FACTBOX: Ten Guantanamo prisoners to face charges

(Reuters) - The Obama administration has decided to send five Guantanamo prisoners accused of plotting the September 11, 2001 attacks to face trial in a U.S. court in New York.

In addition, the administration decided that five other prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will be prosecuted under U.S. military tribunals.

The military commissions, begun under then-President George W. Bush, have been revamped by the Obama administration and by Congress to give defendants more rights.

Following is a summary of the background and charges that have already been brought against the prisoners under the military tribunal system at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba:

THE FIVE ACCUSED SEPT. 11 PLOTTERS: Charged in death penalty case at Guantanamo with conspiring with al Qaeda and with 2,973 counts of murder for those killed when hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

* Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- Pakistani raised in Kuwait, educated in the United States. Accused of planning the September 11, 2001, attacks and serving as military operations commander for al Qaeda's foreign operations before his capture in Pakistan in 2003. Known as KSM, he has claimed responsibility for 31 attacks or planned attacks and told the U.S. military that he was responsible for the September 11 attacks "from A to Z" and that he beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Said in a court hearing at Guantanamo that he wanted to plead guilty and would welcome martyrdom.

* Walid bin Attash, Yemeni raised in Saudi Arabia, lost his right leg in 1997 battle in Afghanistan. Accused of running an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan where he trained two of the September 11 hijackers. The Pentagon said he traveled to Malaysia in 1999 to observe U.S. airline security in order to assist the hijacking plan. Also accused of financing the attack on the USS Cole, buying the boat and explosives used in the attack and recruiting the operatives. He was also accused of helping obtain a passport for a man involved in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Kenya, and acting as the link between bin Laden and the leader of al Qaeda's Kenya cell.

* Ramzi Binalshibh -- Yemeni national and one-time roommate of suspected September 11 hijack ringleader Mohamed Atta in Hamburg, Germany. Accused of serving as a link between al Qaeda leaders and the hijackers. U.S. officials say he tried but failed to obtain a visa to enter the United States to take part in the attacks as a pilot-hijacker. The Pentagon said he helped find flight schools for the hijackers in the United States. Binalshibh was captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in September 2002. Military doctors diagnosed him with a delusional disorder and he was being given psychotropic drugs at Guantanamo but a ruling on whether he is sane enough for trial is still pending.

* Ali Abdul Aziz Ali -- Also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, is a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and cousin of jailed 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef. He is accused of being an important facilitator of the September 11 attacks, transferring money to U.S.-based operatives and assisting nine hijackers on their way from Pakistan to the United States. The Pentagon said he sent about $120,000 to hijackers for their expenses and flight training.

* Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi -- Saudi accused of being a key financial facilitator of the September 11 attacks. The Pentagon said he provided the hijackers with money, Western clothing, traveler's checks and credit cards. Accused of accepting about $20,000 in wire transfers from two of the September 11, 2001, hijackers in the days before the attack. The U.S. military said his laptop held files that included al Qaeda expense reports and details of al Qaeda operatives and their families. Has said he was not a member of al Qaeda but attended an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and supported all "jihadists."

FIVE OTHERS TO BE PROSECUTED IN MILITARY TRIBUNALS:

* Omar Khadr -- Canadian captured in battle at suspected al Qaeda compound near the Afghan city of Khost in July 2002, when he was 15, sent to Guantanamo just after he turned 16. Accused of killing a U.S. soldier with a grenade during a firefight in which Khadr was shot and gravely wounded. Born in Toronto, Canada, on September 19, 1986. His lawyers argue he was a child soldier conscripted by his late father, an al Qaeda financier.

* Ahmed al Darbi -- Saudi accused of buying boat and global positioning devices and shopping for crewmen as part of an unrealized plot to ram an explosives-laden boat into an unidentified ship in the Strait of Hormuz. Also accused of teaching at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and meeting Osama bin Laden there. Darbi has said he used his boat only to ferry sheep across the strait. Captured in Azerbaijan in 2002.

* Ibrahim al Qosi -- Sudanese, born in Khartoum on July 3, 1960. Accused of acting as Osama bin Laden's driver and bodyguard, helping the al Qaeda leader escape to the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Also accused of being part of an al Qaeda mortar crew and a supply officer at bin Laden's Star of Jihad compound in Jalalabad. Was once accused by Pentagon of being an al Qaeda accountant and paymaster but those charges were dropped without explanation.

* Noor Uthman Muhammed -- Sudanese, accused of being a weapons instructor and logistician at al Qaeda's Khaldan training camp in Afghanistan. Captured in 2002 raid in Pakistan that also netted accused senior al Qaeda figure Abu Zubaydah.

* Abd al-Rahim al Nashiri - Saudi Arabian national of Yemeni descent, accused mastermind of the attack on the warship USS Cole. The 2000 attack by a small, explosives-laden boat in the Yemeni port of Aden killed 17 U.S. sailors and wounded 47. Nashiri is accused of being al Qaeda's operations chief for the Arabian Peninsula.

(Reporting by Jane Sutton and James Vicini, editing by Vicki Allen)