WASHINGTON - Fourteen top terrorist suspects, including the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, have been officially designated "enemy combatants" after reviews at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a Pentagon spokesman said Thursday.
All 14 detainees were moved to Guantanamo last year from secret CIA prisons overseas, and brought before military tribunals that reviewed their cases.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England "has approved today the tribunal determination that the 14 detainees meet the criteria for designation as enemy combatants," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
"Does anything change with respect to the individuals at Guantanamo? No. They are still at Guantanamo," he said.
He said military prosecutors will decide whether they can bring charges against them for trial by a special military commission.
The 14 include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a Kuwaiti-born Pakistani who is believed to have directed the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington with hijacked airliners.
At a hearing before a tribunal in March, Mohammed confessed to plotting the September 11 attacks "from A to Z," and claimed responsibility for a slew of other attacks.
The Pentagon has released a censored transcript -- but not an audio recording -- of the hearing.
08/09/2007 16:05 GMT