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9-11 suspects back in court as stalled case resumes by ferujkll sdff
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9-11 suspects back in court as stalled case resumes |
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GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — The self-proclaimed mastermind of theSept. 11 attacks and four accused co-conspirators appeared inpublic for the first time in more than three years Saturday, whenU.S. officials started a second attempt at what is likely to be adrawn out legal battle that could lead to the men"sexecutions. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants were being arraignedat a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay on charges that includethat include 2,976 counts of murder for the worst terrorist attackon U.S.
soil. The hearing quickly bogged down before they could be arraigned. Oneprisoner, Walid bin Attash was put in a restraint chair forunspecified reasons, lawyers for all defendants complained that theprisoners were prevented from wearing the civilian clothes of theirchoice and Mohammed refused to respond to questions. Mohammed"s civilian lawyer, David Nevin, said he believedMohammed was not responding because he believes the tribunal isunfair. The judge, Army Col.
James Pohl, warned that he would notpermit defendants to block the hearing and would continue withouthis participation. "One cannot choose not to participate and frustrate thenormal course of business," Pohl said. In the past, during the failed first effort to prosecute them atthe U.S. base in Cuba, Mohammed has mocked the tribunal and said heand his co-defendants would plead guilty and welcome execution. Butthere were signs that at least some of the defence teams werepreparing for a lengthy fight, planning challenges of the militarytribunals and the secrecy that shrouds the case.
The arraignment is "only the beginning of a trial that willtake years to complete, followed by years of appellatereview," attorney James Connell, who represents defendant AliAbd al-Aziz Ali, told reporters gathered at the base to observe thehearing. "I can"t imagine any scenario where this thing getswrapped up in six months," Connell said. Defendants in what is known as a military commission typically donot enter a plea during their arraignment. Instead, the judge readsthe charges, makes sure the accused understand their rights andthen moves on to procedural issues.
Lawyers for the men said theywere prohibited by secrecy rules from disclosing the intentions oftheir clients. Jim Harrington, a civilian attorney for Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeniprisoner who has said at one hearing that he was proud of the Sept.11 attacks, said he did not think that any of the defendants wouldplead guilty, notwithstanding their earlier statements. Army Capt. Jason Wright, one of Mohammed"s Pentagon-appointedlawyers, declined to comment on the case.
As in previous hearings, a handful of people who lost familymembers in the attacks were selected by lottery to travel to thebase to watch the proceedings. Other family members were gatheringat military bases in New York and across the East Coast to watchthe proceedings live on closed-circuit video. Family members at Guantanamo said they were grateful for the chanceto see a case they believe has been delayed too long. Cliff Russell, whose firefighter brother Stephen died responding tothe World Trade Center, said he hoped the case would end with thedeath penalty for the five Guantanamo Prisoners. "I"m not looking forward to ending someone else"slife and taking satisfaction in it, but it"s the mostdisgusting, hateful, awful thing I ever could think of if you thinkabout what was perpetrated," Russell said.
Suzanne Sisolak of Brooklyn, whose husband Joseph was killed in hisoffice in the trade centre"s north tower, said she is notconcerned about the ultimate outcome as long as the case movesforward and the five prisoners do not go free. "They can put them in prison for life. They can executethem," Sisolak said. "What I do care about is that thisdoes not happen again.
They need to be stopped. That"s what Icare about because nobody deserves to have this happen tothem." The arraignment for the five comes more than three years afterPresident Barack Obama"s failed effort to try the suspects ina federal civilian court and close the prison at the U.S. base inCuba. Attorney General Eric Holder announced in 2009 that Mohammed andhis co-defendants would be tried blocks from the site of thedestroyed trade centre in downtown Manhattan, but the plan wasshelved after New York officials cited huge costs to secure theneighbourhood and family opposition to trying the suspects in theU.S. Congress then blocked the transfer of any prisoners from Guantanamoto the U.S., forcing the Obama administration to refile the chargesunder a reformed military commission system.
New rules adopted by Congress and Obama forbid the use of testimonyobtained through cruel treatment or torture. Gen. Mark Martins, thechief prosecutor, said the commission provides many of the sameprotections that defendants would get in civilian court."I"m confident that this court can achieve justice andfairness," he said. But human rights groups and the defence lawyers say the reformshave not gone far enough and that restrictions on legal mail andthe overall secret nature of Guantanamo and the commissions makesit impossible to provide an adequate defence. They argue that the U.S.
has sought to keep the case in themilitary commission to prevent disclosure of the harsh treatment ofprisoners such as Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times andsubjected to other measures that some have called torture. Mohammed, a Pakistani citizen who grew up in Kuwait and attendedcollege in Greensboro, North Carolina, has admitted to militaryauthorities that he was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks"from A to Z," as well as about 30 other plots, andthat he personally killed Wall Street Journal reporter DanielPearl. Mohammed was captured in 2003 in Pakistan. His four co-defendants include Binalshibh, a Yemeni, who wasallegedly chosen to be a hijacker but couldn"t get a U.S.visa and ended up providing assistance such as finding flightschools; bin Attash, also from Yemen, who allegedly ran an al-Qaidatraining camp in Afghanistan and researched flight simulators andtimetables; Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, a Saudi accused of helpingthe hijackers with money, Western clothing, traveller"schecks and credit cards; and al-Aziz Ali, a Pakistani national andnephew of Mohammed, who allegedly provided money to the hijackers. I am Screen Cleaners writer, reports some information about blank keyrings wholesale , traffic cone holder.
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