Al-Qaeda’s Mohammed Asks to Be `Martyred’ for Attacks (Updated)
(Bloomberg) — Self-proclaimed al-Qaeda commander Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, he would welcome the martyrdom of execution for masterminding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed almost 3,000 people.
“This is what I wish,” Mohammed, speaking in English, told a judge who warned that he might be executed if convicted. “I am looking to be martyred for a long time.” Mohammed said he was rejecting legal representation and will defend himself. “Nothing shall befall us, save for what Allah has ordained for us.”
Mohammed, 43, identified in the 9/11 Commission report as the “principal architect” of the strikes, is accused of murder with four co-defendants who also appeared in court. The charges carry the death penalty. Mohammed said he and the other men were tortured following their capture by U.S. forces and now face a proceeding that “is inquisition, it is not trial.”
“After torturing, they transferred us to inquisitionland in Guantanamo,” said Mohammed. “We don’t have a right to anything.”
The five defendants are charged with conspiring to finance, train and direct the 19 hijackers who seized four airliners used in the attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon outside Washington. They are charged in the deaths of 2,973 people killed in the attacks and the crash of one airliner in Pennsylvania.
`Reunion’ of Suspects
The men spoke to each other and laughed as they pointed to reporters seated in a glassed-in spectators’ gallery. “It seemed to be a reunion” of the suspects, Navy Commander Suzanne Lachelier, who represents Ramzi Binalshibh, 36, told reporters during a break.
Binalshibh, too, said he has “been seeking martyrdom for five years. I tried for 9/11 to get a visa and I could not.” He is accused of trying four times to get into the U.S. in 2000 by seeking travel visas, which were denied.
“If martyrdom happens to me today, I welcome it. God is great! God is great! God is great!” Binalshibh told the trial judge, Marine Colonel Ralph Kohlmann. He rejected suggestions by Lachelier that taking psychotropic drugs impaired his decision to waive counsel.
“My mental capacity is absolutely fine,” Binalshibh said.
The judge said “it appears to me you understand your counsel rights and are making this choice voluntarily.” Still, Kohlmann said he would explore the possible effects of the medication on that decision.
Shackled to Floor
Lachelier said it was her “impression” that Mohammed was orchestrating his co-defendants to refuse counsel.
Binalshibh was the only defendant to sit in court with his legs shackled to a bolt in the courtroom floor, a restraint Lachelier said is “protocol” for a detainee who is medicated. A court order forbids disclosure of the drug or why he is taking it, she said.
Kohlmann repeatedly warned civilian defense lawyers to be seated and admonished them for being argumentative.
“Commander, what part of `No’ don’t you understand?” he asked Lachelier when she persisted in seeking to delay the arraignment. “Sit down!”
Defense lawyers seek a delay to give them more time to encourage the defendants to accept legal representation.
Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, who is accused of sending more than $100,000 to the Sept. 11 hijackers in the U.S., said criminal lawyers were not qualified to represent him because “my case is political.”
Turban and Tunic
Mohammed, who wore a traditional white Arab turban and tunic, stroked his long salt-and-pepper beard as his lawyers introduced themselves to the court. He wore black horned-rim glasses that he frequently pushed onto his forehead.
His attendance at the tribunal marked his first public appearance since he was captured in Pakistan in 2003. He was held by the CIA until his 2006 transfer to Guantanamo.
During a March 10, 2007, Guantanamo hearing to declare him an enemy combatant, Mohammed bragged he was “responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z,” according to a Defense Department transcript. He claimed that in 2002 he personally beheaded Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped in Pakistan.
Mohammed cited religious and political reasons for refusing to be represented by a lawyer. “I cannot accept any attorney who is governed” by law “rather than the Lord of the law,” he said. Kohlmann repeatedly warned that it was unwise to reject help from lawyers familiar with rules of evidence and procedure.
`He is Suicidal’
The judge rejected defense attorney David Nevin’s argument that Mohammed’s waiver of legal representation was not voluntary because “he wants to die, he is suicidal.”
Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, 30, said he would represent himself, adding, “You have killed my younger brother; this is my time to be in your hands.”
Army Major Jon Jackson, the lawyer for Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, said his client was intimidated by his co-defendants into waiving counsel. Jackson said al Hawsawi was subjected today in the courtroom to taunts such as “are you in the Army now?” Kohlmann said he will decide later whether to let al Hawsawi reject legal representation.
Osama bin Laden
Mohammed was born in the Baluchistan region, an area along the Pakistan-Iran border, and grew up in Kuwait. He is accused of proposing the Sept. 11 operation to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 1996 and training hijackers to hide knives in carry-on bags before boarding the planes. Under Mohammed’s direction, the hijackers learned how to slit the throats of passengers by practicing on sheep, goats and camels, the government claims.
The charging document says Binalshibh wired $2,708 to one hijacker and in late August 2001 sent a message to Mohammed that the hijackers’ leader, Mohammed Atta, had chosen Sept. 11 for the date of the attacks.
Justice Department and military officials have said they expect legal challenges from defense lawyers on issues such as the admissibility of evidence obtained from Central Intelligence Agency interrogations, which human-rights advocates say included techniques amounting to torture.
`Waterboarding’
The spy agency acknowledged that Mohammed was one of three al-Qaeda operatives who underwent “waterboarding,” which simulates drowning. The CIA says it no longer uses the technique.
Individual trial judges may decide to admit statements from interrogations that involved waterboarding, Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann, the court’s chief legal adviser told reporters yesterday at Guantanamo Bay. Trial judges will decide whether waterboarding is coercion rather than torture “based on the facts he has heard,” Hartmann said.
Such coerced statements may be used as evidence if the judge determines they are “reliable” and “probative” and their use is “in the best interest of justice,” Hartmann said.
Hartmann said officials seek to begin the trial in September. The defense is seeking to disqualify Hartmann as the legal adviser overseeing the military court in the case.
To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley in Guantanamo Bay at jarowley@bloomberg.net
June 5th, 2008 | Category: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", Black Site, Detainee Abuse, Guantanamo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Military Commission, human rights
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