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Thread: Key 9/11 Suspect To Be Tried In New York

  1. #151
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    9/11 families viewing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed arraignment

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...ent/54740846/1

    5/5/2012

    GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (AP) – The man who called himself the "mastermind" of the Sept. 11 attacks and four comrades were back Saturday before a military judge in Guantanamo Bay to face charges that could lead to their execution.

    Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants are being arraigned under heavy security at the U.S. base in Cuba. The five face charges that include terrorism and 2,976 counts of murder each for their alleged roles planning and aiding the Sept. 11 attacks.

    Saturday's hearing is the first time the five have been in court in nearly 3 ½ years. President Obama put their previous tribunal hold in a failed effort to move the case to civilian court. Mohammed has mocked the tribunal and said in previous court appearances that he welcomed execution.

    Family members of some of the victims watched the arraignment via closed-circuit TV on Saturday.

    "I want to bear witness that in fact these people are brought to justice," Al Santora, whose firefighter son Christopher died at the World Trade Center, said this week.

    Santora and his wife, Maureen, planned to watch the arraignment at Fort Hamilton in New York City, one of four military bases where the hearing was broadcast live for victims' family members, survivors and emergency personnel who responded to the attacks. The others were Fort Devens in Massachusetts, Joint Base McGuire Dix in New Jersey and Fort Meade in Maryland, the only one open to the public.

    Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other defendants were being arraigned on charges that include terrorism and murder, the first time in more than three years that they appeared in public. They could get the death penalty if convicted in the attacks that sent hijacked airliners slamming into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. The trial is probably at least a year away.

    At Fort Meade, about 80 people watched the proceedings at movie theater on the base, where "The Lorax" was being promoted on a sign outside.

    One section of the theater for victims' families was sectioned off with screens, and signs asked that other spectators respect their privacy.

    Once the proceedings began, spectators in the public section laughed at times, including when a lawyer indicated Mohammed was likely not interested in using his headphones for a translator and again, briefly, when one of the defendants stood and the judge said that kind of behavior excited the guards. But the crowd was quiet when the man began to pray.

    Six victims' families chosen by lottery traveled to Guantanamo to see the arraignment in person.

    Alan Linton of Frederick, Md., who lost his son Alan Jr., an investment banker, at the World Trade Center, said he and his wife put their names in the lottery for the Cuba trip but weren't interested in watching a video feed of the arraignment.

    "That's just not the same as being there to me," Linton said. "Going to Fort Meade, it's kind of like watching television."

    Whether they watched or not, family members expressed frustration that it's taken so long to bring the Sept. 11 conspirators to justice.

    The administration of President Barack Obama dropped earlier military-commission charges against them when it decided in late 2009 to try them in federal court in New York. But Congress blocked the civilian trials amid opposition to bringing the defendants to U.S. soil, especially to a courthouse located just blocks from the trade center site.

    Santora said he hopes the trial can proceed quickly once it starts.

    "They have tons and tons of evidence and they've already admitted their guilt," he said. "So I don't know why the trial should be long."

    Retired firefighter Jim Riches, whose son was also a firefighter who died at the trade center, said some of victims' parents did not live long enough to see the trial.

    "We were promised swift justice by Barack Obama," he said. "And we're still waiting."
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  2. #152
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    9/11 "mastermind," others back before Guantanamo judge

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-...ntanamo-judge/

    5/5/2012

    (AP) GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - The self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and four accused co-conspirators appeared in public for the first time in more than three years Saturday, when U.S. officials started a second attempt at what is likely to be a drawn out legal battle that could lead to the men's executions.

    Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants were being arraigned at a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay on charges that include that include 2,976 counts of murder for the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

    The hearing quickly bogged down before they could be arraigned. One prisoner, Walid bin Attash was put in a restraint chair for unspecified reasons, and lawyers for all defendants complained that the prisoners were prevented from wearing the civilian clothes of their choice.

    Mohammed refused to respond to questions, removing his earphone and sitting in silence. His civilian lawyer, David Nevin, said he believed Mohammed was not responding because he believes the tribunal is unfair.

    The judge, Army Col. James Pohl, warned that he would not permit defendants to block the hearing and would continue without his participation.

    "One cannot choose not to participate and frustrate the normal course of business," Pohl said. "If he refuses to put the earphones in, then he is choosing to become uniformed."

    The judge then entered a "not guilty" plea for Mohammed.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  3. #153
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    9/11 Defendants Disrupt Start of Arraignment

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/us...ary-court.html

    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    Published: May 5, 2012

    GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — An arraignment for the self-proclaimed mastermind of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and four other detainees quickly bogged down Saturday as American officials tried for a second time to try the men for the terrorists attacks.

    The lead defendant, the self-described architect of the attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, declined to respond to a judge’s questions and a co-defendant, Walid bin Attash, was put in a restraint chair for unspecified reasons and then removed from it after he agreed to behave. Lawyers for all defendants, who are facing charges related to the terrorist attacks, complained that the prisoners were prevented from wearing the civilian clothes of their choice.

    Mr. Mohammed wore a white turban in court; his flowing beard, which had appeared to be graying in earlier hearings and photos, was streaked with red henna.

    Mr. Mohammed’s civilian lawyer, David Nevin, said his client was not responding because he believed the tribunal was unfair. The judge, Army Col. James Pohl, warned however that he would not allow defendants to block the hearing and would continue without his participation.

    “One cannot choose not to participate and frustrate the normal course of business,” the judge said. It was the first time the five detainees appeared in public in more than three years.

    Reuters reported that all the defendants refused to wear the earphones that allowed them to listen to the Arabic-English translations of the judge’s questions, forcing the judge to recess the hearing briefly. It was resumed after an interpreter began providing translation that was audible to the whole court.

    Cheryl Borman, a civilian lawyer for Mr. Walid bin Attash, told the court that the treatment of her client at Guantánamo had interfered with his ability to participate in the proceedings.

    “These men have been mistreated,” Ms. Borman said, according to Reuters.

    But the judge said that until the question of the men’s legal representation was settled, the lawyers had no standing to make motions concerning the defendants’ treatment, Reuters reported.

    In the past, during the failed first effort to prosecute them, Mr. Mohammed has mocked the tribunal and said he and the other detainees would plead guilty and welcome execution. But there were signs that at least some of the defense teams were preparing for a lengthy fight, planning challenges of the military tribunals and the secrecy that shrouds the case.

    The arraignment is “only the beginning of a trial that will take years to complete, followed by years of appellate review,” a defense lawyer, James Connell, who represents one defendant, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, said before the hearing. “I can’t imagine any scenario where this thing gets wrapped up in six months.” Defendants in what is known as a military commission typically do not enter a plea during arraignment. Instead, the judge reads the charges, makes sure the accused understand their rights and then moves on to procedural issues. Defense lawyers said they were prohibited by secrecy rules from disclosing the intentions of their clients.

    Jim Harrington, a civilian lawyer for Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a Yemeni prisoner who said at one hearing that he was proud of the Sept. 11 attacks, said he did not think that any defendant would plead guilty, notwithstanding their earlier statements.

    Capt. Jason Wright of the Army, one of Mr. Mohammed’s Pentagon-appointed lawyers, declined to comment.

    As in previous hearings, a handful of people who lost family members in the attacks were selected by lottery to travel to the base to watch the proceedings. Other family members were gathering at military bases in New York and along the East Coast to watch the proceedings on closed-circuit video.

    Family members here said that they were grateful for the chance to see a case they believe has been delayed too long.

    The arraignment for the five defendants comes more than three years after President Obama’s failed effort to try the suspects in a federal civilian court and close the prison at the base in Cuba.

    Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced in 2009 that Mr. Mohammed and his co-defendants would be tried blocks from the site of the World Trade Center attacks in downtown Manhattan, but the plan was shelved after New York officials cited huge costs to secure the neighborhood and family opposition to trying the suspects in the United States.

    Congress then blocked the transfer of any prisoners from Guantánamo to the United States, forcing the Obama administration to refile the charges under a reformed military commission system.

    New rules adopted by Congress and the Obama administration forbid the use of testimony obtained through cruel treatment or torture. Gen. Mark Martins, the chief prosecutor, said the commission provided many of the same protections that defendants would get in civilian courts. “I’m confident that this court can achieve justice and fairness,” General Martins said.

    But human rights groups and the defense lawyers say the reforms have not gone far enough and that restrictions on legal mail and the overall secret nature of Guantánamo and the commissions makes it impossible to provide an adequate defense.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  4. #154
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    9/11 Plotters: ‘Accused Refuses to Answer’ in Guantanamo Bay Arraignment

    http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics...y-arraignment/

    5/5/2012

    FORT MEADE, Md. — The arraignment of the five men charged with plotting the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks has gotten off to a chaotic start in a Guantanamo Bay courtroom as they have chosen not to participate in today’s proceedings. The five men face 2,976 counts of murder that could lead to the death penalty if they are convicted by the military tribunal trying their case.

    Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Penn., has not responded to questions posed to him by Col. James Pohl, who is presiding over the case.

    Neither have his fellow defendants Ramzi Binalshibh, Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa al Hawsawi who have also refused to respond to any of the questions posed by Pohl.

    “Accused refuses to answer,” Pohl said repeatedly after he asked procedural questions of each of the defendants to ensure they were comfortable with their legal counsel. Without any responses, Pohl approved their current military and civilian counsels by default.

    Once the procedural questions are concluded, if they decided to not reply when asked for a plea, an additional hearing may have to take place.

    Mohammed has admitted to having conceived the attacks, the others are charged with having facilitated the attacks financially and logistically.

    Saturday’s court appearance marked the first time in three years that the five 9/11 co-conspirators had been seen in public. Wearing their white prison uniforms, most of the defendants wore white skullcaps, Mohammed wore a white turban he had apparently fashioned himself.

    Mohammed’s long beard appears to be brown in color, not grey as had been seen in earlier photographs.

    The proceedings began with Pohl quickly noting that it appeared that some if not all of the defendants were not wearing the earphones that would provide them with simultaneous Arabic translation.

    Though his client speaks English, Mohammed’s civilian attorney, David Nevin, told Pohl he was not sure if his client would choose to participate at today’s arraignment given concerns he had about the process.

    Pohl eventually had to bring Arabic translators into the courtroom who would translate over a speaker system to ensure that the defendants could understand the proceedings given that they were not wearing their earphones.

    Judge James Pohl noted that Walid bin Atash was sitting in restraints at his chair. After a lengthy back and forth, his military attorney was finally able to provide Pohl with enough reassurance that he would behave in court, and Pohl finally the restraints were removed.

    The proceedings also came to a halt when Ramzi Binalshibh suddenly stood up to go into his daily prayers. The courtroom fell completely silent as he knelt and stood several times in Muslim prayer.

    The defendants’ behavior was in stark contrast to their 2008 arraignment when the co- conspirators used the opportunity to talk to each other in court. That was apparently the first time they had seen each other since the start of their detentions.

    During that arraignment Mohammed had boasted of planning the attacks “and said he hoped the legal proceedings would lead to his becoming a martyr.

    That case was dismissed in 2009 after President Obama suspended the military commissions process in preparation for closing the detention center at Guantanamo.

    Lengthy Legal Proceeding
    Saturday’s arraignment is the start of what is expected to be a lengthy legal proceeding as the trial is expected to begin a year from now.

    Observing today’s legal proceedings behind a glass window in the rear of the courtroom were six family members of victims killed in the 9/11 attacks as well as a small number of journalists.

    They had been chosen by lottery among the 250 family members who had applied to watch the proceedings in person.

    The Pentagon set up closed circuit viewing locations at various military bases along the east coast for family members who could not attend in person.

    The viewing locations were at Fort Hamilton, N.Y.; Fort Devens, Mass.; Fort Meade, Md.; and Joint Base Mcguire-Dix-Lakehurst in N.J.

    A separate viewing location for journalists was set up at Fort Meade.

    The five 9/11 plotters were all originally held in CIA’s secret prisons and were transferred to Guantanamo in Sept. 2006.

    During their CIA detentions they were subject to controversial “enhanced interrogation techniques”. The revised military commission process restricts the use of testimony gathered from coerced confessions.

    On Friday, Brigadier General Mark Martins, the chief prosecutor in the case, had told reporters “This is a system worthy of the nation’s confidence.”
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


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    Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: former military prosecutor denounces trial
    Morris Davis says allowing evidence from torture means the world will never see Guantanamo Bay trials as fair

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...=FBCNETTXT9038

    Chris McGreal in Washington
    guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 May 2012 16.55 EDT

    The former chief US prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay has denounced the military trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks due to appear in court at Guantanamo on Saturday, as intended primarily to prevent the defendants from presenting evidence of torture.

    Morris Davis, a former colonel who was chief prosecutor when Mohammed was brought to Guantanamo in 2006, said the military commissions will be badly discredited by the use of testimony obtained from waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation" techniques used on the accused men.

    Mohammed and his four co-accused – Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi and Walid bin Attash – are to appear at an arraignment hearing before a military commission to plead to charges of 2,976 counts of murder for each of the victims who died on 9/11, terrorism, hijacking, conspiracy and destruction of property. The prosecution is seeking the death penalty for all of the men.

    Davis, who resigned over the issue, wanted to see Barack Obama follow through on a commitment to move the trials to more open civilian courts but said that advocates of military tribunals prevailed in large part because the rules of evidence prevent the defendants from giving detailed descriptions of how they were tortured as well as other sensitive information such as details of the CIA's secret detention programme and the co-operation of foreign countries, such as Britain, in their capture and interrogations.

    "The truth is the reason the apologists want a second-rate military commission option is because of what we did to the detainees, not because of what the detainees did to us," he told the Guardian. "If you look beneath the layers on why there's even an argument for military commissions, it's really about our mistreatment of detainees – a fairly small number of people for a short period of time that because of what most people would call torture, it makes it a greater challenge to prosecute the cases in our regular courts."

    Other senior military lawyers have objected to the trials, including Rear Admiral Donald Guter, the former judge advocate general of the navy, who called the Guantanamo commissions a "circus".

    Second trial for Mohammed
    This weekend's hearing will be the second attempt to try Mohammed. At a similar hearing in 2008, he tried to plead guilty, saying he wanted to be put to death as a martyr, but the US supreme court later struck down the rules of evidence and the trial was called off.

    At the time, Mohammed said: "After torturing, they transferred us to inquisition land in Guantanamo."

    Obama came to power a year later promising to scrap the military tribunals and close the Guantanamo prison because they were "a symbol that helped al-Qaida recruit terrorists to its cause", but Congress blocked the move.

    The president did oversee important changes to the conduct of the military trials including new rules that do not allow a defendant's own confessions under torture to be used against him. But the statements of others who were tortured can be used which permits the interrogations of the five accused to be used against each other.

    The military tribunal rules also forbid discussion of torture and other sensitive information that would be heard in a civilian court. The public and press are kept behind a glass screen at Guantanamo and the proceedings they hear are subject to a 40-second delay so censors can block testimony the government does not want made public.

    The five accused were held incommunicado for several years by the CIA which subjected Mohammed to waterboarding 183 times. Other forms of torture used against the men, with legal cover from the Bush administration, included being made to stand naked for days at a time, beatings, being smashed against walls, threats of rape and sleep deprivation.

    The International Red Cross described the conditions as inducing "severe physical and mental pain and suffering, with the aim of obtaining compliance and extracting information".

    Human rights groups have also criticised the Guantanamo tribunals because the military gets to hand pick the judge and jury, which is made up of men and women serving in the forces fighting al-Qaida. The prosecution has considerable control over defence lawyers' access to evidence and ability to subpoena witnesses.

    Davis said the trials will be discredited in the eyes of much of the world.

    "My greatest concern is that we give a stamp of approval to this second rate process that in the future, if the shoe's ever on the other foot, if an American GI or citizen are being prosecuted in a second rate procedure somewhere else around the world, we've given up the moral argument that it's inadequate," he said.

    "In January, you had an American citizen, Amir Hekmati, convicted in an Iranian court and sentenced to death. Victoria Nuland of our state department in a press conference condemned the conviction and said the procedure was not the same as Iranian citizens get, there was secret proceeding, there was coerced evidence, there was inadequate defence. I'm listening to her talking and I'm thinking that sounds an awful lot like the military commissions in Guantanamo. I think we really give up the right to object when other people do what we're doing."

    Lawyers for the defendants are sceptical
    The trial faces a barrage of criticism from other quarters. Kenneth Roth, the director of Human Rights Watch, said it will not have credibility.

    "The victims of the horrific 9/11 attacks deserve justice, but using a tribunal that allows coerced evidence will never be seen as fair," he said. "By doing so, President Obama has both compromised prospects for a credible trial and undermined inquiry into Bush-era interrogation practices. That is a gift to terrorist recruiters and a danger to US security."

    The US administration has defended the reconfigured military commissions by saying they are much more open than before, including now permitting the defendants to have civilian lawyers. The new rules also offer protections against self-incrimination, ex post facto laws, double jeopardy and introduce a right of appeal.

    The chief military prosecutor, Brigadier General Mark Martins, urged critics to give the tribunal a chance.

    "If observers will withhold judgment for a time the system they see will prove itself deserving of public confidence," he said at Harvard law school last month.

    But some of the lawyers for the defendants are sceptical.

    "You can take a $5 mule and put a $10,000 saddle on it and call it reformed," said Commander Walter Ruiz, a military lawyer for al-Hawsawi. "You still have a $5 mule. It just has a fancy saddle."

    'We've screwed this process up for so long'
    Davis was chief military prosecutor when Mohammed arrived at Guantanamo in 2006.

    "He's such an arrogant guy that we joked about charging his co-accused as capital cases eligible for the death penalty but not him. We thought it would aggravate the hell out of him that we thought somebody was more important than he was. It would really offend him that somebody else got the death penalty and he didn't, they were a bigger player than him," he said.

    "That's what he wants. He wants to be a martyr. His trial is his last chance to stand up and address the world, and then he wants to be executed and be a martyr. My view is why give him what he wants? His view of hell would be a long and healthy life spent being totally irrelevant."

    But a year later, Davis said he turned against the military commissions because he was being pressured to use evidence obtained through torture.

    "For nearly two years I was the leading advocate for military commissions and for Guantanamo. I honestly believed that we were committed to having full fair and open trials," he said.

    Davis said that it was originally agreed that no statements tainted by torture would be used but that changes among more senior officers led to a shift in policy.

    "My immediate boss who came in in the summer of '07 said: President Bush said we don't torture, so if the president says we don't torture who are you to say we do? We've got all this information we collected using these techniques so you need to use it," he said.

    "It's really ironic. When KSM was arraigned in 2008, he said he wanted to plead guilty, he wanted to stand up and tell what he did, and he wanted to be executed and be a martyr for the cause. Then you've got the prosecution who want to convict him for what he did, establish what he did, and then execute him for what he did. The two sides are in agreement about what they want to do. It's how do you get there? We've screwed this process up for so long that I just don't think there's any way to rehabilitate the evidence of a military commission where the world's going to look at it and say that's a credible and fair process."
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


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    9/11 Defendants Ignore Judge at Guantanamo Hearing

    http://abcnews.go.com/International/...aring-16287179

    By BEN FOX Associated Press
    GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba May 6, 2012 (AP)

    They knelt in prayer, ignored the judge and wouldn't listen to Arabic translations as they confronted nearly 3,000 counts of murder. The self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and four co-defendants defiantly disrupted an arraignment that dragged into Saturday night in the opening act of the long-stalled effort to prosecute them in a military court.

    More than seven hours into the hearing, the judge at the U.S. military base in Cuba hadn't yet read the charges against the men, including 2,976 counts of murder and terrorism in the 2001 attacks that sent hijacked jetliners into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

    Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the admitted 9/11 architect, and the four men accused of aiding the 9/11 conspiracy put off their pleas until a later date.

    Earlier, Mohammed cast off his earphones providing Arabic translations of the proceeding and refused to answer Army Col. James Pohl's questions or acknowledge he understood them. All five men refused to participate in the hearing; two passed around a copy of The Economist magazine and leafed through the articles.

    Walid bin Attash was confined to a restraint chair when he came into court, released only after he promised to behave.

    Ramzi Binalshibh knelt in prayer alongside his defense table with Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali in the middle of the hearing, then launched into an incoherent tirade about the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and declared he was in danger. "Maybe they will kill me and say I committed suicide," he said in a mix of Arabic and broken English.

    The detainees' lawyers spent hours questioning the judge about his qualifications to hear the case and suggested their clients were being mistreated at the hearing, in a strategy that could pave the way for future appeals. Mohammed was subjected to a strip search and "inflammatory and unnecessary" treatment before court, said his attorney, David Nevin.

    It was the defendants' first appearance in more than three years after stalled efforts to try them for the terror attacks, in which hijackers steered four commercial jets into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a western Pennsylvania field. Nearly 3,000 people were killed.

    The defendants' behavior outraged 9/11 family members watching on closed-circuit video feeds around the United States at East Coast military bases. One viewer shouted, "C'mon, are you kidding me?" at the Fort Hamilton base in Brooklyn.

    "They're engaging in jihad in a courtroom," said Debra Burlingame, whose brother, Charles, was the pilot of the plane that flew into the Pentagon. She watched the proceeding from Brooklyn.

    The Obama administration renewed plans to try the men at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay after a bid to try the men in New York City blocks from the trade center site faced political opposition. It adopted new rules with Congress that forbade testimony obtained through torture or cruel treatment, and argued the defendants could be tried as fairly here as in a civilian court.

    Human rights groups and defense lawyers say the secrecy of Guantanamo and the military commissions, or tribunals, will make it impossible to defend them. They argued the U.S. kept the case out of civilian court to prevent disclosure of the treatment of prisoners like Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times.

    Nevin said he believed Mohammed was not responding because he believes the tribunal is unfair. Jim Harrington, representing Binalshibh, said his client would not respond to questions "without addressing the issues of confinement."

    Cheryl Bormann, a civilian attorney for bin Attash, appeared in a conservative Islamic outfit that left only her face uncovered and she asked the court to order other women present to wear "appropriate" clothing so that defendants do not have to avert their eyes "for fear of committing a sin under their faith."

    Pohl warned he would not permit defendants to block the hearing and would continue without his participation.

    "One cannot choose not to participate and frustrate the normal course of business," Pohl said.

    Pohl brought translators into the courtroom to interpret the proceedings live once the men refused to use earpieces attempted to stick to the standard script for tribunals, asking the defendants if they understood their rights to counsel and would accept the attorneys appointed for them.

    The men were silent.

    In the past, during the failed first effort to prosecute them at the U.S. base in Cuba, Mohammed has mocked the tribunal and said he and his co-defendants would plead guilty and welcome execution. But there were signs that at least some of the defense teams were preparing for a lengthy fight, planning challenges of the military tribunals and the secrecy that shrouds the case.

    Defendants typically do not enter a plea during their arraignment but are offered the chance to do so. Lawyers for the men said they were prohibited by secrecy rules from disclosing their clients' intentions.

    Army Capt. Jason Wright, one of Mohammed's Pentagon-appointed lawyers, declined to comment on the case.

    Attorney General Eric Holder announced in 2009 that Mohammed and his co-defendants would be tried blocks from the site of the destroyed trade center in downtown Manhattan, but the plan was shelved after New York officials cited huge costs to secure the neighborhood and family opposition to trying the suspects in the U.S.

    Congress then blocked the transfer of any prisoners from Guantanamo to the U.S., forcing the Obama administration to refile the charges under a reformed military commission system.

    Mohammed, a Pakistani citizen who grew up in Kuwait and attended college in Greensboro, North Carolina, has admitted to military authorities that he was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks "from A to Z," as well as about 30 other plots, and that he personally killed Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Mohammed was captured in 2003 in Pakistan.

    Binalshibh was allegedly chosen to be a hijacker but couldn't get a U.S. visa and ended up providing assistance such as finding flight schools. Bin Attash, also from Yemen, allegedly ran an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan and researched flight simulators and timetables. Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi is a Saudi accused of helping the hijackers with money, Western clothing, traveler's checks and credit cards. Al-Aziz Ali, a Pakistani national and nephew of Mohammed, allegedly provided money to the hijackers.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


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    9/11 trial: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four accused make a statement with silence

    http://www.thestar.com/news/world/ar...h-silence?bn=1

    5/5/2012

    GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA—The five men accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks made their statement Saturday by saying little, signalling their disdain for Guantanamo’s war court by refusing to answer the judge’s questions, flipping through an Economist magazine and taking off their earphones providing Arabic translation.

    The normally verbose Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has boasted of being the architect of the Sept. 11 attacks and is proficient in both Arabic and English, sat mute in front of Army Judge James Pohl when asked if he would accept his American attorneys.

    Only Yemeni Ramzi bin al Shibh spoke publicly at the Saturday arraignment, shouting suddenly that the prison camp commander here was like the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

    “Maybe they are going to kill us and say that we are committing suicide,” he said during the outburst.

    At another point he simply stood, interrupting one of the defence lawyers, spread out his prayer mat and began to bow, kneel and prostrate as Judge Pohl looked on silently. The court recessed twice during the day to observe prayer times.

    Walid bin Attash, the 33-year-old Yemeni the Pentagon alleges has a long history with Al Qaeda reaching back to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya, was wheeled in by three guards into court early Saturday on a restraint chair.

    A fourth guard brought in his prosthetic leg separately about a minute later.

    Bin Attash, who lost his leg in Afghanistan in 1997, was eventually released from the restraints and seated in a regular chair at the request of his military lawyer.

    Cheryl Borman, bin Attash’s civilian lawyer, who surprised spectators by appearing in court in a black hijab and body-covering abaya, suggested later in the day that women on the prosecution team should dress modestly.

    “I am not suggesting everyone in the room wear what I am wearing,” said the Illinois attorney, but said the accused would “commit a sin” if they looked at the female attorneys dressed in military uniforms and skirt suits.

    Saturday’s hearing was the start of the war crimes prosecution against the five accused, jointly charged with the murders of the 2,976 people who died Sept. 11, 2001. The Pentagon has accused them of training, advising and financing the 19 hijackers who crashed flights into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

    All face the death penalty if convicted.

    Aside from bin al Shibh’s outburst, the five men sat placidly during the proceedings. Mohammed looked quite different from his last public appearance four years ago as his black and grey beard was red, apparently dyed with henna.

    While the body language and actions of the accused — who chatted amicably with each other and some of their attorneys during court breaks — were closely scrutinized Saturday, as anticipated, it was how they had been held and Guantanamo’s legal process that was on trial as much as the men.

    Both Borman and Mohammed’s attorney, David Nevin noted during their submissions that “the world was watching,” as they tried to raise issues about their clients’ treatment.

    Just 30 minutes into the hearing that extended into Saturday evening, the judge cut the audio feed so that observers sitting behind a double Plexiglas gallery in the courtroom and seven viewing sites in the U.S. could not hear the proceedings for about a minute.

    The security measure is to avoid what the military lawyers refer to as “spillage” — the release of classified evidence. There is also a 40-second delay in transmitting the audio for the same reason, which makes for a jarring viewing experience from the courtroom’s gallery, akin to watching a badly dubbed movie.

    Although it was not revealed what precisely was said during the censored minute, Nevin later protested to Judge Pohl.

    “The warning light went off because the ‘torture’ word was used,” he said, explaining that he had been arguing Mohammed didn’t want to use earphones for the translation due to past experiences.

    Mohammed, the self-professed architect of the Sept. 11 attacks, had been interrogated at a covert overseas CIA site before being transferred here in 2006. It has been revealed that he had been waterboarded 183 times among other coercive interrogation tactics.

    Lawyers for the five men protested the conditions they face defending Guantanamo detainees, complaining they have inadequate resources, their attorney-client privilege is repeatedly violated and they could not vow to represent their clients adequately when they believe the system is stacked against them.

    Critics of Guantanamo’s military commissions, which has twice been revised — once after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional and then again after U.S. President Barack Obama took office in 2009 — says Saturday’s hearing was proof of the system’s inherent flaws.

    “It wasn’t even an hour into the proceedings and the word ‘torture’ came up,” said the ACLU’s executive director Anthony Romero, during a court break.

    “They’ve made the commission less transparent and accessible to try to hide the torture part, which has made the due process problem worse.”

    Others argue that defence lawyers are strategically delaying the processing and raising issues of torture to appeal to the court of public opinion rather than Guantanamo’s court.

    The hearing continued Saturday evening.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  8. #158
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    Statement of September 11th Advocates Regarding Guantanamo Bay Military Tribunals ... No Justice for 9/11 Victims Found Here

    For Immediate Release
    May 4, 2012

    It would seem that the U.S. Government found itself in a conundrum when they allowed prisoners, like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), to be tortured in secret prisons around the world. Once tortured, any confession or testimony from KSM, or others, could not be deemed reliable. Furthermore, the focus of the eventual proceedings would become a trial about the practice of torture, instead of being a trial about alleged terrorist crimes. That would have been untenable for the U.S. Government, which wants to avoid any and all accountability for their own crimes of torture.

    In order to bypass potential discussion of torture, the latest Chief Prosecutor for the Military Commissions, Brig. General Mark Martins, found a willing witness in Majid Khan, a fellow GITMO inmate to KSM. Khan himself was not involved in the 9/11 plot. He supposedly got his information from time spent behind bars at GITMO with KSM. Kahn will be allowed to give this hearsay evidence against KSM in return for a reduced sentence. However, Khan’s sentencing won’t take place for four years. It seems the Prosecution is pinning their hopes and dreams on Khan’s upcoming performance. None of this lends credibility to an already suspect system.

    Additionally, with campaigning for the upcoming Presidential elections heating up, the timing of this latest attempt at justice for 9/11 is exploitive at best.

    ###

    Patty Casazza
    Monica Gabrielle
    Mindy Kleinberg
    Lorie Van Auken
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  9. #159
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    Heights of Hypocrisy: The Universal Use of 9/11 in Politics

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kriste...ington+Post%29

    Kristen Breitweiser
    5/3/2012

    A year ago, I wrote a blog about the death of Osama bin Laden, "Today is Not a Day of Celebration for Me."

    I wrote the blog after witnessing so many Americans celebrating, fist-pumping, dancing, and reveling in the streets about the death of bin Laden.

    Seeing so many Americans acting like that was too much of an uncomfortable reminder of those who celebrated in the streets during the attacks of 9/11 while men like my husband either burned alive, were crushed alive, or horrifically jumped to their deaths.

    A year ago, what drove me to write was my sadness in bearing the sight of Americans celebrating the death of anyone -- even the man largely responsible for the murder of my husband.

    Now one year later, I am once again driven to write due to witnessing President Obama resort to the same campaign tactics as George W. Bush.

    Frankly, for what it's worth, it sickens me; and it saddens me.

    President Obama, have you lost your way so much that you now believe that the murder of anyone should be your most defining moment? A moment for which you want to earn votes?

    Respectfully, Mr. President, perhaps you should relinquish your Nobel Peace Prize.

    In the end, I guess I should not be surprised.

    President Obama, when it comes down to many things, you are not much different than George W. Bush. To name a few: You drew back on your promise to close GTMO. You did away with the use of Article III courts and our Constitution in favor of military tribunals. You kept the Patriot Act. You expanded Executive power. You didn't release the 28 pages of the Joint Inquiry of Congress' Report regarding possible Saudi complicity in 9/11. And, in one area, drone attacks, you've actually far exceeded the realms of both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, combined. You really must be so proud.

    And to all those Democrats and progressives out there who are now celebrating this campaign ad, those who are supporting its use, saying that its about time Democrats fight dirty like the Republicans; level the playing field so to speak. Congratulations. You, too, must be so proud.

    What great heights we've all soared to in the past 10 years.

    A friend once said that it's hypocrisy that ultimately does a candidate, a person, (and maybe even a country) in.

    I guess we'll find out if he's right.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  10. #160
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    9/11 defendants charged in Guantanamo court

    http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-F...e1-851470.aspx

    Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base, Cuba, May 06, 2012
    First Published: 07:37 IST(6/5/2012)

    The five men accused of plotting the deadly September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States were formally charged on Saturday with crimes that include murder and terrorism.

    Confessed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the four other accused opted to plead neither innocent nor guilty, but rather to defer their plea to a later date.

    The special military tribunal charged Mohammed, 47, and the four others with "conspiracy, attacking civilians, murder and violation of the law of war, destruction, hijacking, terrorism" for their role in the strikes in which Al-Qaeda militants flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.

    If found guilty, the five face the death penalty for their role in the attacks that killed 2,976 people.

    Mohammed was charged along with his Pakistani nephew Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi; Mustapha al-Hawsawi of Saudi Arabia; and Yemenis Ramzi Binalshibh and Walid bin Attash.

    After a hearing lasting more than nine hours, Mohammed and the co-defendants -- in a much-anticipated first public appearance in three years -- opted to defer their plea.

    "Maybe you're not going to see us any more," Binalshibh shouted out in a dramatic moment at the arraignment hearing in the US base in southeastern Cuba, telling Judge James Pohl, "You are going to kill us."

    Dressed in white jumpsuits, with some wearing white turbans, the men mostly watched the proceedings in silence, refusing to engage with the officials.

    Binalshibh interrupted however by suddenly standing to pray, and then alternately kneeling and standing.

    He also shouted out: "The era of Kadhafi is over but you have Kadhafi in the camp ... you are going to kill us and say that we are committing suicide."

    Only one, bin Attash, was handcuffed when the group was brought into court, but Pohl ordered the manacles removed after being assured he would "behave appropriately."

    The arraignment, one of the last steps before a so-called "trial of the century" takes place, marks the second time the United States has tried to prosecute the 9/11 suspects.

    During the procedures the five men mostly kept their eyes fixed on the ground. Two of them were reading a book which appeared to be the Koran, while they were also passing a copy of The Economist magazine among themselves.

    "Accused refused to answer," Pohl repeated over and over again, each time an accused defiantly refused to respond to questions.

    Mohammed, dubbed KSM for his initials, remained calm, his long, flowing beard appearing to have been dyed with red henna.

    Mohammed's lawyer David Nevin said his client, who three years ago confessed to the 9/11 attacks "from A to Z," probably would not speak at the hearing because he is "deeply concerned by the fairness of the process."

    The accused men also refused to wear headphones to hear the simultaneous translation of the proceedings, which were being held in English. Their lawyers said it reminded them of their harsh interrogations.

    Bin Attash's civilian attorney Cheryl Borman, the only woman on the defense team, was dressed in black and wore a hijab. "Because of what happened to them ... during the last eight years, these men have been mistreated," she argued.

    The hearing comes about one year after President Barack Obama ordered the US Navy SEALs raid that killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

    The five men have been held for years at the US naval base in southeastern Cuba while a legal and political battle has played out over how and where to prosecute them. Debates have also raged over their treatment.

    Mohammed was arrested in 2003 and spent three years in secret CIA jails where he was subjected to harsh interrogations, including waterboarding, and confessed to a series of attacks and plots.

    The Pentagon opened four military bases in the United States to allow families of the 9/11 victims to watch the case unfold on a giant screen.

    The trial could still be years away, unless Mohammed pleads guilty to be put to death sooner and become a "martyr" for al Qaeda.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


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