time. We're anxious obviously in passing any moral as well as legal judgment on him and the other people who were involved in 9/11, certainly. It's not desirable if that opportunity escapes our grasp.

BELL: The Bush administration tried to overcome these issues by designing a new military commissions system to try Guantanamo detainees. President Obama came into office and moved quickly to order a halt to that system. He also banned coercive interrogation techniques and issued an order to close the Guantanamo prison within a year. Critics say those decision make America less safe. But President Obama rejects that argument. The White House said today that administration officials are reviewing their legal options for handling terrorism suspects, and that their primary goals are to seek swift justice and to keep America safe. For The World, I'm Matthew Bell.

Copyright ©2008 PRI's THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI's THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World's Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.