"that is what i wish" khalid sheikh mohammed said. "i wish to be martyred for a long time."it's not clear if military prosecutors will pursue the death penalty. now, civil liberties backers blasted the policy reversal and pointed out holder's decision now ensures gitmo will stay open for the foreseeable future. it's been two years and counting since the president promised to close it. katie? >> couric: bob orr. bob, thanks very much. now turning to the libya where the battle between rebels and the qaddafi regime has seesawed for weeks now. today the rebels took back most of brega, a key oil town in the east. opposition leaders insist they can break the stalemate with qaddafi's forces but only if they get more firepower from the u.s. and its allies. allen pizzey is with the rebels tonight. >> reporter: the signs and flags were a show of thanks to the u.s. and its nato allies for the no-fly zone, but the main message was blunt: extend the campaign to bomb the libyan army now no matter how close it is to civilian areas and don't worry if mistakes are made. what happened if they

today, i am referring to cases of khalid sheikh mohammed and the others. to the department of defense in military commissions. i have directed prosecutors to move to dismiss the indictment that was handed down in the southern district of york in december, 2009 and a judge has granted that motion. prosecutors from the department of defense and justice have been working together since the beginning of this matter and i have full faith and confidence in the military commission system to appropriately handled this case as it proceeds. the department justice will continue to offer all the support necessary as this critically important matter moves forward. the administration worked with congress to substantial reform the military commissions in 2009 and i believe they can deliver a fair trial and just verdict. s. for the victims, the justice is long over due and must not be delayed any longer. since i made the decision to prosecute the alleged 9/11 conspirators, the effectiveness of our federal courts and thousands of prosecutors, judges, law enforcement office

sheikh mohammed is a foreigner, alien, mass murderer who killed americans. he is not like mcveigh, an american citizen, or even though -- charlie manson, this guy is a foreigner and combat war, he would be taken out for this kind of atrocity, put up against the wall and shot. and that's under the rules of geneva. he ought to be tried is what he is and he'll be tried where he should be, right down there at guantanamo bay. >> appropriately we did not line him up and shoot him. and i think we have tried foreign born terrorists in this country and they're successfully being held in maximum security prisons. and i think that the attorney general wanted to let the public know that this is a congressional decision and with congress's approval rating it's something like 11%, i think that does not hurt you. >> do you think -- i'm not arguing but i think it series raised that if he is -- if he is euthanized by capital punishment, he will live on forever as a martyr and terrorist community and that it would be better for him to be incarcerated for the rest of his life

instead khalid sheikh mohammed and others will be tried before military commissions at the u.s. military base in guantanamo bay, cuba. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has our report. >> reporter: a year and a half after announcing that the men accused of the 9/11 attacks would be put on trial in new york, attorney general eric holder said today they will now be tried where they have been held since 2006 -- at guantanamo. >> we simply cannot allow a trial to be delayed any longer for the victims of the 9/11 attacks or for their family members who have waited for nearly a decade for justice. >> reporter: that means no civilian courtroom for khalid sheikh mohammed, said to have been the mastermind, and four others accused of helping him. it's a complete turnaround for the obama administration, after the president vowed on his first day in office to shut gitmo down within a year. new york's mayor and police chief fought against bringing the terror trials there and congress rebelled, blocking detainee moves to the u.s. in an interview with nbc the attorney general said h

reversal, the obama administration now says it will prosecute alleged 9/11 mastermind khalid sheikh mohammed and four others before a military commission at guantanamo bay and not a civilian court. >>> mexican officials say two men identified as american citizens were shot to death in their vehicle as they waited at a tijuana border crossing. a gunman approached a line of waiting cars and fired into the victims' pickup truck as they waited to enter the united states. >>> and an american astronaut and two russian cosmonauts blasted off this morning in a spacecraft named after the first man in space. today's mission comes just one week shy of the 50th anniversary of yuri gagarin's historic flight. >> and now here's an early look at one of your top health headlines on msnbc.com. salmonella bacteria detected from an outbreak of turkey burgers may be resistant to a lot of drugs. at least a dozen people have been sickened by the frozen turkey burgers. the firm recalled thousands of pounds last week, but officials warn that there may still be some in grocery stores. for more information on this and

does the president believed that chongging a khalid sheikh mohammed at a military tribunal was the bestway to bring him to justice as switch switch -- swiftly as possible? >> i'm going to -- since this announcement that you're referring to may or may not be made this afternoon, i don't want to start picking it apart or analyzing it. i'd like the attorney general to be able to address that first. >> if, let's say there is an announcement this afternoon, with the president believed that drawing him -- >> if there weren't -- if they believe could there is no such announcement this afternoon and i will say what i would have said last week -- >> -- striking him in that we is the best way to bring him -- >> which is that my understanding is that the analysis of the particular process is underway and hopefully there will be a result and decision soon. >> and that brings him to justice as swiftly and fairly as possible? >> correct. >> you know how the president has set up a negotiating team to go to capitol hill and a deal with the budget issues. does that the fact now that he has to invite lea

. >> reporter: khalid sheikh mohammed, the plot mastermind, was in karachi, pakistan, watching with ramzi binalshibh. after the success of the attacks, the operatives prostrated themselves and gave thanks to allah, one document says. abd al-rahim al-nashiri, who engineered the bombing of the u.s.s. "cole," couldn't be there; he was in a karachi hospital having his tonsils out. al-nashiri may have been the most dedicated of all. he reportedly received injections to promote impotence rather than be distracted by women. the documents say, after 9/11, all the senior operatives left pakistan for afghanistan to meet with osama bin laden, who would watch the attacks from kandahar. bin laden and his deputy, ayman al-zawahiri, spent the next couple months moving about afghanistan by car, finally taking refuge in the tora bora mountains. in mid-december 2001, the two disappeared across the border into pakistan. the others were eventually captured, but not before binalshibh threatened to slit his own throat rather than be taken alive. but you can't believe everything a captured terrorist says. there

now attorney general eric holder announced today that could lead sheikh mohammed and other alleged nine eleven terrorists will be tried before military commissions at guantanamo bay instead of receiving trials within the u.s. federal court system muhammad and four others who are being held again are facing charges of participating in the nine eleven plot muhammad being the alleged mastermind the other move is a sharp reversal and defeat for the obama administration which last year said that they wanted these alleged terrorists to have civilian trials in federal courts slated to take place in new york city but their decision to try to assemble new york set off quite the political firestorm even though civilian trials have a much higher success rate as opposed to military commissions which have been mired in controversy and are relatively new republican and democratic leaders and members of the new york congressional delegation all came out against the plan they cited cost and security concerns over the trials being held. in manhattan some also argue that the suspects who are not american

and i think with khalid sheikh mohammed's capture, for example, we realized just how fundamental and how pivotal he was and also how unique he was to carrying out 9/11 and that's, you know, the good news and the bad news. the good news is we haven't yet seen someone of khalid sheikh mohammed's rich imagination, knowledge of the united states, determination and inventiveness appear, but the bad news is, you know, we don't know where the next khalid sheikh mohammed is and what that potentiality might be. i think the problem is, i mean, glenn's right that the dentist in peoria can sleep easily, but at the same time, though, as 9/11 demonstrated and as the power of an individual to surmount, you know, the impersonal forces of economics, of culture and so on that was both, i think, at the heart of the 9/11 threat from bin laden and ksm's perspective. i mean, indicates that, you know, even i think in this environment even a credible, unsuccessful attempt to use unconventional or exotic weapons would have, you know, profound repercussions. we see the repercussions that even an attempt to pu

we have on top of those things you had some stories come out today about the trial of khalid sheikh mohammed i mean in one sense you could say maybe there's never an ideal time for a president to play politics instead of policy but if you would this week was particularly ill timed the only reason why i think this was maybe a politically good move on obama's part is that you had some slight improvement in the unemployment numbers last monday and so because of that bob is hoping to ride that little wave of a bit of good news and say that he's you know moving forward but we are in see launched a website today hope isn't hiring dot com they're sort of going to make the case long term their bomb has not generated the economic growth that we need and therefore does not deserve re-election certainly interesting and you did mention also another announcement lots of announcements today by eric holder. attorney general talking about that these military truck tribunal or there will be military tribunals for the conspirators alleged conspirators of nine eleven we're talking about clichéd mohammed some b

rate than it comes to civilian courts on this case and so i'm just wondering can people likely sheikh mohamed when they go in front of these military commissions can maybe use that to their defense to say you know if this isn't really a tried and tested form of justice that you're putting me through here. exactly correct and in fact i think few people who've looked at this have much doubt about the guilt of collegiate muhammad the fact most people expect he's going to plead guilty but there's a big question about the appearance of the process here and i think the federal court system has a lot of integrity to it as widely respected around the world but what about these courts in guantanamo i mean if you listen to what's said by republicans in congress they advocate these courts because they think they are kangaroo courts there's no question of conviction there's no question about what's going to come out of the process i think that's actually a slander of the military justice system but it does reinforce this impression that the that there is not fair justice that's me that here and technical

know there are even details here in these documents from discussions of they had with kill each sheikh mohammed that basically said the same thing that i don't like america's policies so i'm thinking of what i can do to make or change those policies and a lot of people would say that the way that we treat people at guantanamo bay has very much just helped fuel more more insurgents more to harness all around the world have a beef with us these people that have beef with us since back before desert storm you know the beef is ongoing and will never end until jihad is triumphant these people will have a beef with us the idea that we are somehow creating more jihadists by guantanamo than we're taking out of play by interrogating guys chris is famous fourteen year old omar kotter the canadian he killed an american special forces soldier he admitted he did it there's tons of proof he did he's not an innocent kid he was a killer he was fourteen his whole family is a collection of terrorists those are the people we have a guantanamo talk about chaos and the perfect example of someone who should be at gu

khalid sheikh mohammed, who's currently in kwan tan mow bay, of course, had conveyed that, and i'm willing to bet you didn't bring that up in your book. and lastly, about the dancing israelis on 9/11 that the fbi arrested that were, basically, doing surveillance? i'm just saying they knew about 9/11 ahead of time, and the fbi arrested these israelis as they looked at the burning twin towers, and they're holding up cigarette lighters -- >> guest: well, i ended up not doing so much about al-qaeda and its background because that story has been very well told in "the looming tower" by lawrence wright as well as, of course, by the 9/11 commission report. i was trying to set out to tell the u.s. response from the fbi's standpoint about the way that the bureau has evolved both before and after 9/11. >> host: that caller specifically is someone critical of u.s. policy towards israel, as you could tell from his remarks. can you talk a little bit about the fbi and its relationship with israeli security? >> guest: the fbi does work -- the fbi has a different role as a law enforcement agency than an i

and that khalid sheikh mohammed and the others who plotted these terrible attacks, today the administration is announce tag it changed course and that khalid sheikh mohammed and the others who plotted these attacks will be tried in military commissions at guantanamo bay, rather than at a civilian court in new york or some other u.s. stivment i remember autumn of our discussions on this issue over the last two years. the president issued an executive order on day one to close guantanamo down, indicated they were glg to mainstream that's terrorists under the u.s. court system. so this change today is truly a welcome development. the administration is announcing that k.s.m. and the others who plotted these crimes will be tried in a proper jurisdiction -- these military commissions -- at the proper place for these commission trials -- guantanamo bay. this is the right outcome to the long and spirited debate that preceded this decision. military commissions at guantanamo, far from the u.s. mainland, were always the right idea for a variety of compelling reasons, which and others have enumerated

and that khalid sheikh mohammed and the others who plotted these terrible attacks, today the administration is announce tag it changed course and that khalid sheikh mohammed and the others who plotted these attacks will be tried in military commissions at guantanamo bay, rather than at a civilian court in new york or some other u.s. stivment i remember autumn of our discussions on this issue over the last two years. the president issued an executive order on day one to close guantanamo down, indicated they were glg to mainstream that's terrorists under the u.s. court system. so this change today is truly a welcome development. the administration is announcing that k.s.m. and the others who plotted these crimes will be tried in a proper jurisdiction -- these military commissions -- at the proper place for these commission trials -- guantanamo bay. this is the right outcome to the long and spirited debate that preceded this decision. military commissions at guantanamo, far from the u.s. mainland, were always the right idea for a variety of compelling reasons, which and others have enumerated

instead khalid sheikh mohammed and four others will face military tribunals at guantanamo bay, cuba.se a terror threat. president obama is meeting with house speaker john boehner today about the budget stalemate in congress. so far democrats and republicans can't agree on long-term spending cuts and another emergency spending bill may be needed to prevent a partial government shutdown on friday. water samples taken in the ocean near the crippled nuclear plant in japan show iodine levels are now 7 million time it s the leg limit. workers are being forced to pump water onto the cores while dumping radioactive water in the ocean. >>> toyota will have to close plants because of a part shortage in japan. the shut downs could affect 25,000 workers, but no layoffs are expected. >>> a musician is claiming victory in haiti. he easily defeated the former first lady of haiti. >>> clashes escalated in yemen between supporters of president saleh and those demanding his resignation. at least one person was killed. severe thunderstorms are threatening the east coast from florida to southern new eng

. >> instead, khalid sheikh mohammed and four others will be tried by a military tribunal outside thesed the reversal of policy calling the suspects war criminals. the civil liberties groups called the change "devastating." >>> president obama wants to stay at the white house for another four years. >> he bypassed the usual public announcement, instead sent an e-mail to millions of voters. here's jake tapper. >> reporter: here's's a video from senator obama four years ago. a campaign of hope making promises of change. >> we want to turn the page. >> reporter: we can end a war, the campaign said then. we can save the planet. we can change the world. here's the video president obama sent out declaring his candidacy. >> i don't agree with obama on everything, but i respect him and i trust him. >> reporter: the difference between running as an inspiring blank slate and as an incumbent leading a nation mired in three wars including libya, close to 9% unemployment and a controversial record like the health care law. in 2007 and 2008, courtney height worked for the obama campaign all over th

and that khalid sheikh mohammed and the others who plotted these terrible attacks, today the administrationunce tag it changed course and that khalid sheikh mohammed and the others who plotted these attacks will be tried in military commissions at guantanamo bay, rather than at a civilian court in new york or some other u.s. stivment i remember autumn of our discussions on this issue over the last two years. the president issued an executive order on day one to close guantanamo down, indicated they were glg to mainstream that's terrorists under the u.s. court system. so this change today is truly a welcome development. the administration is announcing that k.s.m. and the others who plotted these crimes will be tried in a proper jurisdiction -- these military commissions -- at the proper place for these commission trials -- guantanamo bay. this is the right outcome to the long and spirited debate that preceded this decision. military commissions at guantanamo, far from the u.s. mainland, were always the right idea for a variety of compelling reasons, which and others have enumerated repeated

. >> khalid sheikh mohammed and others are being referred to -- >> let's just finish this topic and then we will come back to ksm. >> when you set components, did you mean that you all -- osd, office depot will setup parameters and then the services will then get to decide within themselves -- >> the guidance is still being worked on. there is a lot there and there's a lot there to help people figure held with is -- what's hannity satchel or xm operation or service or mission. let me not preempt that. it's still being worked on. it hasn't been issued. hold on -- this will be the major component of the services to the osd components and so forth. this is the direction of the deputy secretary vance. it obviously comes with the authority to enforce it. yeah, go ahead. i mean, but we aren't going to prescribe, so there has to be -- people know best what is in their component -- what is an xm or non-exempt function but there obviously are guidelines to help them better understand the parameters here. >> i understand you're limited in what you can say on page there's already is rumors downrang

. >> today, i am referring to cases of cholera -- muhammed -- khalid sheikh mohammed -- to the department of defense to proceed in military commissions. furthermore, i directed prosecutors to move to dismiss be indictment handed down in the southern district of new york in december of 2009. the judge has granted that motion. prosecutors from both the department of defense and justice have been working together since the beginning of this matter, and i have full faith and confidence in the military commission system to appropriately handled this case as it proceeds. the department of justice will continue to offer all of the support necessary as this critically important matter moves forward. the administration worked with congress to substantially reformed military commissions in 2009, and i believe they can deliver a fair trial and just verdict. host: wave continue our discussion on the white house reversing -- we continue our discussion on the white house reversing its decision. new york, on our line for republicans. charlie? caller: for those ladies's information, they are not being tr

so then it become as the maer of, do you try to, for example, khalid sheikh mohammed, who masterminded, allegedly masterminded the 9/11 massacre, or do you, or do you just sit in a holding pattern, a stalemate and not give justice to those who have lost their loved ones, who lost their loved ones in that, in that catastrophe and that, in that crime? so the administration and the justice department decided to move forward. but there's a qualitative difference between where we were in january of 2009 and where we are today. we didn't even have case records for most of the people in guantanamo. it took months and months and months just to reconstruct who they were, why they were there, what the appropriate disposition of them should be. you know, that, so we went through that process. some of them have been, have been transferred overseas. others are in the process of being charged and tried. and there is this category of people who are there who, there is not evidence to try them but there is plenty of ample evidence that they represent a threat to the country and how to deal with those