History:
The USS Cole bombing was a suicide attack against the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole (DDG 67) on October 12, 2000 while it was harbored and refueling in the Yemeni port of Aden. 17 American sailors were killed, and 39 were injured. This event was the deadliest attack against a U.S. Naval vessel since 1987.
..June 30, 2008, Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, legal advisor to the U.S. Military tribunal system, announced charges are being sworn against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian citizen of Yemeni descent, who has been held at the military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006. According to the Pentagon, the charges have been defined as "organizing and directing" the bombing of the USS Cole. The charges still must be approved by a Department of Defense official who oversees military tribunals set up for terrorism suspects.
Washington Post:
The Obama administration has shelved the planned prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged coordinator of the Oct. 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, according to a court filing.
SNIP
In a filing this week in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the Justice Department said that "no charges are either pending or contemplated with respect to al-Nashiri in the near future."
Military officials have their own thoughts on why the Obama administration called a halt to prosecuting Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.
Military officials said a team of prosecutors in the Nashiri case has been ready go to trial for some time. And several months ago, military officials seemed confident that Nashiri would be arraigned this summer.
"It's politics at this point," said one military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss policy. He said he thinks the administration does not want to proceed against a high-value detainee without some prospect of civilian trials for other major figures at Guantanamo Bay.
A White House official disputed that.
"We are confident that the reformed military commissions are a lawful, fair and effective prosecutorial forum and that the Department of Defense will handle the referrals in an appropriate manner consistent with the interests of justice," said the official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The kicker:
Only two cases are moving forward at Guantanamo Bay, and both were sworn and referred for trial by the time Obama took office. In January 2009, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates directed the Convening Authority for Military Commissions to stop referring cases for trial, an order that 20 months later has not been rescinded.
Read the entire report, this disgusting lack of respect for our fallen as well as their families who want justice, shows a president that simply doesn't give a damn about the victims and chooses politics over justice.
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