Accused 9-11 Mastermind Sings in Court

[AbuUsama]

Accused 9-11 Mastermind Sings in Court

By Jane Sutton

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - The accused al Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks stood in a U.S. military court on Thursday, sang a chant of praise to Allah and said he would welcome the death penalty.

"This is what I wish, to be martyred," Pakistani captive Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the highest-ranking al Qaeda operative in U.S. custody, told the Guantanamo war crimes court.

He and four accused co-conspirators appeared in court for the first time on charges that could result in their execution.

As the judge tried to question him about whether he was satisfied with the U.S. military lawyer appointed to defend him, Mohammed stood and began to sing in Arabic, cheerfully pausing to translate his own words into English.

"My shield is Allah most high," he said, adding that his religion forbade him from accepting a lawyer from the United States and that he wanted to act as his own attorney .

He criticized the United States for fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, waging what he called "a crusader war," and enacting illegal laws including those authorizing same-sex marriages.

The judge, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, tried to persuade Mohammed to accept an attorney, telling him, "It's a bad idea for you to represent yourself."

Mohammed looked old and portly and wore a long, bushy gray beard and big black military-issue glasses. He wore a neat white tunic and turban, in stark contrast to the saggy white undershirt he wore in photographs taken after his capture during a raid in Pakistan in March 2003.

Mohammed and co-defendants Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi and Walid bin Attash are charged with committing terrorism and conspiring with al Qaeda to murder civilians in the attacks that launched the Bush administration's global war on terrorism .

They also face 2,973 counts of murder, one for each person killed in 2001 when hijacked passenger planes slammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

CAME WILLINGLY

All five defendants came to court willingly and none were shackled inside the courtroom, a spokeswoman for the trials said.

Mohammed told a military review panel last year that he approached Osama bin Laden with the proposal to hijack passenger planes and crash them into landmark U.S. buildings, then oversaw execution of the plan "from A to Z," according to U.S. military transcripts of the hearing.

But Mohammed cast doubt on that transcript in Thursday's hearing.

"They mistranslated my words and put many words in my mouth," he said in English.

The other defendants are accused of helping choose, train and fund the 19 hijackers, assisting their flight school enrollment and travel to the United States.

Their lawyers are expected to waive formal reading of the charges and defer entering a plea until they've had more time to prepare.

Prosecutors want to start the trial on September 15, a date the defense says was chosen to influence the U.S. presidential election in November.

All five suspects, who could be executed if convicted, were transferred to Guantanamo in September 2006 after spending about three years in secret CIA prisons.

The CIA has acknowledged interrogating Mohammed using a simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding and condemned as torture by human rights observers.

Defense lawyers have said they will challenge any attempt to introduce evidence tainted by abuse.

(Editing by Tom Brown)

reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSNASU6040120080605?sp=true)

[Magoo]

may Allah make it easy for him, the torture these brothers have gone through is disgusting

[Mustafa al-Muhaajir]

9/11 suspect: 'I wish to be martyred'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed wants to become a martyr for his role as mastermind of the September 11 attacks, he told a U.S. military judge Thursday.

Mohammed wishes to dismiss his lawyers, plead guilty and become a martyr, he said at his long-awaited arraignment at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The judge, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, asked Mohammed numerous times if he understood that he faces the death penalty. Mohammed responded, "That is what I wish. I wish to be martyred."

He told Kohlmann he could not accept any attorney because he only believes in Sharia, or Islamic law.

Mohammed and his four co-defendants, all suspected al Qaeda figures, are being arraigned on numerous charges for their alleged roles in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

It is the first time that reporters have been able to see the accused al Qaeda operatives, who were all in the same room for the first time since their arrests in 2002 and 2003. Video Watch how the defendants surprised the judge »

The defendants were seated at separate tables. None stood when Kohlmann entered. They spoke freely among themselves throughout the proceeding, and Mohammed appeared to be instructing the others.

Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who is accused of helping coordinate the attacks, was the only defendant in leg shackles. He entered the courtroom with a defiant swagger, laughing at media members who were straining to get a look at him.

In addition to Mohammed and bin al-Shibh, the defendants are Walid bin Attash, who is said to have helped train the hijackers; and Mustafa al Hawsawi and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, both of whom are accused of arranging financing for the plot.

Attash also told the judge he wanted to dismiss his legal team and represent himself.

Wearing a prison outfit and a foot-long gray beard, Mohammed appeared much thinner than when he was captured five years ago.

When he was addressed by Kohlmann, he started singing a prayer in Arabic and then repeated it in English.

The judge stopped him, saying, "I understand you have been held here for a long time and have some things to say."

Mohammed asked to continue what he was saying, noting that he understood he could not talk about torture or the Quran. Kohlmann allowed it, and Mohammed started to talk about wishing to represent himself.

Mohammed's lawyer interjected, saying his client did not understand the importance of the arraignment, and the judge explained to Mohammed that it would not be a good idea to represent himself.

Kohlmann announced at the start of the session that at least part of the detainees' statements would be classified and the judge would block out audio.

The defendants have been in U.S. government custody since 2002 and 2003, and they were transferred to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in September 2006. The charges against them include murder in violation of the law of war, various terrorism counts and intentionally causing bodily injury. Learn more about the suspects »

In a written statement read at a March 2007 hearing, at which he was present, Mohammed said he was responsible for the attacks "from A to Z."

Although Thursday's proceedings may not be complex, they follow years of struggles by the Bush administration to craft a process for bringing the detainees to trial, and officials involved in the military commissions know that the eyes of the world will be on them. Learn how the tribunal will work »

Critics have called Guantanamo Bay a legal "black hole" for detainees who the United States says are not protected as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.

Defense attorneys had asked for Thursday's proceedings to be delayed, arguing that they have not had enough time with their clients since the charges were announced in May.

Army Maj. Jon Jackson, al Hawsawi's lawyer, said that it's a good thing the cases are finally moving forward but that defense attorneys should have more time to discuss the cases with their clients.

"We, the defense, should have been granted a reasonable delay in order to develop a relationship with these men, to talk with them about their case, to discuss strategies before we are rushed into the courtroom," Jackson said before heading to Guantanamo Bay. Video Watch Jackson discuss the trials »

Kohlmann denied the delay request.

Defense lawyers also have accused senior Pentagon officials of pushing the cases forward "in order to influence the November elections," as Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, who is defending Ali, put it last week.

But officials at the Office of Military Commissions, the Pentagon unit that serves as the convening authority for the tribunal, deny that assertion and argue that defense lawyers will be given enough time to mount their cases.

"The fact they are just starting in that process isn't an indication they won't have time to prepare," said Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, the legal adviser to the office. Video Watch Hartmann defend the tribunals »
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The actual charges against the men were only sworn against them May 9. And although prosecutors are pushing for a September trial, officials familiar with the process expect long delays and much legal fighting. They say a trial is probably at least many months away.

Another controversy concerns whether prosecutors will introduce information obtained as a result of coercive interrogation techniques used by the CIA, techniques critics say amount to torture.


http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/05/guantanamo.arraignments/?iref=mpstoryview

[I_Am_A_Hermit]

What can my enemies possibly do to me? My paradise is in my heart; wherever I go, it goes with me, inseparable from me. For me, prison is a place of religious retreat; execution is my opportunity for martyrdom; and exile from my town is but a chance to travel.

[Abu Abdallah al-Bulghari]

What can my enemies possibly do to me? My paradise is in my heart; wherever I go, it goes with me, inseparable from me. For me, prison is a place of religious retreat; execution is my opportunity for martyrdom; and exile from my town is but a chance to travel.

[I_Am_A_Hermit]

I thought the author of that 'quote' was self explanatory. Hence the reason I didn't add it.

[waziri]

May Allah the most high allow him to sing in al firdows Aaaaameeeen

[Hamza]

Confessions via torture by the Land of the Free. Tut tut.

[Mustafa al-Muhaajir]

Gitmo's Second Verse Same As The First

Andrew Cohen: Khalid Sheik Mohammed Sings Same Tune We Heard From Zacarias Moussaoui

(CBS) CBS News Chief Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen says terror suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is singing a familiar tune.

We’ve heard this song before. The religious rants and political taunts from the terror big shots at Guantanamo Bay, whose arraignment Thursday devolved into something just short of chaos, were eerily similar in tone and tenor to the ramblings and rifts of Zacarias Moussaoui, the once-upon-a-time “20th hijacker.” Moussaoui was tried on terror conspiracy charges in federal court in Virginia in 2006, fought (but failed) to represent himself, and took every opportunity before and during his trial to trash America, its justice system and the war on terror.

Clearly, other al Qaeda captives have gotten the memo: when you emerge from the darkness of interrogation and isolation and finally get your day in the sun, make your religious and political points and ideological even at the expense of your legal ones. The strategy has been consistent. First, try to get rid of the court-appointed American lawyers (who would muddle through on procedure and technicalities). Then, rail against the system, your captors, and Western Civilization, all the while praising Islam. And make sure to express a lack of concern for martyrdom by proclaiming you are ready for capital punishment.

Moussaoui did it first-for nearly four years from 2002 to 2006. And if he were able to read the papers today (he isn’t, such is his state of life confinement at the Supermax facility in Florence, Colo.) I suspect he’d be delighted and not a little satisfied to discover that the fellow who “fired” him from the 9/11 plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, nevertheless employed Moussaoui’s own terror-trial tactics. The former told the judge he was ready to die. So did the latter. The former mocked prosecutors. So did the latter. The former trashed America. So did the latter.

“My [legal] team may be the best team, I understand that,” Mohammed said in military court Thursday, “but I’m not looking at this from a legal view but a religious view. Their president, George Bush, waged war in Afghanistan and Iraq and they are still killing there.” Cue to Ramzi Binalshibh, another high-level al Qaeda operator, who offered his own monologue Thursday. “I've been seeking martyrdom for five years,” he said. “I tried for 9/11 to get a visa, but could not. I tried to get a visa. If this martyrdom happens today, so be it. God is great, God is great, God is great."

Aziz Ali, another one of the terror suspects, was blunter before his accusers. “After five years of torture,” he said, it “doesn’t make any sense that a court brings to justice after five years … that’s a very shameful … don’t know how the American people would consider it. The American government maintains they are human rights … this government failed to treat me as a human for five years … my conscience does not allow me to participate in any such rulings, or legal things.” Cue the harps.

Thursday’s outbursts and in-court mayhem (judge to suspect: “What part of ‘sit down’ do you not understand?”) is little compared to the diatribes that Moussaoui launched before he was convicted. But, remember, this was only an arraignment for the five suspects-an arraignment, you should know, that generated not a single “not guilty” plea. If these un-fab five continue at this rate for sheer volume alone they will re-write the playbook that Moussaoui took four topsy-turvy years to write.

Like the terror detainees on Thursday, Moussaoui also tried to represent himself. Then he tried to plead guilty. When his guilty plea was rejected he tried again. He wrote legal brief after brief until they were blocked from public view. When the government’s case against him went lame he saved it by testifying “on his own behalf” in the most incriminating fashion. There were tricks. There were ploys. It was a game to him; he smiled through it all. And the whole thing is happening again, writ large, in the most important military trials in a half century.

Taking a step back from the emotions here, it’s not hard to comprehend the logic behind the al Qaeda “litigation strategy.” These suspects understand that they are going to be convicted pretty much no matter what they say in their own defense. They know the deck is stacked against them despite the efforts of civil libertarians to ensure more procedural fairness in these proceedings. They know they almost certainly will be executed and, indeed, they appear to welcome it; that’s what happens in holy wars. So, like Moussaoui before them, they are going to extract their pound of PR flesh against America.

The relentless outbursts and tirades in military court Thursday - Saddam-Hussein-like at times for their intermittent courtesies - explain better than any code of military justice why the Bush administration fought so hard for so many years to bury these tribunals behind a wall of secrecy. The Pentagon and White House knew, even before Moussaoui’s screen play, and surely before Thursday, that trying bitter terrorists in open court would turn the trials into political theatre, or religious sermons, or just another battlefield in the war of cultures.

Political trials are at least as old as Socrates. And what the al Qaeda detainees have figured out is that their last, best hope of individually damaging their hated enemy or concomitantly rallying their cowering supporters, is to refuse to play along with, or just plain mock, any and every form of American justice. It’s all they have left to do, this war by another means - a jurisprudential jihad. At least the current crop of alleged terrorists isn’t yet doing a Nuremburg Number and claiming they were just following orders.


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/06/opinion/courtwatch/main4158813.shtml

[Mustafa al-Muhaajir]

Pakistanis despise or lionise 9/11 mastermind

By Kamran Haider

ISLAMABAD, June 6 (Reuters) - A day after al Qaeda's Sept. 11 mastermind made his first appearance in a U.S. military court, Pakistanis were divided between admiration and revulsion for their countryman, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

"He deserves to be hanged," spat Mazhar Awais, an observant Muslim who runs a pharmacy in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

"Islam doesn't allow the killing of innocent people. If you're against the U.S. government, it doesn't mean kill Americans."

Many Pakistanis believe al Qaeda and its cohorts have brought dishonour on Islam by killing civilians and fellow Muslims.

But anti-American sentiment runs deep in Pakistan, where President Pervez Musharraf is often cursed for caving in to pressure to join a "war on terrorism" many Pakistanis see as America's, not theirs.

Mohammed, widely known by his initials KSM, has no shortage of admirers.

"What's happening in Guantanamo Bay? What's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan? We believe the U.S. is an aggressor and he's a hero," said Syed Sajjad Ali Shah, a retired government school principal in Peshawar.

Mohammed is on trial with four al Qaeda comrades for conspiring to murder civilians in the 2001 attacks.

They also face 2,973 counts on murder, one for each person killed when hijacked passenger planes slammed into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

On his first appearance, Mohammed asserted his right to act as his own attorney, declared his wish to be a martyr, and chanted an Islamic verse in Arabic, before pausing to cheerfully translate its meaning into English.

His bravado resonated among Pakistanis looking for a hero to stand up against U.S. hegemony and Muslim rulers dependent on American support.

"He's a beacon of light for Muslims. It's the time to say no to the U.S. and the West. Otherwise history won't forgive us," said Dr. Tariq bin Wahab in the southern central city of Multan.

"We have to get rid of U.S. agents like General Musharraf who have sold our country for his vested interests."

Others were sickened by Mohammed's posturing in court.

"He's a killer; he's not a martyr," said Sameena Gul, a human rights activist in Islamabad.

Mobeen Ansari, a college student in Karachi, struck a similar note.

"I think he's a criminal and the 9/11 incident has just caused hatred," he said.

More dispassionately, some saw the U.S. military trial becoming a public relations disaster for Washington, as few people will believe it could be fair.

"He's been charged (with) a global terror act, so they should hold a global level trial. It cannot be a military trial," said Muhammad Akram, a 45-year-old lawyer in the southern city of Karachi.

Others clung to conspiracy theories that the events of Sept. 11 had nothing to do with Muslims or Pakistanis.

"I don't think this was done (by anyone) from our part of the world," said Nosheen Razzak, a radio jockey, from Karachi.


http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSISL214248

[Mustafa al-Muhaajir]

A Mythic Figure, in Person

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, June 6 -- For five years he was alternately considered a mythic superterrorist bent on destroying the American way of life, a victim of CIA torture, and one of the scariest men U.S. officials had ever captured.

Until Thursday, he was a phantom, hidden away in U.S. detention. The view the world had of Khalid Sheik Mohammed was a hasty 2003 snapshot of a man obviously captured off-guard, probably while asleep. His hair a mess, a thick black mustache surrounded with stubble and a white T-shirt loosely hanging over large tufts of chest hair, he became an icon of everything the United States has been fighting against.

But on Thursday morning, he was in court. In person. Real.

As roughly 25 members of the international media streamed into the rear observation room in a high-security courtroom here, all strained to catch their first glimpse of Mohammed. He sat in an almost commanding pose at the front of the courtroom, a large fan of gray beard covering his face, thick black glasses obscuring his eyes.

Mohammed and four other alleged top al-Qaeda operatives, accused of being at the heart of the conspiracy that unleashed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, were in court for their arraignment on charges of orchestrating the deaths of thousands of Americans.

Mohammed chatted jocularly with the four detainees lined up in chairs behind him, trading smiles and short bursts of laughter and friendly gestures. He tugged lightly at his white-streaked beard, toyed with his glasses, flipped through pages of papers on the desk in front of him.

It was then, some defense lawyers say, that Mohammed set a plan in motion to convince the detainees to shed their lawyers and declare that they wanted to represent themselves. It was just before 9 a.m., as the men talked and passed oral messages from front to back and back to front, when Mohammed appeared to have taken control of the one thing he could, orchestrating a joint effort to defy the controversial military commissions and declare them illegal and untenable.

Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, diminutive and extremely thin, sat in the back row. The close associate of Mohammed who allegedly helped finance the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks appeared more timid than the rest, sitting on a pillow in his leather-covered, four-legged chair just feet from the observation room. Army Maj. Jon Jackson, a military defense lawyer who represents Hawsawi, later said that Mohammed intimidated Hawsawi into dropping his defense lawyers, asking at one point when Hawsawi was leery of the move: "What are you in the American Army now?"

"It was clear Mr. Mohammed was trying to intimidate Mr. al-Hawsawi into not having us as counsel," Jackson said after the hearing ended on Thursday evening. "He was shaking."

At 9:33 a.m., Mohammed spoke to the court for the first time, uttering a single "Yes" into a microphone in answer to the question of whether he speaks English. He then asked for a translator, but a good one, because he said he had been "mistranslated" at his Combatant Status Review Tribunal at Guantanamo more than a year ago, when someone "put many words in my mouth."

Just 24 minutes later, after the other detainees answered a series of mundane questions, Mohammed stood up to address the court. He opened by chanting Koranic verses in Arabic, complete with an English translation for the court, offering a few unexpected lyrical moments. But his words then veered sharply. Although polite and almost deferential, Mohammed quickly made clear his dislike of America.

"I consider all American laws under the Constitution to be evil and not of God," Mohammed said. He particularly took issue with a society that allows "same-sexual marriage" and other things that "are very bad." He said he could not accept a U.S. lawyer because the nation is "still in Iraq and Afghanistan and waging their crusade."

When Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, the presiding judge, tried to interrupt Mohammed, Mohammed would hesitate and say, "Go ahead," essentially granting permission to Kohlmann to speak. While Kohlmann was extremely patient with Mohammed, he blew up several times at defense attorneys, sternly telling them to "sit down, sit down" in the middle of their arguments.

Kohlmann also had a surreal conversation with the five defendants toward the end of the hearing, discussing with them the parameters for them to review and handle classified evidence if they do represent themselves. Military prosecutors said with no apparent irony that they are prepared to hand over classified materials to the nation's arch enemies, although it is unclear whether the detainees would have access to witnesses or how a detainee would handle top-secret CIA materials.

"There will not be evidence they will not see," said Army Col. Lawrence J. Morris, the chief prosecutor for military commissions. Human rights advocates were skeptical, however.

Mohammed appeared to have equal disdain for the process, but he only briefly mentioned his "torturing" at the hands of U.S. officials, something he acknowledged he was warned not to mention in open court, lest a security official hit a button muting the audio to observers in the courtroom and at a media center nearby. That button was pushed at least a few times on Thursday when detainees appeared to discuss elements of their early captivity in secret facilities or the way they were treated.

"All of this has been taken under torturing," Mohammed said. "Then after torturing, they transfer us to Inquisition Land here at Guantanamo, and you tell everyone to sit down, sit down."

The case will continue to go forward, and while Mohammed has asked for the death penalty so he could become a martyr, he seemed content to stir things up on his first day in court. He sat smugly at the defense table after the others declared that they wanted to represent themselves, taking a legal approach to which they are entitled but one that could turn Guantanamo's highest-profile military commission into a circus.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/06/AR2008060601161.html9?hpid=topnews