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Guantánamo Detainee Pleads Guilty to 2002 Tanker Attack Guantánamo Detainee Pleads Guilty in 2002 Attack on Tanker
(35 minutes later)
FORT MEADE, Md. — A Saudi detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on Thursday pleaded guilty before a military commission to terrorism-related offenses that involved a 2002 attack by Al Qaeda on an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. The plea deal will give him a specific sentence and a prospect of leaving the American military prison, where he had been held in indefinite detention for nearly 11 years. FORT MEADE, Md. — A Saudi detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on Thursday pleaded guilty before a military commission to terrorism-related offenses involving a 2002 attack by Al Qaeda on a French-flagged oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. The plea deal will give him a specific sentence and a prospect of leaving the American military prison, where he had been held in indefinite detention.
As part of the deal, the detainee, Ahmed Muhammed Haza al Darbi, 39, is believed to have agreed to testify against a higher-profile terrorism defendant, Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, a fellow Saudi. Mr. Nashiri is facing death-penalty charges before the commission and is accused of helping plan several maritime terrorist attacks, including the 2000 bombing of the American destroyer Cole off the coast of Yemen. Under the a deal, the detainee, Ahmed Muhammed Haza al Darbi, 39, will spend at least three and a half more years at Guantánamo, where he has already been held for nearly 12 years. He is expected to testify against a higher-profile terrorism defendant, Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, a fellow Saudi, as part of the agreement.
Mr. Nashiri is also accused of orchestrating an attack by suicide bombers on the French oil tanker Limburg, off the coast of Yemen on Oct. 6, 2002. Suicide bombers rammed an explosives-laden boat into the ship, killing one crew member and wounding 12 other sailors. Mr. Nashiri is facing death-penalty charges before the commission. He is accused of helping plan several maritime terrorist attacks, including the 2000 bombing of the American destroyer Cole near Aden and an attack by suicide bombers on the French oil tanker Limburg near the port of Al Mukalla on Oct. 6, 2002.
Mr. Darbi, a slightly pudgy man with a relatively short beard and long hair pulled into a pony tail, wore a white button-down shirt, glasses, and a yellow-green tie. He spoke briefly, providing short answers as the judge, Col. Mark Allred of the Air Force, asked whether he was voluntarily entering the plea and agreeing to a lengthy stipulation of facts about what he had done. The conviction represents a rare measure of progress for the commissions system. Both of the major cases brought under the Obama administration – the prosecution of Mr. Nashiri, who was arraigned in November 2011, and of five men accused in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, who were arraigned in May 2012 – remain mired in pretrial motion hearings.
“I agree with all parts of the stipulation,” Mr. Darbi said through an interpreter. Since President George W. Bush created the commissions system in 2001, the only two convictions at trial were overturned on appeal. Mr. Darbi is the sixth detainee to plead guilty without a trial – giving up a right to appeal — in exchange for the prospect of a specific exit date from Guantánamo. Four of those six have departed.
Mr. Darbi told the military commission it was true that from 2000 to 2002, he helped plan for an operation by Al Qaeda to sink one or more civilian petroleum tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow band of water at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. On Thursday, Mr. Darbi admitted that from 2000 until 2002 he helped plan and arrange for an Al Qaeda operation to sink one or more civilian petroleum tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, resulting in the attack on the Limburg. Yemeni suicide-bombers rammed an explosives-laden boat into the ship, killing a Bulgarian crew member and wounding 12 other sailors.
Among other things, he said, he purchased boats, Global Positioning System devices, and a hydraulic crane in the United Arab Emirates for use in the operation, as well as handling money earmarked by Al Qaeda for it. He also sailed a boat toward Yemen for the purpose of the planned attacks. He also acknowledged that he had intended for civilians to be killed, in violation of the laws of war. In a statement, Brig. Gen. Mark S. Martins, the chief military commissions prosecutor, said Mr. Darbi would l “likely spend between nine and 15 additional years in confinement,” and after he is sentenced in 2017 he may be repatriated to serve out the remainder of that term in a Saudi Arabian prison.
In a twist, Mr. Darbi was already at Guantánamo by the time the Limburg was attacked. He was arrested by the police in Azerbaijan in June 2002 – several months before the attack – after flying there from Dubai, according to a classified dossier on him that was leaked by Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Pfc. Bradley Manning. Mr. Darbi was transferred to American custody and arrived at Guantánamo in August 2002. “Mr. al Darbi has, importantly, accepted responsibility,” General Martins said. “He is represented by a highly competent team of defense counsel. He has pledged to be law-abiding and to cooperate fully and truthfully with authorities.”
A video from the courtroom at Guantánamo was shown to reporters at Fort Meade. Mr. Darbi, a pudgy man with a short beard and long hair pulled into a pony tail, wore a white button-down shirt and a pistachio-colored tie that, according to a military spokesman, he had selected from a bag of ties of various colors and patterns.
During the two-and-a-half hour hearing, Mr. Darbi delivered short answers to the judge, Col. Mark Allred of the Air Force, affirming that he was voluntarily entering the plea and that he understood the consequences.
He admitted, among other offenses, that he had purchased boats, Global Positioning System devices and a hydraulic crane in the United Arab Emirates for use in the operation and that he had handled money earmarked for it by Al Qaeda. He said he had intended for civilians to be killed, in violation of the laws of war.
In a twist, Mr. Darbi was already at Guantánamo by the time the Limburg was attacked. He was arrested by the police in Azerbaijan in June 2002 – several months before the attack – according to a classified dossier that was leaked by Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Pfc. Bradley Manning. Mr. Darbi was transferred to American custody and arrived at Guantánamo in August 2002.
“Obviously you were not there, you were somewhere else,” Colonel Allred said. “But the actual perpetrators were there and you are liable for their actions as a principal.”“Obviously you were not there, you were somewhere else,” Colonel Allred said. “But the actual perpetrators were there and you are liable for their actions as a principal.”
Mr. Darbi was represented by a military lawyer and a civilian one, Ramzi Kassem, a City University of New York law professor. Had Mr. Darbi been convicted after trial, he could have been sentenced to life in prison.
His guilty plea included a waiver of a right to appeal, which for now shields from judicial review one legal issue related to the matter: whether there was an armed conflict in Yemen in 2002 that would make it legitimate to prosecute Mr. Darbi’s offense as a war crime before a military tribunal, rather than as a criminal case in a civilian court.
Mr. Nashiri has attempted to challenge the war-crimes charges against him on the grounds that there was no armed conflict in Yemen in 2000 or 2002, arguing that the military commission lacks jurisdiction to hear the case. A federal appeals court dismissed that lawsuit for a technical reason and without examining the merits of the claim.