By Lukas Mikelionis, Fox News
The U.S. was already at war with Al Qaeda before hijacked planes hit the Twin Towers and Pentagon and crashed in Pennsylvania, a U.S. military judge presiding at the pretrial of alleged 9/11 attack plotter Khalid Sheik Mohammed and others ruled this week.
The landmark decision will pave the way for a trial of the accused 9/11 mastermind and four alleged abettors by military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Miami Herald reported.
Lawyers for the alleged conspirators tried to convince the military commission that since the U.S. entered the war against Al Qaeda only after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the defendants can face trial only in federal, civilian courts — not before military commissions.
A lawyer for Mustafa al Hawsawi — a Saudi man accused of supporting at least seven of the 19 hijackers — argued that his client allegedly helped some of the hijackers with funds and travel to the U.S. before the American government was at war with Al Qaeda.
Attorneys for another alleged conspirator, Ammar al Baluchi, claimed the war began when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001.
Prosecutors argued the war between the U.S. and the terror group began with Usama bin Laden’s 1996 “Declaration of Jihad Against the Americans,” according to the newspaper.
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