US Officials: Wolfowitz might decide on 6 suspects for Military Tribunal

Bush Says 6 Terror Suspects May Be Tried- Officials

Thursday, July 3, 2003; 5:10 PM

By Will Dunham -Washington Post

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush has designated six captives in what he has called the war on terrorism as eligible to be tried before U.S. military commissions, defense officials said on Thursday.

Update: Britons to go on US terror trial

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to identify the six individuals, saying no charges have yet been brought against them. The next key step is for the Pentagon to decide whether the men will be brought to trial before commissions and on what charges, the officials said.

The officials said Bush made the determination because he had reason to believe that each of the so-called enemy combatants -- among the more than 600 being held at a U.S. military prison in Cuba -- was a member of the al Qaeda network or was otherwise involved in terrorism directed against the United States.

The Pentagon was set to hold a briefing to announce the step later on Thursday. But officials said there was evidence the six had attended "terrorist" training camps and may have been involved in financing Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, providing protection for bin Laden and recruiting future members...

...Paul Wolfowitz, deputy defense secretary, will lead the process of deciding who will be brought to trial and on what charges, officials said.

Officials said many considerations were used in selecting cases for possible trial, including the quality of evidence, the completeness of intelligence gathering and the desire to bring closure to individual cases.

Britons to go on US terror trial

BBC -Friday, 4 July, 2003

Photo: Moazzam Begg, arrested in February 2002

Two Britons are among six al-Qaeda suspects due to face a military tribunal in the US, the BBC has learned.

The two are Moazzam Begg, 35, from Sparkbrook, Birmingham, and Feroz Abbasi, 23, from Croydon, south London.

They have been held for many months by the US, along with 680 other detainees, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without being sent for trial.

But US President George W Bush has now ruled they and four other unnamed Guantanamo inmates can be tried by military tribunal.

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