The US Department of Defense on Sept. 28 officially referred charges against a high-profile Guantánamo Bay detainee who allegedly planned the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that left 17 sailors dead and 37 others injured. Saudi-born former millionaire Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri will stand trial before a military tribunal at Guantánamo on nine terrorism, conspiracy and murder charges. Specifically al-Nashiri will be charged with orchestrating the attack on the Cole, during which two suicide bombers rammed an explosives-laden boat into the guided missile destroyer, blowing a vast hole into its side.

US-born purported al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki was killed Sept. 30 in a drone strike outside the town of Khashef in Yemen's Jawf province. At least three of al-Awlaki’s companions were also killed in the same strike, including fellow US citizen Samir Khan, editor of the slick al-Qaeda magazine Inspire. President Obama hailed the killing as "a major blow to al-Qaeda's most active operational affiliate," saying the death "marks another significant milestone in the broader effort to defeat al Qaeda." American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer said the killing was part of a US counter-terrorism program that "violates both US and international law."

This one is really good. The poorly named 9-11 "Truthers" (perhaps more accurately rendered "Falsers") continue to moronically assert that al-Qaeda never claimed responsibility for the 9-11 attacks—despite the fact that it has done so time and time and time again. Now the terror network takes Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to task for spouting revisionist malarky that would steal the glory from Osama and his crew by blaming the attacks on the US government. David Goodman writes for the New York Times' The Lede blog Sept. 28:

US counter-terrorism officials have indicated that the administration of President Barack Obama is considering trying the former leader of Hezbollah in a military commission on US soil, the Associated Press reported Sept. 26. According to anonymous officials, the Obama administration is considering the controversial move because they believe that the best place to try Ali Mussa Daqduq is a US military base. Daqduq was captured in Iraq in 2007, where he is currently being held. He is linked to a raid in Karbala, which killed four US soldiers, and is believed to have ties to Iran. If a US military tribunal hears the case, it will mark the first time a military commission has been held on US soil since 9-11. If no decision is made by the end of the year, Daqduq must be transferred to the custody of Iraqi officials according to a 2008 agreement between the US and Bagdad. Some have suggested that Daqduq be tried at Guantánamo Bay as an alternative to a trial in the US.

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta ruled Sept. 19 that a 17-year sentence was not enough for Jose Padilla, convicted on terrorism-related charges. Padilla and co-defendants Adham Hassoun and Kifah Jayyousi had appealed their convictions, and federal prosecutors appealed the sentence given by US district court Judge Marcia Cooke. Upholding all three convictions and ordering a new sentencing hearing for Padilla, the court explained:

Tunisia announced its intention Sept. 14 to plead for the return of its remaining citizens being held at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. A Justice Ministry representative, speaking at a conference in Tunis, called for the repatriation of the five Tunisian detainees still being held at the prison and indicated the nation's intention to send a mission to the US to achieve their release. The conference was organized by Reprieve, a British humanitarian and legal action group that seeks to enforce human rights and due process for prisoners worldwide.

The US Court of Military Commission Review on Sept. 9 ruled (PDF) that Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al-Bahlul, media secretary of Osama bin Laden, was properly convicted of being a propagandist and should spend the rest of this life in prison. The 7-0 vote rejects the 2009 appeal (PDF) of his conviction and life sentence for conspiring with al-Qaeda, soliciting murder and providing material support for terrorism. His Pentagon-appointed defense lawyers argued that his constitutional rights were violated because a supposed al Qaeda recruitment film he released is protected speech under the First Amendment.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Sept. 6 affirmed the 2010 denial of petition for a writ of habeas corpus for Guantánamo Bay detainee Shawali Khan. Khan is an Afghan citizen who, at the time of his capture in mid-November 2002, lived in Kandahar, and is accused of belonging to Hezb-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG), an active Afghan insurgency group with ties to the Taliban. On appeal, Khan contended there is insufficient reliable evidence in the form of government-offered intelligence reports to establish that he was part of HIG at the time of his capture. The court explained its standard of review in evaluating Khan's appeal: