Bin Laden in 9/11 Trial Threat

A message said to be from Osama Bin Laden threatens to kill Americans if the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks is executed by the US, according to BBC News.

Al-Jazeera news channel broadcast an audiotape reportedly from the al-Qaeda leader talking about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspects. The tape said that if the US made the decision to execute, al-Qaeda would also "execute" anyone it captured. The five suspects are due to be tried in New York for the 2001 attacks.

The taped message said: "The White House has declared its wish to execute (Mr. Mohammed and the other suspects). The day the United States takes such a decision, it would be also taking the decision that any of you falling into our hands will be executed."

The White House has been criticized for planning to put the five suspects on trial in New York. Critics say the trial near the Ground Zero will be expensive and disruptive. White House officials have yet to decide if the trial will take place in a federal courtroom or in a military commission.

Prosecutors are expected to seek the death penalty, while White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in January that Mohammed was going to "meet his maker" if found guilty.

The Pentagon says Mohammed has admitted to being responsible "from A to Z" for the attacks in New York and Washington. Following his capture in Pakistan in 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was held at a CIA secret prison, where he was subjected to harsh interrogation techniques and a practice known as "waterboarding," which simulates drowning, until he was moved to Guantanamo Bay in 2006.