Military Prosecutors Set To Open Major 9/11 Case

9/11 mastermind calls for death penalty

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jxuTO05RC88qvEkUaI-JUUz74aUg

1 hour ago

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (AFP) — The alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks Thursday called to be sentenced to death so he could become a martyr at the start of a US military hearing of five alleged plotters.

"This is what I want, I'm looking to be a martyr for long time," Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, a Pakistani national, told the hearing at Guantanamo Bay as he was reminded by the military judge that he faced the death penalty.

"God is all sufficient for me," he translated into English as he read verses from the Koran, the Muslim holy book. He also threw out his appointed military and civilian defense team, saying he would defend himself.

Sheikh Mohammed, 43, has claimed to have been behind not just the September 11 attacks but also some 30 operations against the West in the past decade, according to transcripts of his interrogation released by the Pentagon.

His appearance on Thursday is the first time he has been seen in public since his capture in Pakistan on March 1, 2003.

Dressed in white but not handcuffed, he appeared along with four alleged co-conspirators at the hearing at the controversial US naval base in southern Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He and his alleged co-conspirators, Ramzi Binalshibh , Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, Wallid bin Attash and Mustapha al-Hawsawi have been charged for their role in the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon which killed some 3,000 people.

They all face the death penalty if convicted on charges including conspiracy, murder, attacking civilians, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property, terrorism, and material support for terrorism.

The men appeared relaxed as they chatted in Arabic before the hearing started at which the charges will be read by judge Colonel Ralph Kohlmann.

The judge opened the military commission by saying the government would consider any statements by the five as confidential because of their detentions in secret CIA prisons.

"Any statement by any of the detainees is presumptively classified," Kohlmann said.

That means there would be a 20-second delay before the defendants statements are broadcast by video to the nearby purpose-built press room in order to allow prosecutors to cut any sensitive information.

All five were to get the chance on Thursday to say if they accepted their military and civilian defense lawyers, and whether they wished to plead immediately on the charges.

All the suspects were arrested between 2002 and 2003, and transferred to the controversial base on Cuba in 2006, allegedly after spending years in secret CIA prisons.

The military tribunals have been mired in controversy since they were established by President George W. Bush at the end of 2001.

In 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled they were illegal, but then Congress adopted a new law allowing for them to be re-established and allowing indirect witness statements or testimony won under duress to be submitted as evidence.Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann, legal advisor to the military commissions, said the defense team had been granted "extraordinary" rights.

But he noted that if they are acquitted, the suspects could still continue to be held until the end of the so-called "war on terror."
 
9/11 mom: Grant self-proclaimed plotter death wish

http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-literr065715703jun06,0,5844389.story

BY LAURA RIVERA
June 6, 2008

It may be the only point on which Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son Christian was killed in the World Trade Center, agrees with the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Though Regenhard is generally opposed to the death penalty, she said it may be justified in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

"If he's guilty," said Regenhard, of the Bronx, "a lot of 9/11 family members would be happy to see him get what he wants.

"He should definitely meet his maker, be that the devil or be that something else," said Regenhard, a member of 9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters.

The accused al-Qaida operative's comments yesterday during his arraignment in Cuba that he hopes for a death sentence were part of what many see as his desire for martyrdom.

Relatives of the victims of the defendant's alleged handiwork were notably absent from the proceedings in Cuba. They were given no option to view or attend the hearings.

"That was a mistake," said Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, the chief legal adviser for the military commissions. "We'll make sure that doesn't happen again."

Carol Ashley, whose daughter Janice died on the 93rd floor of Tower One, said Mohammed's quest for martyrdom is precisely what should be denied to him and the four other defendants arraigned at the U.S. military prison yesterday.

"Making them martyrs by executing them would further inflame radical jihadists," said Ashley, of Rockville Centre. "I would like to deny them that. I would rather see them sit in solitary confinement for the rest of their lives."

This story was supplemented with a Washington Post report.
 
Eyewitness: 9/11 trial opens
The BBC's Jonathan Beale describes the opening of the trial of the alleged mastermind of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US and his four co-defendants in Guantanamo Bay.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7439550.stm

6/7/2008

The US military calls it Camp Justice - a $12m (£6m) legal complex situated down the road from the detention camp that human rights activists describe as a modern-day Gulag.

The trial of the five so-called high-value detainees accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks was held at the now notorious Guantanamo Bay amid suffocating military security - the new courtroom was surrounded by razor wire fences.

This is an unusual setting for an unusual process in which the US military is the jailer, judge and jury of the five detainees being tried.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, was already sitting down when reporters were escorted into the building.

Beside him were his mostly uniformed legal team and a translator. Behind him - the alleged four co-conspirators, accused of aiding and taking part in the plot that killed almost 3,000 people.

'Enjoying the moment'
The focus of attention, though, was on the man often referred to by just his initials - KSM. He gesticulated and pointed to get the attention of his co-defendants.

We could not quite hear, but he was clearly passing on messages to the others facing trial.

One of the defending military lawyers complained that Sheikh Mohammed was intimidating his detainee - Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, a Saudi national.

The lawyer said KSM had mocked his defendant in Arabic by asking if Mr al-Hawsawi was in the American army for at first agreeing to be represented by a US soldier.

It reinforced the impression that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the leader. The US claims he was the third most senior figure in al-Qaeda.

His appearance has changed dramatically since the photograph taken on an early morning raid that led to his arrest in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in 2003. Then he looked dishevelled and overweight. Now he was thinner and wearing a long grey beard, a robe and a prayer hat.

When he was addressed, he spoke in clear English, though it soon give way to a chant in Arabic in praise of Allah, which he occasionally interrupted to translate to the rest of the court.

It was clear that he was not intimidated by his surroundings or the charges against him - he was enjoying the moment.

He lectured the court that this was an inquisition, not a trial. He claimed that he had been tortured and then - much to the consternation of his legal team - he announced that he would be representing himself.

When the judge, a marine colonel, asked if he understood the significance of that decision - as he was facing the death penalty - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed made clear that he understood very well.

He said he had been looking to become a martyr for a very long time.

'Decoy' lawyers
This is a taste of what is going to be an extraordinary trial.

The US military says that it has bent over backwards to make the proceedings transparent and fair.

But at times the judge ordered that the audio feed to those listening to be cut off.

It happened when Ramzi Binalshibh - a man who also said he wanted martyrdom - was asked about the medicine he had been taking. Even his own military lawyers had not been given those details.

At times, it was difficult to tell who was running the proceedings.

Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali - who is alleged to have helped finance the 9/11 hijackers - also denounced the trial in fluent English.

He said even though the government "tortured me free of charge for all these years, I can't accept lawyers under the circumstances".

He described the lawyers being offered to him as "decoys and decorations".

'Shameful' trial
Human rights groups observing the proceedings predictably denounced them as a farce.

What is more surprising, is the condemnation coming from the men and women in American military uniform who have been given the task of defending the five men.

At a news conference at the end of a long day, one of them described the proceedings as "shameful".

What happened today, she said, tarnished the uniform. She added that it would not make the already difficult job of the judge any easier.
 
Criticism rages with accused 9/11 conspirators in court

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5glMdcuLxh8E5Js3MrdVFSy2li5aA

2 days ago

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (AFP) — The appearance before a military judge of accused 9/11 conspirators has done little to quiet critics of the tribunal system conceived by the US government to try suspected terrorists.

This is the first major test for the extraordinary military tribunals set up after the worst terror strike on US soil. The tribunals were called off in 2006 by the Supreme Court but then were set back up by the then Republican-led Congress.

Since then the tribunals have faced a firestorm of international criticism, some US opposition and reverses that have delayed the opening of the first genuine trial.

"It was not justice, it was ridiculous," the military attorney for Mustafa al-Hawsawi, Major Jon Jackson, said Thursday after a hearing in the ultramodern new court building set up at the US naval base on Cuba's southeastern tip.

Appearances were kept up. The five accused appeared fit, each accompanied by a team of attorneys. And even if their exchanges with military judge Ralph Kohlmann at times veered toward the surreal, the tone remained polite.

But one by one, the accused refused their lawyers' assistance, and some asked to be executed so they could be martyrs.

"It hardly comes as any surprise that after holding individuals in solitary confinement for five years and subjecting them to torture, these detainees would reject the legal system and offers to represent them," said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Earlier this year the CIA admitted that Khaled Sheikh Mohammed was subjected to the technique of simulated drowning known as "water-boarding" which has been widely denounced as torture.

Chief military defense attorney Colonel Steven David slammed what he said was the judge's rush to hold the hearing without giving the lawyers time to win their clients' trust.

Attorneys were able to spend little time with the accused, he alleged, while the prosecution has been preparing for years.

Although the issue was only brought up at the end of the hearing, the defense also strongly attacked the judge's decision to allow the accused to talk among themselves during arguments -- while the government for years has worked to keep the men from communicating with each other.

While the tone at times seemed light "it was clear that M. Mohammed was attempting to intimidate M. Hawasawi," argued Jackson.

Visibly angry, Commander Suzanne Lachelier, attorney for Ramzi Binalshibh, lamented that "what we saw today was a lack of desire to honor the principles that those kids are fighting for over there in Afghanistan and Iraq."

A former attorney of Frenchman Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted by a federal court to life in prison for aiding hijackers, Edward MacMahon came here to defend Wallid ben-Attash.

Like the five accused Thursday, Moussaoui also tried to ditch his lawyers and steer the trial, but "not everybody in the courtroom thought it was a great idea.

"The idea of the trial was to determine his sentence, it wasn't to allow the defendant to run the show, which is essentially what you saw in this courtroom," MacMahon said.

Colonel Lawrence Morris, the lead prosecutor, disagreed.

"Today you witnessed the continued, steady progress of the justice system," he said. "You stay here, and you watch every minute of this trial (...) and with that open mind, you will be impressed and stunned by the robustness of due process."

The prosecution has asked the judge to fix the opening of the trial for mid-September, a date that falls at the heart of the US presidential campaign. Defense attorneys and rights groups allege the timing is designed to influence the November election.
 
Defense lawyer: U.S. urged interrogators to destroy notes

http://www.abc4.com/news/world/story.aspx?content_id=a0a7ac6f-e723-49d3-a230-9e8581f27853

6/7/2008

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - A military defense lawyer says the Pentagon urged interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to destroy handwritten notes in case they were called to testify about potentially harsh treatment of detainees.

Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler says the instructions were included in an operations manual shown to him by prosecutors.

The attorney for Canadian detainee Omar Khadr says the apparent destruction of evidence prevents him from challenging the reliability of any alleged confessions. He said Sunday he will use the document to seek a dismissal of charges against Khadr.

A Pentagon spokesman said he was reviewing the matter.
 
In Gitmo's Legal Otherworld, 9/11 Trial Defendants Cry Torture

http://www.alternet.org/rights/87503/

By Andy Worthington, Andy Worthington's Blog. Posted June 9, 2008.

While much reporting after last week's arraignments focused on KSM's desire to be executed, torture itself is on trial at Guantánamo Bay.

Finally, almost seven years after the horrendous attacks of September 11, 2001, the arraignments of five prisoners allegedly responsible for orchestrating and facilitating the attacks took place at Guantánamo on June 5.

Sixty reporters from around the world were in attendance, as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Walid bin Attash emerged from the shadows in which they have been held for the last five to six years.

Although all five were transferred to Guantánamo in September 2006, they were previously held in secret prisons run by the CIA -- apparently in locations as diverse as Thailand and Eastern Europe -- where they were subjected to what the administration euphemistically refers to as "enhanced interrogation techniques." As these techniques include waterboarding, an ancient method of torture that involves controlled drowning, to which at least one of these men -- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- was subjected, it was unsurprising that both Mohammed and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali made a point of mentioning that they were tortured.

According to the reporters who attended the arraignment, Mohammed -- often identified simply as KSM, who admitted during his tribunal at Guantánamo last year that he was "responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z" -- effortlessly assumed a position of leadership within the group, as the men, who had all been held in total isolation for years before the arraignment, "laughed and chatted like old chums," according to the Los Angeles Times.

Clearly baiting the judge, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, KSM responded to a statement by Col. Kohlmann, who interrupted a session of chanting to remind him that he "was told what he can and can't say," by replying, "I know I can't cross that red line. I know I can't talk about torture," as ABC News described it. At another point in the ten-hour hearing, KSM called the proceedings "an inquisition, not a trial," and added, pointedly, "After five years of torturing … you transfer us to Inquisition Land in Guantánamo." At yet another point, as London's Times described it, he "accused the authorities of extracting his confession by force," saying, "All of this has been taken under torturing. You know that very well."

KSM's nephew, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, who is accused of helping facilitate the attacks by transferring money to the 9/11 hijackers, also spoke about torture, while simultaneously mocking the proceedings. Speaking fluent English, he responded to Col. Kohlmann's assurance of his right to legal assistance by stating, "Everything that has happened here is unfair and unjust." He added, referring specifically to the offer of free legal representation, "Since the first time I was arrested, I might have appreciated that. The government is talking about lawyers free of charge. The government also tortured me free of charge all these years."

Allegations of torture have haunted the arraignments and pre-trial hearings of other prisoners facing trial by Military Commission, but they are of particular concern to the administration in the cases of KSM and his co-accused. Evidence of torture would, of course, be inadmissible in a regular court, but although the judges in the Military Commissions are empowered to accept confessions obtained through "enhanced interrogations" (so long as they were obtained before the Military Commissions Act was passed in 2006), the authorities are so aware of how damaging revelations of torture would be to the Commissions' reputation that they recently reinterrogated these men -- and nine other "high-value detainees" transferred to Guantánamo with them in 2006 -- using "clean teams" of FBI agents to gain "new" confessions that are torture-free.

The idea that the history of post-9/11 U.S. torture can be erased in this way is darkly risible, of course, and as the comments of KSM and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali make clear, it will be impossible to proceed with the trial without torture once more raising its ugly head to impugn America's moral standing, and to cast grave doubts about the quality of the "evidence" obtained from these men.

It could all have been so different, as Dan Coleman of the FBI explained to the New Yorker's Jane Mayer in 2006. Now retired, Coleman was a senior interrogator, who worked on high-profile terror cases in the years before 9/11 without resorting to violence, and he remains fundamentally opposed to torture, because it is unreliable, and because it corrupts those who undertake it.

Coleman told Mayer that "people don't do anything unless they're rewarded." He explained that if the FBI had beaten confessions out of suspects with what he called "all that alpha-male shit," it would have been self-defeating. "Brutality may yield a timely scrap of information," he conceded. "But in the longer fight against terrorism," as Mayer described it, "such an approach is 'completely insufficient.'" Coleman added, "You need to talk to people for weeks. Years."
 
Supreme Court accepts 9/11 detainee case

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/16/scotus.ashcroft/

From Bill Mears
CNN Supreme Court Producer
6/17/2008

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether top government officials can be held personally liable for allegedly knowing of or condoning mistreatment of people detained after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Oral arguments will be held in the fall.

The decision comes just days after the justices ruled accused terrorists and foreign fighters held overseas by the U.S. military can contest their detentions in civilian courts.

The current appeal deals with Javaid Iqbal, a 40-year-old Pakistani man, who was arrested in New York two months after the 9/11 attacks. He was never charged with any terrorism offenses, although he was convicted of fraud for having false papers and eventually deported.

He later filed a series of lawsuits against top Bush officials, alleging he was beaten by guards during his yearlong detention and that officials personally condoned isolating Muslim and Arab immigrants in a Brooklyn prison wing.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft and current FBI Director Robert Mueller were among those personally sued. They have denied holding and segregating anyone after the terror attacks because of their religious beliefs or ethnicity.

Iqbal's suit was rejected by the federal District Court in New York, but a federal appeals court ruled the lawsuit could continue.

Ashcroft and Mueller appealed that decision, saying their shouldn't be held liable for alleged actions by their subordinates. If the Supreme Court eventually rules that the case can go ahead, it would likely be sent back to the original court for a decision.

The case is Ashcroft v. Iqbal (07-1015).

In an unrelated case, the court rejected an appeal Monday from dozens of Illinois parents who say state officials threatened to take their children away based often only on anonymous tips of abuse or neglect. The justices declined to review the case without explanation.
 
Lawyer seeks clearance for 9/11 defendant

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hZXxZ9jWlnYZ5G_1_W_-FG8F2vHwD91C1E700

By ANDREW O. SELSKY – 1 hour ago

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A military attorney for one of the Sept. 11 defendants at Guantanamo Bay predicted on Tuesday the Pakistani would at best see only a sliver of classified evidence and would be convicted in what amounts to "a top secret trial."

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer told The Associated Press he will seek a security clearance for Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, a nephew and alleged lieutenant of confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, but expects it will be denied.

Mizer noted that if the defendant lacks a security clearance, his defense team will be unable to share classified evidence with him unless and until the judge allows it to be discussed in open court.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Tom Hartmann, a senior official with the Guantanamo trials, said in a telephone interview that he seriously doubts any of the five Sept. 11 defendants would be issued a security clearance. But Hartmann insisted that they will be able to see all the evidence presented to the jury.

However, some classified information presented to the jury and the defendants may be censored or summarized, Hartmann said, touching on a key element in whether America's first war-crimes trials since the World War II era are seen as fair.

Hartmann has repeatedly said the high-profile military trials will be as fair and transparent as possible. Mizer said such claims are "typical military commission showmanship."

"The government provides the prisoners at GTMO with empty legal guarantees that are devoid of any practical benefit to the prisoner and then proclaims to the world that the trials at GTMO are a model of due process," Mizer said in an e-mail, using the military shorthand for Guantanamo.

Mizer predicted that al-Aziz, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, will "likely be convicted in a top secret trial where he has had access to only some of the government's evidence."

Mizer said that on four occasions while defending another Guantanamo detainee, he himself was barred from seeing classified documents the government presented to a military judge, even though the Navy lawyer has security clearance.

"I cannot rebut evidence that I cannot see, and we can lose legal motions based upon evidence that is not available to defense attorneys with the highest levels of security clearance," Mizer said.

Hartmann acknowledged that on rare occasions, defense lawyers might be denied access to classified information presented to the judge, saying that the military trials must "balance national security interests with the accused needing to see the information."

A June 5 arraignment was the first appearance for the five defendants since they were captured, held by the CIA and then moved to Guantanamo in 2006. All said they want to represent themselves. The military judge deferred a decision on whether two of the prisoners — Ramzi Binalshibh and Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi — could reject their attorneys.

Still, Mizer said he intends to see al-Baluchi at the U.S. Naval base in southeast Cuba on Wednesday and give him the form to apply for a security clearance.

"I intend to call the government on this bogus claim that the accused will be able to see the evidence against them," Mizer said.

The judge hearing the Sept. 11 case, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, has not yet set a trial date. All five face the death penalty if convicted of terrorism-related charges.

Al-Baluchi is alleged to have sent approximately US$120,000 to the Sept. 11 hijackers for their expenses and flight training, and to have helped nine of them travel to the United States.
 
US asks to rewrite detainee evidence

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080620/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/guantanamo_evidence

6/20/2008

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration wants to rewrite the official evidence against Guantanamo Bay detainees, allowing it to shore up its cases before they come under scrutiny by civilian judges for the first time.

The government has stood behind the evidence for years. Military review boards relied on it to justify holding hundreds of prisoners indefinitely without charge. Justice Department attorneys said it was thoroughly and fairly reviewed.

Now that federal judges are about to review the evidence, however, the government says it needs to make changes.

The decision follows last week's Supreme Court ruling, which held that detainees have the right to challenge their detention in civilian court, not just before secret military panels. At a closed-door meeting with judges and defense attorneys this week, government lawyers said they needed time to add new evidence and make other changes to evidentiary documents known as "factual returns."

Attorneys for the detainees criticized the idea, saying the government is basically asking for a last-minute do-over.

"It's sort of an admission that the original returns were defective," said attorney David Remes, who represents many detainees and attended Wednesday's meeting. "It's also an admission that the government thinks it needs to beef up the evidence."

Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin declined to comment on the plan. The discussions were confirmed by several attorneys and officials who attended or were briefed on the meeting with the judges and defense lawyers.

"It's a totally fishy maneuver that suggests that the government wants, at the 11th hour, to get its ducks in a row," said Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney representing several detainees. He was briefed on the plan.

The documents include the government's accusations and summaries of the evidence that was presented to the military review panel. The records were filed in federal court in many detainee cases in 2004 and 2005, before Congress stripped those courts of the authority to hold hearings.

Detainees' attorneys who have reviewed the records criticized much of the evidence as hearsay cobbled together from bounty hunters and border guards who accused people of being terrorists in exchange for reward money.

At Guantanamo Bay, the traditional rules of evidence do not apply in trials run by the military. In a Washington federal courtroom, they would.

The government wants to submit new records, which would allow it to add new intelligence and expand its reasoning for holding the detainees. Since the hearings will decide whether the detainees are lawfully being held now — not whether they were lawfully being held over the past several years — the government wants to provide the court its newest, best evidence.

It will be up to federal judges to decide whether the Justice Department can rewrite those documents.

The question is part of a broader dispute over what the upcoming hearings will look like. Attorneys for the detainees want judges to review all the evidence and decide whether each prisoner should be released. The government believes the judges should look only at limited evidence prepared by officials at Guantanamo Bay.

That's why defense attorneys are troubled by the idea that authorities now want to rewrite that evidence. If the court limits arguments to just the government's record, and gives the government a chance to improve that record, they believe the detainees' chances will be hurt.

"They're not just talking about making a little supplement where they've learned something new," said attorney Charles H. Carpenter, who was in the meeting. "They're talking about possibly amending every single one."
 
Can you imagine?

Evidence for military courts:

This person was responsible for the murder of 2,973 people.

Evidence for civilian courts:

This person was responsible for the murder of 2,973 people, but everyone that ever knew anything about it is dead, all of the documentation to substantiate that claim burned up in a horrible fire, and oh yea, the actual detainee tried to escape yesterday, and was shot and killed.
 
US to carry on military trials at Guantanamo despite ruling

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080624/pl_afp/usattacksguantanamojustice;_ylt=AsgXIT4ktM6WciAw3uk6aN1MEP0E

by Fanny Carrier
Tue Jun 24, 8:59 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Hearings for terror suspects before US military tribunals in Guantanamo are going ahead despite a Supreme Court ruling that affirmed detainees have a right to challenge their detention in a civilian court.

Legal experts had described the high court's decision as the death knell of the special tribunals created by President George W. Bush and his Republican allies in Congress to try "war on terror" suspects.

But Justice Department chief Michael Mukasey said the controversial tribunals at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba would continue their work and last week, two preliminary hearings were held as scheduled.

The hearings focused on Omar Khadr, a Canadian, and Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan, both detained in Afghanistan for having allegedly thrown grenades when they were still teenagers.

Jawad, whose trial date was set for October 8, reportedly used his hearing to denounce his treatment, alleging during a two-week period US guards changed his cell every two hours to prevent him from sleeping, a technique dubbed the "frequent flyer-program."

Meanwhile a three-judge panel in federal court on Friday declined to intervene in the Khadr case in an appeal that focused on a procedural dispute.

The decision though does not preclude federal judges from wading directly into the tribunal trials in Guantanamo following the Supreme Court's ruling, which rejected the government's assertion that the detainees lack habeas corpus rights.

The US Court of Appeals for the US capital on Monday ruled that Chinese prisoner Huzaifa Parhat, of the Chinese Muslim Uighur minority, is not an enemy combatant and has the right to seek his release from custody at Guantanamo.

Parhat's release, however, was not expected any time soon since the appeals court said the Pentagon could hold a new tribunal on his status, which observers deemed likely.

Details of the decision were not immediately available because it involved classified information, according to the appeals court statement.

Although no trial has begun in earnest at the Guantanamo naval base, 19 detainees have been charged and "there will be more coming in the not too distant future," said Joe DellaVedova of the office of military commissions.

"The military commissions process continues to move forward, in a fair, open and transparent manner," he said.

Among those already charged are several suspects who allegedly planned the September 11 attacks, as well as Al-Qaeda militants accused of having fired rockets in the vicinity of US troops in Afghanistan or having undergone training in the use of explosives.

The first tribunal trial is scheduled to start on July 21 in a newly set up "portable" courtroom to try Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni who worked as a driver and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden.

The judge in the case, Captain Keith Allred, has scheduled a hearing for July 14 that will likely offer a chance to assess the consequences of the landmark Supreme Court ruling for the tribunals.

The fallout from the high court's ruling is still unclear.

The justices concluded that the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, officially on Cuban territory, can be treated as US territory where rights enshrined in the US Constitution must be respected.

But it remains an open question if inmates enjoy all rights named in the constitution or only certain fundamental rights.
 
9/11 detainees face separate hearings on intimidation claims

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/01/911.defendants/

7/2/2008

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A military judge will hold separate hearings for five men accused in the September 11 terrorist attacks to determine if they were intimidated into asking to represent themselves.

In June, lawyers for five men accused in the 9/11 attacks said their clients were denied the right to due process.

Defense lawyers say Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, the judge in the case, scheduled individual appearances for the detainees on July 9 and 10 in response to claims that one of the defendants may have influenced the others to join him in rejecting lawyers.

Last month, all five detainees made their first appearance together before Kohlmann and told him that they wished to represent themselves on charges stemming from the September 11 attacks.

At the June 5 hearing, Kohlmann agreed to let Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali represent themselves. He reserved judgment on Mustafa al-Hawsawi and Ramzi bin al-Shibh. Read more about the detainees and the legal process »

Immediately after the hearing, al-Hawsawi's lawyer said that Mohammed had intimidated his client into asking to represent himself.

"It was clear that Mr. Mohammed was attempting to intimidate Mr. al-Hawsawi into not accepting me as counsel," said Army Maj. Jon Jackson, whose client is accused of helping finance the attacks.

Jackson noted that Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the plot, had exchanged words with his co-defendants during the hours-long hearing, where he said he wanted a death sentence so he could become a martyr.

"Al-Hawsawi never said he wanted to plead guilty or martyr himself," Jackson told CNN.

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, bin al-Shibh's attorney, said her client may not be fit to decide on his representation because he is being medicated.

Lachelier said the information she has received limited information about bin al-Shibh's medical condition, including a list of drugs but no information about why the drugs were prescribed.

According to Lachelier, Kohlmann has ordered a medical report on bin al-Shibh, who is accused of coordinating the attacks, by August 8 and a hearing on his mental status on August 15.

"I think that's a reasonable reading of the rules," she said, adding that it ignores a separate issue of whether bin al-Shibh is competent to act as his own lawyer.

During the June hearing, bin al-Shibh was the only defendant who was shackled.

"I have been seeking martyrdom for five years," he said. "I tried for 9/11 to get a visa, and I could not."
 
Judge orders individual 9/11 trial hearings

http://www.miamiherald.com/459/story/590247.html

7/3/2008

A military judge Tuesday said he would explore whether reputed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed bullied his alleged co-conspirators into firing their lawyers, and next week will question each of the men accused of plotting the 2001 terrorist attacks.

At issue was whether Mohammed, who has boasted he plotted the 9/11 attacks "from A to Z," was a puppet master, a Svengali of sorts, at their June 5 arraignment at the U.S. Navy Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, the judge, notified lawyers in a six-page order that he would hold the special hearings starting July 9.

One by one, the judge ruled, he would "address the issue of what role, if any, perceived or actual, intimidation between the several accused [conspirators] played or is playing" in their united stand to spurn Pentagon defense lawyers.

The June 5 arraignment was the first time the public saw the alleged al Qaeda architects of the jetliner hijackings that killed 2,987 people. It was also the first time they saw each other at Guantánamo.

All were secretly interrogated for years by the CIA. All rejected the legitimacy of the war court and all face execution, if convicted. Two said they welcomed death as Islamic martyrdom.

But Pentagon defense lawyers said during the hearing, and afterward, that they believed some of the accused were intimidated by the man known in CIA circles as KSM.

The Pentagon Office of Military Commissions refused to release or comment on Kohlmann's ruling, signed Tuesday. Lawyers who obtained copies explained it to reporters and read from it.

In other key items:
  • The judge ordered a mental health examination of Ramzi bin al Shibh, a Yemeni accused of helping the 9/11 hijackers, to see if he is sane enough to stand trial.

    Guards shackled bin al Shibh's ankles to the floor at his arraignment, where it was disclosed that the prison camp has him taking unidentified "psychotropic drugs." In one exchange, he told the judge that he welcomed martyrdom -- and that he would've taken part in the 9/11 attacks but could not obtain a U.S. visa.
  • The judge scheduled "law and discovery motions" for Sept. 25, a timetable that suggests a jury might not start hearing the case before the presidential elections. The Pentagon had sought a Sept. 15 trial date.
Pretrial hearings are crucial to deciding what law applies and what evidence the accused can see at the first U.S. war crimes tribunals since World War II. Later evidentiary motions are likely to tackle defense claims that government evidence was gleaned from "torture," when CIA agents waterboarded Mohammed in secret overseas custody to extract al Qaeda secrets.

That was, in part, why Mohammed, 43, was the main attraction at the nine-hour hearing June 5. He appeared with a large white-speckled beard, a stern grandfatherly figure who recited Koranic verse.

Mohammed went first, rejected his counsel and one by one the men who sat as co-defendants behind him echoed him -- until late in the day when Army Maj. Jon Jackson protested what he called a climate of intimidation of his client, Mustafa Hawsawi, the 9/11 plot's alleged financier.

Mohammed allegedly told Hawsawi in Arabic, "Don't talk to your lawyer, talk to me" and ``What are you -- in the American Army now?"

"I don't speak Arabic," said Jackson, who said he got a translation. ``But my impression was he changed his mind based on what people were saying to him and about him."

Several other Guantánamo detainees have likewise refused their Pentagon-appointed lawyers, or sought to defend themselves at the war court.

At the June 5 hearing, Mohammed was "something of a commanding presence," said attorney Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch.

She monitored the hearing, at the invitation of the Pentagon, from the gallery, behind a thick, soundproof window.

"They were all chatting with each other," she said. ``But I couldn't tell that KSM was in charge in any way."

Security staff likely taped their Arabic conversation, she said, suggesting that the judge should order a transcript in English.

Navy Capt. Prescott Prince, Mohammed's lawyer, said his client was clear in his desire to defend himself at trial.

"What does he need to talk to Mr. Mohammed for?" said Prince after receiving Kohlmann's order. ``There is no allegation that Mr. Mohammed was intimidated by anybody."

Several Pentagon defense attorneys are preparing to serve as stand-by counsel, if the judge later decides the accused are not competent to defend themselves.

The U.S. Supreme Court rule 7-2 on June 19 that sometimes a mentally ill defendant can be sane enough to stand trial, but not to be his own lawyer.

Kohlmann mentioned in his order a notice by Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, the Pentagon-appointed defense lawyer for Ammar al Baluchi, Mohammed's nephew.

Mizer notified the court that, while Baluchi would defend himself, Mizer and some American Civil Liberties Union attorneys would write briefs and file motions on his behalf.

"The government seems to be taking the position that he can't have it both ways," Mizer said in an interview Tuesday. ``He has to either stand naked and alone against the might of the United States government or he has to have no participation in his trial and accept fully the defense attorneys."

Mizer said he and Seattle attorneys Jeffrey Robinson and Amanda Lee had worked out a different agreement. "We have full authority to file motions on his behalf," he said. But, ``I expect that Mr. al Baluchi may wish to represent himself . . . while he is in the courtroom. He doesn't want to break ranks with his uncle; that's the only issue."
 
ACLU: U.S. blocking payments to Guantanamo attorneys

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/200/story/43453.html

By Carol Rosenberg | Miami Herald
4/9/2008

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — The U.S. government is blocking the American Civil Liberties Union from paying attorneys representing suspected terrorists held here, insisting that the ACLU must first receive a license from the U.S. Treasury Department before making the payments.

ACLU director Anthony Romero on Tuesday accused the Bush administration of "obstruction of justice" by delaying approval of the license, which the government argues is required under U.S. law because the beneficiaries of the lawyers' services are foreign terrorists.

"Now the government is stonewalling again by not allowing Americans' private dollars to be paid to American lawyers to defend civil liberties,'' Romero said.

Treasury Department spokesman John Rankin declined to comment on the showdown with the ACLU, citing privacy policies.

But he said the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control "is treating this request with the seriousness it deserves and strives to process license applications as expeditiously as possible.''

OFAC is perhaps best known for enforcing regulations against Americans' spending money in places like Cuba or North Korea. But OFAC also is responsible for making certain American funds aren't sent to terrorist groups.

The ACLU announced in April that it was teaming with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers to provide top-flight criminal attorneys to Guantanamo detainees facing the death penalty before military commissions at Guantanamo for their alleged role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks.

Under the program, called the John Adams Project after the second American president, who earned criticism from fellow colonists from defending British soldiers, attorneys representing the detainees would be paid for travel, expenses, research and copying as well as $250 an hour. The ACLU said $8.5 million had been set aside for the project. Romero said attorneys already are due $200,000 in payments.

The program was endorsed by a wide range of lawyers including former Attorney General Janet Reno and former FBI Director William Webster.

Participants include Boise, Idaho, lawyers David Nevin and Scott McKay, who are defense consultants to alleged 9/11 architect Khalid Sheik Mohammed, 43; Seattle attorneys Jeff Robinson and Amanda Lee, defending Mohammed's nephew, Ammar al Baluchi, 30, who noted at his June 5 arraignment that he is a Microsoft certified computer engineer; and Chicago lawyer Tom Durkin, defending Ramzi bin al Shibh, accused of organizing some of the Sept. 11 hijackers.

Nevin declared himself surprised at the standoff, especially since the ACLU had long been "in the business of defending people's rights.''

He added: "Obviously, everyone is going to do whatever is required to be done. But, intuitively, it seems odd to me that anyone's permission is necessary.''

The Treasury Department's Rankin this week offered no timetable for when the license might be issued.

''OFAC processes thousands of license requests each year for a variety of sanctions programs and consults with other offices and leadership in the U.S. Treasury and other agencies as the circumstances merit,'' he said.

Rankin said OFAC's role in the case was triggered because the Bush administration has designated Mohammed, the alleged 9/11 mastermind, and the other four defendants as "Specially Designated Global Terrorists.''

There was no explanation, however, of how that designation squares with the administration's insistence that the military commissions operate under the assumption that the accused are considered innocent until proven guilty.
 
U.S. judge warns against delay for Guantanamo cases

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKN0831935620080708

By James Vicini
7/9/2008

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge said on Tuesday he would be concerned and suspicious if the Bush administration delayed cases brought by Guantanamo Bay prisoners seeking their release.

Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan said at a hearing the government needed to understand "that the time has come to move these (cases) forward."

The hearing took place after last month's landmark Supreme Court ruling that allowed prisoners being held at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to go before federal judges in Washington to seek their release.

Hogan, named to coordinate the lawsuits, said he was committed to moving the cases forward as quickly as possible.

There are about 265 detainees at Guantanamo, which was set up in 2002 to hold terrorism suspects captured after the September 11 attacks. Most have been held for years without being charged and many have complained of abuse.

The U.S. District Court has pending nearly 250 cases involving more than 643 detainees who have been or are being held at Guantanamo. Several dozen new cases are expected to be filed in the near future.

Hogan said some detainees have yet to get a court hearing after being held for 6-1/2 years.

U.S. Justice Department plans to have up to 50 lawyers working on the cases may not be enough, Hogan said. The department has to understand these cases must be addressed first, before other matters.

Hogan said delays would "reflect badly" on the government and would cause him to become concerned and suspicious. Lawyers for the prisoners have complained the government is not moving as fast as it could.

One lawyer for the prisoners, Shayana Kadidal, told the hearing "speed and fairness" were the most important considerations for the court.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Gregory Katsas asked the judge to allow the government to file new evidence to justify holding the detainees, a process expected to take months.

The initial evidence, filed in 2004, was based on the findings of military tribunals that determined the prisoners were "enemy combatants."

Hogan expressed concern about allowing the government to file amended information without showing it was necessary.

The judge also said he planned to issue an order by the end of the week setting out various schedules.
 
Defendant in 9/11 plot denies he was coerced to reject representation by military lawyers

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/09/news/Guantanamo-Sept-11-Trial.php

The Associated Press
Published: July 9, 2008

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba: A Saudi accused of arranging financing for the Sept. 11 hijackers denied Wednesday that he was pressured by a co-defendant to reject his Pentagon-appointed attorney.

Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, one of five Guantanamo prisoners charged in the attacks, said he has not decided whether to accept U.S.-appointed lawyers to represent him at the military tribunal. But he rejected allegations that accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed pressured him to represent himself.

"Without doubt, no," al-Hawsawi told the judge through an interpreter.

The five co-defendants were transferred to Guantanamo from secret CIA prisons in 2006 and face possible execution if convicted on charges including murder and conspiracy for the 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

All are scheduled to appear separately this week as the judge, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, explores the coercion allegations. At a joint arraignment on June 5, the five said they would represent themselves. Lawyers for al-Hawsawi and another prisoner complained that they were intimidated by others into rejecting their legal representation.

Al-Hawsawi wore a flowing white robe and wispy black beard to his second pretrial hearing at the isolated U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba. He said he was skeptical his American military lawyers would be able to represent him effectively.

But Kohlmann told al-Hawsawi that he would not have the security clearances required to see some of the classified evidence against him.

"If it sounds like I'm trying to talk you out of representing yourself, that would be accurate," Kohlmann told him.

Al-Hawsawi allegedly helped the hijackers with money, western clothing and credit cards, according the charges.

His lead attorney, Army Maj. Jon Jackson, said the defense team is trying to locate a Muslim lawyer in Egypt whom al-Hawsawi requested for possible representation.

The U.S. has charged 20 of roughly 265 inmates held at Guantanamo on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida or the Taliban. So far none of the cases has gone to trial in the special military courts.
 
9/11 suspect to defend self at Guantanamo trial

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hZXxZ9jWlnYZ5G_1_W_-FG8F2vHwD91QLVUO4

By MIKE MELIA – 1 hour ago

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — A Guantanamo prisoner accused in the Sept. 11 attacks complained Wednesday that his confinement and obstructions by the U.S. military are complicating his court-approved effort to serve as his own lawyer.

Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, one of five men charged in the attacks, said the military did not deliver two letters and a law motion that he wrote to the judge ahead of the pretrial hearing.

The judge, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, said Ali's situation will only become more difficult and tried to persuade him to accept his lawyers. Without a security clearance, he said Ali will not have access to classified material during the death penalty trial.

"The way the rules are you will not have access to classified material to assist you in your case," he said.

Ali said one of his letters disputed allegations that the defendants were coerced into rejecting their lawyers — the focus of this week's hearings — saying the allegations were the result of a poorly translated joke by the attacks' confessed mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

"I should have a right to write a letter to the judge directly," said Ali, a nephew and alleged lieutenant to Mohammed who spoke in English.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, said the military is looking into Ali's allegations. He declined further comment.

The five co-defendants were transferred to Guantanamo from secret CIA prisons in 2006 and face possible execution if convicted on charges including murder and conspiracy for the 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Four of them say they will represent themselves, setting up further logistical challenges as they attempt to mount a defense while locked in a top-secret prison at the remote U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.

They are all appearing separately this week as Kohlmann explores allegations that Mohammed bullied the others into going along with his decision to represent himself at the June 5 arraignment. One defense lawyer said an interpreter overheard other defendants asking a detainee, "So, you're in the Army now?"

But Ali said Mohammed was only teasing another detainee, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, about the white robe he wore inside the courtroom.

"Mr. Mohammed was joking, just criticizing the clothes he was wearing. He was saying, 'Are you in the American Navy now,'" he said. "We need translators from our native language who understand our accent."

Ali and al-Hawsawi, who are both accused of helping to finance the Sept. 11 hijackers, repeatedly denied taking direction from any co-defendants during their appearances Wednesday.

"In our religion, nobody is above us," Ali said.

Both men also said they were skeptical their Pentagon-appointed lawyers would represent them effectively. Al-Hawsawi said he has not decided whether to accept their help, but Ali stood by his decision to represent himself.

Ali said he needs a computer as well as a better way to communicate with the Americans assigned to his case, whom he has retained as standby counsel. Currently, he said they do not receive his letters until they come to Guantanamo.

He acknowledged his lack of a legal education and a security clearance could put him at greater risk of conviction, but he does not want to validate proceedings he sees as illegitimate.

A spokesman for the commissions, Air Force Capt. Andre Kok, said the defendants will be allowed to see any classified evidence that is presented to the jury.

The U.S. has charged 20 of roughly 265 inmates held at Guantanamo on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida or the Taliban. So far none of the cases has gone to trial in the special military courts.
 
Judge urges 9/11 suspects to accept legal help
He says they will lose access to evidence. Both insist they were not bullied into firing their lawyers.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gitmo10-2008jul10,0,5326946.story

By Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 10, 2008

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA -- A military judge Wednesday strongly advised two accused co-conspirators in the Sept. 11 attacks not to represent themselves in their upcoming trial because their defense would suffer from several factors, including a lack of access to the classified evidence that the government plans to use against them.

"It would be best for you to accept the assistance of counsel. If it sounds as if I am trying to talk you out of representing yourself, that would be accurate," Judge Ralph H. Kohlmann told one of the defendants, Mustafa Ahmed Hawsawi, who the government says was an Al Qaeda paymaster in the 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

Kohlmann, a Marine colonel, had similar advice at a second military commission hearing later in the day for Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, who also is charged with being a financial conduit between Al Qaeda leadership and the Sept. 11 hijackers as they trained in the United States.

Both men said at their June 5 arraignment at the naval base here that they wanted to represent themselves, as did the plot's self-described mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and the two other alleged plotters. At the time, Kohlmann allowed Ali to do so, at least for the time being, but said he was concerned that Hawsawi may have been coerced into firing his defense lawyers during a pre-hearing conversation with Mohammed.

Kohlmann told both men that they could face the death penalty if convicted and that it would be all but impossible for them to defend themselves in such a protracted, complicated legal battle without experienced lawyers.

Without a legal team on the outside, Kohlmann told them, they wouldn't be able to communicate with potential witnesses or perform other important administrative and investigative duties because they are locked up in a maximum-security facility. And they would have to draft complicated opening and closing statements and legal motions without any legal training or access to much of the case materials that specially approved lawyers would have, he said.

"All of these things are usually done in a trial better by a lawyer with special knowledge and experience with the laws and procedures," Kohlmann said in separate comments to both men. "In addition, you will not be given access to classified materials before trial because you lack the security clearances, [which] would severely hinder any effort by you to represent yourself."

Both men sat impassively in the sterile courtroom as the judge gave his advice. Both responded calmly and methodically, with Hawsawi using an interpreter.

The judge noted that prosecutors had filed a motion the day before the hearing in which they too urged the judge to warn the accused about the hardships they would encounter by representing themselves, especially the lack of access to classified evidence.

Although the men are slated to be tried together, each of them has at least two military lawyers appointed by the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions and several civilian lawyers paid through the American Civil Liberties Union's John Adams Project.

In the past, military commission officials have said that the so-called high-value detainees would get access to the classified information gathered against them, but only once the trial was underway. Army Col. Lawrence Morris, the chief prosecutor, said that Kohlmann's comments were not inconsistent with that policy.

Some defense lawyers, including Hawsawi's, said that lack of access to the evidence was one of many unfair and possibly unconstitutional obstacles that the government had put in the way of the five men, even as it claimed publicly that they would be given a fair and transparent trial.

Kohlmann ordered the hearings for the two men, and three more set for today, so that he could ask each of them separately whether they were unduly influenced by Mohammed, who said at the group arraignment that he wanted the men to coordinate their defense and, ultimately, "martyr" themselves -- in other words, ensure that they all received the death penalty.

Army Major Jon S. Jackson, Hawsawi's chief appointed defense lawyer, helped trigger the hearings by saying that his client was visibly shaking and had been intimidated by Mohammed into saying he wanted to fire his lawyers.

But on Wednesday, Hawsawi at first said he could not recall whether Mohammed had said anything to intimidate him. Ultimately, both he and Ali insisted that they had not been coerced, with Ali saying that it was all a misunderstanding based, in part, on a translator's mistakes.

"Nobody is in a position to give such an order," Ali told Kohlmann. "I'm a free human being. I'm not a slave."

Ali, a soft-spoken Pakistani with near-flawless English, was adamant Wednesday that he wanted to represent himself, even as he acknowledged that he lacked experience. "There are a lot of reasons for that -- some religious issues, ethical issues and, third, I am not satisfied with the proceedings," he told the judge. "Simply, the justice of these so-called top-secret trials are in question."

But Ali also indicated that he had already run into problems in trying to represent himself. He told Kohlmann that he had, within the last few weeks, written the judge two letters and one legal motion but that he could not get anyone to take them to him.

Kohlmann acknowledged that he had never received the letters and said that he would look into the matter, as did a spokesman for the Pentagon.

Later, Jackson insisted in an interview that Hawsawi wanted him as his lawyer but changed his mind after being bullied by Mohammed and the other two accused men, Ramzi Binalshibh and Walid bin Attash. "It was clear to me then, and it is still clear to me today, that he was pressured," Jackson said of Hawsawi.
 
9/11 plotters tell Guantanamo judge of legal woes
Self-described mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and another suspect, who are acting as their own lawyers, tell the judge they can't file motions or get pretrial documents translated.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gitmo11-2008jul11,0,6113380.story

By Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 11, 2008

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA -- Facing the death penalty for their roles in the Sept. 11 attacks, self-described mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and an alleged accomplice told a judge Thursday that the military commission process was so dysfunctional that they could not file legal motions in their defense or have pretrial documents translated into their native languages.

In separate hearings, Mohammed and Walid bin Attash and their legal advisors ticked off one example after another of a pretrial system they say is barely operating. "We are not in normal situation. We are in hell," Mohammed told the military judge, Marine Col. Ralph H. Kohlmann.

Some of the defendants' claims were confirmed by government prosecutors, a Pentagon official and Kohlmann, who said he would look into them.

Last month, Kohlmann granted requests by Mohammed, a Pakistani, and Attash, a Yemeni, to act as their own lawyers in the case, in which they and three other men face a variety of charges in connection with the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001. That means they are entitled to file legal motions and have access to much of the evidence -- like the Justice Department and military prosecutors seeking to convict them -- according to officials from the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions, which is overseeing the controversial and unprecedented trials.

Kohlmann acknowledged to both men that he never received motions each of them had written in their detention cells, nor other communications the men wanted the judge to see.

Three letters from Mohammed to his backup legal counsel, written more than a month ago, also were not delivered, according to Mohammed and the three lawyers. Recent court filings and other communications by prosecutors and the judge himself either were never delivered to Mohammed and Attash or were sent in English, not Arabic.

Attash, accused of training some of the hijackers at Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, said he received one important six-page filing by prosecutors that had been translated into Arabic -- but not until Thursday morning, nine days after it was filed, as he was walking into the high-security court for his hearing. "I was handcuffed, and I didn't read it," he added, prompting the judge to call a recess so that Attash could read it.

Kohlmann appeared taken aback by the assertions and promised to look into them if the two suspects filed court motions requesting that he do so. He said he would consider ordering a mass translation of potentially thousands of court documents.

Several human rights special observers who attended Thursday's proceedings said there were breakdowns in the system that could take months, if not years, to address. Those problems have already undermined the credibility of the military commission process, they said.

"The whole system is completely imploding," said observer Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "It is astonishing that they cannot get documents, file legal memos or have things translated for them. Today's hearing shows that these commissions are just not workable and that Judge Kohlmann realizes the headache he is in for."

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey D. Gordon, acknowledged some of the problems and said that Joint Task Force Guantanamo "has implemented a process to ensure that filings and legal mail to and from the court are handled appropriately and efficiently."

The military's chief prosecutor, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, said authorities were working to ensure that the five suspected terrorists get a fair trial and that those who are acting as their own lawyers get the resources and access to documents they need, as long as it doesn't jeopardize national security.

Kohlmann had ordered the two hearings, and three others over the last two days, to ensure that Mohammed and Attash understood the consequences of representing themselves. At both hearings Thursday, Kohlmann stressed to the accused men that they would fare better if they allowed the government-appointed legal teams to represent them, especially since the lawyers could file motions, track down witnesses and do other things the defendants could not from their cells.

But Mohammed, in one of many back-and-forths with the judge, said the system was so dysfunctional that "it won't make a big difference if I reject my lawyer."

Mohammed and Attash said they still wanted to represent themselves, but with some military and civilian lawyers as standby counsel.

A third suspect, Ramzi Binalshibh, refused to attend his hearing Thursday for unspecified reasons. The judge has ordered a mental competency exam for Binalshibh, who is on government-administered psychotropic drugs, to see if he is fit to act as his own lawyer.

Legal advisors for Mohammed and Attash said the problems with the military commissions went far beyond those the men face while acting as their own lawyers.

Navy Capt. Prescott L. Prince and civilian lawyers David Nevin and Scott McKay said, for instance, that the government has decreed that anything Mohammed says or writes is considered classified, essentially prohibiting them from using it in court filings or in investigative efforts aimed at determining whether he is guilty of the terrorist acts for which he has claimed responsibility.

"There is impediment after impediment after impediment," McKay said.

Throughout the hearings Thursday, Mohammed and Attash remained polite and responsive, often engaging Kohlmann in discussions about their legal rights.

Mohammed, who has said he wants to "martyr" himself, or be put to death for his self-described role as the orchestrator of the attacks, appeared especially interested in determining how he could oversee his defense.

Attash said: "Any attack I undertook against America or even participated or helped in, I am proud of it and am happy about it."
 
Guantanamo detainees say they're being denied legal tools

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/43892.html

By Carol Rosenberg | Miami Herald
7/11/2008

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — Reputed al Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheik Mohammed complained Thursday that he couldn't get a pad of paper to prepare for his capital-crimes court appearance.

His nephew, Ammar al Baluchi, asked a day earlier for access to a law library. The alleged 9/11 co-conspirator, a computer engineer, complained to his military judge that he prepared a motion but his jailers wouldn't give it to the court. For 10 days.

Congress may have given war-on-terrorism captives the right to act as their own lawyers in the Military Commissions Act of 2006, but based on pretrial hearings this week for the men accused of killing nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001, the Pentagon and the prison camps haven't provided the "worst of the worst" with the tools to defend themselves.
 
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