President Obama meets with families of 9/11, Cole victims

Obama meets with families of 9/11, Cole victims
By Lara Jakes - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Feb 6, 2009 15:06:45 EST

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama was spending time with families of 9/11 victims and the 17 sailors killed in the bombing of the Cole after a senior Pentagon judge dropped charges against an al-Qaida suspect in the Cole attack being held at Guantanamo Bay.

The legal move Thursday by Susan J. Crawford, the top legal authority for military trials at Guantanamo, upholds Obama’s Jan. 22 executive order to halt terrorist court proceedings at the Navy base in Cuba. The charges against suspected al-Qaida bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri marked the last active Guantanamo war crimes case.

Groups representing victims’ families were angered by Obama’s order, charging they had waited too long already to see the alleged attackers brought to court.

Retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk S. Lippold, the commanding officer of the Cole when it was bombed in Yemen in 2000, said he would be among family members of Cole and 9/11 victims who are meeting with Obama at the White House on Friday afternoon.
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