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Pentagon Charges Inmate in Terror Strike

Critics cry foul as military plans tribunal for Ghailani

By Sam Gale Rosen,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 31, 2008 5:38 PM CDT

(Newser) – The Pentagon charged a Guantanamo inmate today in the 1998 US embassy bombing in Tanzania that killed 11 people, the New York Times reports. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, saying he remained an al-Qaeda agent after the attack and worked as a bodyguard to Osama bin Laden. But the charges quickly drew fire from critics of Guantanamo Bay tribunals.

“This seems like an attempt to subvert and do an end run around the existing criminal justice system,” a human rights advocate said. Critics add that Ghailani was already indicted in the bombing by a New York court that has convicted four other plotters. Ghailani, believed to be 34, was one of the world's most infamous terrorists when he was caught in Pakistan in 2004.

A guard watches from a guard tower at Guantanamo Bay.
A guard watches from a guard tower at Guantanamo Bay.   (Getty Images)
Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann announces formal charges against a Guantanamo prisoner with war crimes for the deadly 1998 al Qaeda attack on the American embassy in Tanzania.
Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann announces formal charges against a Guantanamo prisoner with war crimes for the deadly 1998 al Qaeda attack on the American embassy in Tanzania.   (AP Photo/Heesoon Yim)
U.S. President George W. Bush lays a wreath for the victims of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008.
U.S. President George W. Bush lays a wreath for the victims of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008.   (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Members of the Dallas FBI Evidence Response Team pose in front of the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania in August of 1998.
Members of the Dallas FBI Evidence Response Team pose in front of the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania in August of 1998.   (KRT Photos)
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