Terror Suspect Prosecution in USS Cole Case Put Off by Obama Administration

The Obama administration has decided against a military trial anytime soon for the suspected al-Qaeda ringleader in the deadly Oct. 12, 2000, suicide attack on the USS Cole, which was rammed by a small boat filled with explosives.

The decision comes at the approach of the 10th anniversary of bombing that killed 17 sailors on a warship off the coast of Yemen. And it scuttles for the time being the trial of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri under a reformed system of military commissions, the Washington Post reported Friday.

Military officials said a team of prosecutors has been prepared to go to trial in the case for some time -- and several months ago they seemed confident Nashiri would be arraigned this summer. But in a filing this week in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the Justice Department said "no charges are either pending or contemplated with respect to al-Nashiri in the near future." So he remains in limbo, arrested in 2002 and held at Guantanamo since September 2006. He was reportedly one of the detainees in CIA custody who was waterboarded.

"It's politics at this point," said one military official who spoke to the Post on the condition of anonymity so he could discuss policy. His take is that the Obama administration does not want to go ahead the prosecution of a a high-value detainee without some prospect of civilian trials for other major figures held at Guantanamo Bay.

The Defense Department insisted in a statement Thursday that the case is not stalled. "Prosecutors in the Office of Military Commissions are actively investigating the case against Mr. al-Nashiri and are developing charges against him."