Pentagon pursues Guantanamo tribunal for embassy bombing suspect

The Defense Department's chief military commissions prosecutor filed nine charges against Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, and is seeking the death penalty if the Tanzanian is convicted of playing a central role in planning and preparing the truck bombing that killed 11 people and injured dozens. A nearly simultaneous bombing of the U.S. Embassy in neighboring Kenya, also blamed on Al Qaeda, killed 213 including 12 Americans on Aug. 7, 1998.

The Pentagon's action was sharply criticized by civil rights advocates and some federal law enforcement officials who wondered why the government was pursuing a war crimes tribunal considering that Ghailani was indicted in the bombings along with 10 others nearly a decade ago by a federal grand jury in New York City. Four of them were tried and convicted in 2001 and sentenced to life without parole. The others had not been captured at the time.

Said one former FBI official who helped build the criminal case against Ghailani and the 10 other suspected Al Qaeda members in 1998: "I'm shocked and amazed at this. He's already been charged with all of that in federal court. Why the hell do they need to do this? Are they afraid of the court system?" He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he might be called to testify against Ghailani.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, the legal advisor to the Office of Military Commissions, defended the Pentagon's handling of the case, saying that the Military Commission Act of 2006 was passed so that enemy combatants could be tried through a military system of justice.

"Through the act, the president and Congress have determined that alleged war criminals detained on Guantanamo Bay, to the extent that they are tried, will be tried through the commission process," he said. "That is the case with this accused. That is not to say cases pending in other venues are negatively impacted. Prosecutors could still proceed with those cases."

Hartmann and other military officials described the charges against Ghailani as the latest success stemming from a collaboration with civilian authorities that has also resulted in similar charges against 14 other detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Pentagon is seeking the death penalty against six of those men in the Sept. 11 attacks.