Alleged 9/11 Plotters In Guantanamo No-Show

Alleged 9/11 plotters in Guantanamo no-show

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By Lucile Malandain (AFP) – 22 hours ago

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and two suspected fellow plotters refused to attend a Guantanamo military court hearing.

Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, all suspected orchestrators of the attacks eight years ago that killed nearly 3,000 people, had been due in court after filing a motion to fire their lawyers.

The three, who have won permission to defend themselves but vowed to plead guilty to charges that carry the death penalty, refused to leave their cells.

Military judge Stephen Henley turned down a request from government prosecutors to force them to attend.

"You have the power to do it, we're asking you to do it," said prosecutor Bob Swann. "We don't believe it is correct not to have the accused in the courtroom. If they don't attend, we can't litigate these motions."

Two other co-accused, Mustapha al-Hawsawi and Ramzi Binalshibh, have been denied permission to defend themselves, after the judge ordered psychological tests to be carried out on their mental capacity to undergo a trial.

An hour before the hearing was due to start, Henley approved a demand from President Barack Obama's administration to delay the main proceedings for the five for another 60 days while the government decides how to try them.

After that ruling, Hawsawi and Binalshibh were no longer required to appear.

Mohammed and bin Attash had asked for their team of civilian lawyers, who specialize in conspiracy and death penalty cases, to be fired. Aziz Ali had sought to sack his military lawyer, a move that contradicts tribunal rules.

Speaking ahead of Monday's hearing, Anthony Romero, head of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said he hoped the judge would not agree to the request.

"If the government were smart it would not start over with new teams," he said. "Lawyers have met their clients, have the top security clearance, developed a relationship with their clients, they are able to defend them."

Henley said he would make no decision before the end of the latest 60-day suspension period.

The proceedings at Guantanamo come as negotiations continue within the Obama administration over how best to make good on the president's pledge to close the detention facility by January 2010.

Obama faces great difficulty in determining how to deal with more than 200 detainees still held at the detention center, located at a US naval base in Cuba.

The administration vowed last week to make a decision on whether these five top-priority suspects should face a military tribunal or a civilian court by the time the 60-day extension period runs out in mid-November.

But whichever choice Obama makes, he is likely to draw fire.

In one of his first acts as president, on the very evening of his inauguration, Obama demanded a freezing of procedures at the controversial military tribunals, set up by former president George W. Bush.

Having once described the commissions as an "enormous failure," the president was criticized by rights campaigners in May when he decided to revive them, albeit with changes to the evidence rules and detainee rights.

But the alternative -- bringing men accused of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks to the US mainland for trials before civilian courts -- horrifies some. Others believe military courts are simply better equipped to try such complex cases.

"The most likely scenario is that the trial will be occuring before a military commission that has been changed in some of their procedural structures to be more fair and more consistent with the procedures that exist," said Jonathan Drimmer, a law professor who specializes in war crimes.

The chief prosecutor for the tribunals, navy captain John Murphy, confirmed Monday that he would seek to prosecute 65 of the detainees before the military commissions.

"We're looking into the prosecution of 65 detainees," he said, adding that four US districts -- Manhattan and Brooklyn in New York, Washington, and Alexandria in Virginia -- were vying to hold trials for detainees.

Less than six months before his self-imposed deadline for Guantanamo's closure, there are still some 226 inmates from more than 20 countries at the facility, which has become synonymous around the world with former president George W. Bush's "war on terror."

Since Obama took office in January this year, 14 detainees have been repatriated or given asylum by third countries.