Jan. 19
USA:
9/11 suspects declare guilt at Gitmo war court
2 alleged orchestrators of the 2001 attacks on America casually declared
their guilt on Monday in a messy and perhaps final session of the
Guantanamo war crimes court. This week's military hearings could be the
last at Guantanamo President-elect Barack Obama has said he would close
the offshore prison and many expect him to suspend the military tribunals
and order new trials in the U.S.
Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed architect
of the terrorist attacks, were unapologetic about their roles during a
series of outbursts as translators struggled to keep up and the judge
repeatedly sought to regain control.
"We did what we did; we're proud of Sept. 11," announced Binalshibh, who
has said he wants to plead guilty to charges that could put him to death.
The judge must first determine if he is mentally competent to stand trial.
Mohammed shrugged off the potential death sentence for the murder of
nearly 3,000 people in the Sept. 11 attacks.
"We don't care about capital punishment," said Mohammed, whose thick gray
beard flows to the top of his white prison jumpsuit. "We are doing jihad
for the cause of God."
Mohammed, representing himself, insisted that a uniformed lawyer assigned
to assist him be removed from his defense table, saying he represents the
"people who tortured me."
In another diatribe over secrecy, the acknowledged terrorist ridiculed the
government's position that national security had to be protected. "They
want to hide their black sites, their torture techniques," he said.
Told by the judge to limit his remarks to a legal issue being discussed at
that moment, Mohammed bristled: "This is terrorism, not court. You don't
give me the opportunity to talk."
Mohammed has openly sought to become a martyr at the hands of the
Americans. He threw his death-penalty trial into disarray in December when
he declared that he would confess to masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks.
In March 2007, he told a military panel that he played a central role in
about 30 other terrorist plots around the world.
Separately, a judge held pretrial hearings for Omar Khadr, who was 15 when
he allegedly killed a U.S. soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer of
Albuquerque, New Mexico, with a grenade during a battle in Afghanistan in
2002.
Lawyers for the Toronto, Canada native want to exclude statements they say
Khadr made through torture and coercion. Prosecution witnesses denied
their allegation. One, identified only as "interrogator 11," characterized
some sessions as "lighthearted," and testified that "he always came in
smiling and very willing to talk to us."
In both cases, judges denied defense requests to make the Pentagon arraign
the men all over again after withdrawing and refiling charges in about 20
cases, a step the Pentagon described as merely procedural.
The judge in the Sept. 11 case, Army Col. Stephen Henley, acknowledged
doubts about the future of the hearings, saying one legal matter could be
addressed "at later sessions, if later sessions are scheduled."
Lawyers and representatives of human rights groups who observed the
hearings believe Obama will suspend the military commission system created
by Congress and President George W. Bush in 2006 to prosecute dozens of
men held at Guantanamo.
Obama's nominee for attorney general, Eric Holder, in his confirmation
hearing, said the commissions lack sufficient legal protections for the
defendants, and said they could be tried in the United States.
"The military commissions should be at the very least suspended
immediately," said Gabor Rona, observing as the international legal
director of New York-based Human Rights First. "I'm certainly optimistic
and hopeful that it will happen as one of the first orders of business."
(source: Associated Press)
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