The mastermind of the September 11 attacks and 4 others appear in court
The alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The presumed mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other defendants, appeared in court for the first time in more than 18 months, as US military prosecutors seek justice after two decades of terrorist attacks that shook the world.
Muhammad and the presumed conspirators Ammar al-Balushi, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi face the death penalty if they are found guilty of killing 2,976 people in the 2001 attacks.
Khaled Sheikh Mohammed has been detained with the rest of the defendants in the "war on terror" prison at the United States Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba, for 15 years.
After the hearings were suspended for 17 months due to the Covid epidemic, the proceedings resumed where they left, amid attempts by the defense team to exclude most of the evidence presented by the government as having been taken under torture by the defendants at the hands of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Throughout the rest of the week, there will be meetings with military prosecutors and defense teams.
With dozens of petitions for evidence that military prosecutors are refusing to hand over, defense attorneys have indicated that the pretrial phase may last another year, removing any hope of a jury trial and sentencing.
Asked if the case could reach this stage, one of the defense attorneys, James Connell, said: "I don't know."
Torture
Lawyers point out that the five defendants - Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, Ammar al-Balushi, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi - are weak and suffer the permanent repercussions of the severe torture they were subjected to in secret "black" sites set up by the CIA between 2002 and 2006.
The lawyers add that there are cumulative effects of the 15 years they have spent in harsh isolation conditions since they arrived.
They are represented in a military courtroom subject to very strict security measures surrounded by barbed wire, each with his defense team.
The sessions will be attended by family members of a number of the 2,976 people accused of killing them two decades ago, along with a large group of journalists in an event to coincide with Saturday's commemoration.
The five face the death penalty on charges of murder and terrorism before the war crimes court.
They are represented by lawyers appointed by the army, as well as others who defend them free of charge from the private sector and NGOs.
- directly?
Since the case was opened, prosecutors have deemed it closed, even without the information gleaned during harsh CIA interrogations.
Prosecutors assert that the defendants all presented concrete evidence that they planned the September 11 attacks, during interrogation sessions conducted by an FBI team in 2007 after the five arrived in Guantanamo.
FBI investigators in the so-called "clean team" did not see the information extracted through torture.
But defense attorneys stress that the 2007 interrogations were not really "clean" because the FBI was a party to the CIA's torture program and thus their investigations were of the same threatening nature.
The defendants, who were still feeling the effects of torture at the time, spoke to FBI investigators with genuine concern that they might be tortured again, according to the defense.
"There is no doubt that these men are in Guantanamo to cover up torture," said Connell, who represents al-Balushi.
"The cover-up of torture is also the reason we are all in Guantanamo for the 42nd hearing of the 9/11 Military Commission," he added.
'Exhausted case'
In an effort to make his case, the defense team is demanding a large amount of classified material that the government is resisting to turn over related to everything from the original torture program to conditions of detention at Guantanamo and health assessments.
Defense lawyers are seeking to interview dozens of witnesses, after 12 of them appeared in court, including two men who oversaw the "CIA" program.
These claims led to the trial being postponed, but the defense team accuses the government of concealing material important to the investigation.
Another defense attorney, Alka Pradhan, reported that it took the government six years to admit that the FBI was a party to the CIA's torture program.
"This case is exhausting," she said.
They are withholding (information) the availability of which is a normal court procedure.”
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