| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Home Front: WoT | |
| KSM Drops Motions, Asks to Confess | |
| 2008-12-08 | |
| GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- Five men charged with plotting the Sept. 11 attacks told a military judge Monday that they want to immediately confess at their war-crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, setting up likely guilty pleas and their possible executions. The five said they decided to abandon all efforts to defend themselves against the capital charges on Nov. 4, the day Barack Obama was elected to the White House. It was as if they wanted to rush toward convictions before Obama -- who has vowed to end the war-crimes trials and close Guantanamo -- takes office. The hamster wheels in this guy's brain are overheating -- "But you'll be safe with Obama! Hope! Chaaaange!"
In a letter the judge read aloud in court, the five defendants said they "request an immediate hearing session to announce our confessions." The letter implies they want to plead guilty, but does not specify whether they will admit to any specific charges. The judge, Army Col. Stephen Henley, asked Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants if they were prepared to enter a plea. So far, Mohammed and three others said they agreed with the letter; the fifth remained to be questioned by the judge. Mohammed, who has already told interrogators he was the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, also told the judge Monday that he had no faith in him, his Pentagon-appointed lawyers or President George W. Bush. Sporting a chest-length gray beard, Mohammed said in English: "I don't trust you." "The feeling is mutual." The pretrial hearings this week could be the last court appearance for the high-profile detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The first U.S. war-crimes trials since World War II are teetering on the edge of extinction. "I pledged to close the Guantanamo prison and I have done so. They've all been moved to McMurdo Sound." Nine relatives of victims of the 2001 al-Qaida attacks were on hand to observe the hearings at this Navy base in southeastern Cuba, but were not visible in video images relayed to a press room nearby. Five were chosen by military lottery like civilian lottery, but with guns and they brought four other relatives with them. Henley was assigned to the case after the previous judge resigned for undisclosed reasons in November. The defendants, who are representing themselves, were also expected to question Henley about whether any conflicts would prevent him from impartially overseeing the death-penalty case. No trial date has been set, and it is all but certain none will begin before Obama takes office on Jan. 20. Still, the U.S. military is pressing forward with the case until it receives orders to the contrary. "We serve the sitting president and will continue to do so until President-elect Obama takes office," said Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman. Interesting phrasing... Jennifer Daskal of Human Rights Watch, who is also an observer at this week's hearings, urged Obama to I hope someone remembered to file littering charges for all those aircraft parts in lower Manhattan. The military commissions have netted three convictions, but have been widely criticized The victims' family members were expected to watch from a gallery at the rear of the cavernous, high-security courtroom and will not be allowed to address the defendants. Maureen Santora, whose firefighter son Christopher was killed at the World Trade Center, says she wants to lock eyes with those accused of killing her son and 2,972 others in the bloodiest terrorist attacks ever on U.S. soil. Relatives of about 30 more victims, mainly firefighters, have given Santora memorial cards that she planned to bring into court "to know their spirit is with us." | |
| Posted by:Plastic Snoopy |
| #3 "They wanted to RUSH towards convictions before Obama ....takes office" > OKAY MADONNA, I'LL BITE, IS PENN STATE PROFESSOR = AL QAEDA #3 KHALID TRYING HARD NOT TO SAY HE, etc. DESIRES TO STAY IN THE US = US FACILITY EVEN IFF IT MEANS BEING IMPRISONED IN CONUS, i.e. a dedicated Enemy of the USA prefersto stay wid his Enemy, NOT HIS OWN CAMP OR OTHER [handover]??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-12-08 22:04 |
| #2 Bring cards into court? I'd like to bring my M1A. I've got something I'd like to personally deliver to KSM and his buttbuddies. |
| Posted by: Jolutch Mussolini7800 2008-12-08 16:49 |
| #1 "Denied. We're gonna make you listen to hours of lawyerspeak!' "AUUUUGH! TORTURE!" |
| Posted by: mojo 2008-12-08 14:46 |