Rights groups warn Obama on 9/11 trial U-turn

Human rights advocates voiced dismay Friday at signals President Barack Obama is considering a military tribunal for the September 11 plotters, backtracking on a plan for a civilian trial.

The U-turn would reportedly be part of a compromise with Congress in hopes that Republicans would agree to help Obama on another key goal -- closing the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Self-confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four accused co-plotters are detained in Guantanamo Bay awaiting trial for the 2001 attacks that killed almost 3,000 people, most in New York.

The Washington Post said Obama aides were set to recommend a military tribunal and rescind plans to try the men in a civilian court in New York, just steps from where the World Trade Center once stood.

Asked by AFP about the report, a senior White House official responded only that no decision had been taken. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs has said the issue was up to the Justice Department.

Attorney General Eric Holder last month left open the possibility of a military trial, saying the top priority was to "ensure that it's done as transparently as possible and with adherence to all the rules."

Human rights groups criticized any move for a military trial, saying it would not provide the due process and openness needed to bring legitimacy to what some have called "the trial of the century."

"The United States is just beginning to restore a measure of its credibility as a champion of human rights on the international stage," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

"In one stroke, President Obama could reverse that hard-won progress," he said.

John Hutson, a retired rear admiral who now serves on the board of Human Rights First, also warned that plans to indefinitely detain inmates would damage US credibility and put more US troops in harm's way.

"It's at times like this when things are difficult that we really need the president to stand up and be firm and do what's not only the right thing, but the smart thing," Hutson said on a conference call.

But many lawmakers, including some in Obama's own Democratic Party, have urged the administration to keep Mohammed and his accused co-conspirators under military jurisdiction.

The Senate's top Republican, Mitch McConnell, said that accused foreign terrorists "should be treated as military prisoners, not like US citizens."

The civilian trial "was a horrible idea in the first place, and no one should be surprised by the growing public opposition," he said.

The plan for the New York trial also lost the crucial support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has worried about the high costs and disruption of holding the trial in lower Manhattan.

The Post said that if Obama accepted a military tribunal, he may be able to secure from Congress the funds and legal authority to close the Guantanamo prison.

The Obama administration is seeking around 237 million dollars to move Guantanamo prisoners to a maximum-security prison off the Mississippi River in Thomson, Illinois.

But McConnell renewed criticism of the plan, saying it would create little more than a "Gitmo North."

"It makes little sense to waste the taxpayers' dollars simply to change the zip code for such a prison," he said.

Obama took office pledging to close down the prison in Cuba, which many around the world consider a symbol of excesses under former president George W. Bush and his "war on terror."

But the Obama administration missed a self-imposed deadline to shut it down within a year of taking office.

Despite criticism by rights groups, the administration says it will continue to hold some prisoners indefinitely without trial, albeit on US soil.

Obama is bracing for a fierce election-year battle on security issues, with Republicans attacking him for having civilian authorities detain the Nigerian "underwear bomber."

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, is accused of trying to detonate explosives sewn into his underwear to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane with nearly 300 people aboard on Christmas Day.