On February 11, the Pentagon announced that it would seek the death penalty against 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and five other detainees. In addition to Mohammed, the other men who will be tried under the military commissions system are Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarek Bin ’Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, and Mohamed al Kahtani.

According to the Defense Department, “Each of the defendants is charged with conspiracy and the separate, substantive offenses of: murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, terrorism and providing material support for terrorism.”

The prospect of trying the men in military tribunals has provoked criticism from one staunch U.S. ally. Responding to questions in the UK about the planned military tribunals, UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband responded, “We have some concerns about that,” before noting that cases before the U.S. Supreme Court could still change the nature of the tribunals. “The great thing about America,” Miliband said, “is that the independent legal system provides a check and a balance on the operation of the legal system itself.”

For its part, the Defense Department insists that the suspects will receive fair trials. Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, a legal adviser to the tribunal system, noted, according to the Seattle Times, that defendants in the tribunals will have the same rights as U.S. soldiers tried under the military justice system. Critics disagreed. Jack Cloonan, a former FBI agent who served on the Osama bin Laden task force in New York, told the Los Angeles Times: “It’s a stacked deck. I know people who are part of the tribunal process who represent detainees, JAG officers, who will tell you that they are politically to the right of Attila the Hun, and even they will tell you the construct is ridiculous, that it lacks due process.”

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