The man accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks told a US military
court yesterday that he would welcome the death sentence and martyrdom, when
he made his first public appearance since his arrest in Pakistan five years
ago.
Looking old and sporting thick military-issue glasses, a long bushy grey beard
and a cream tunic and turban, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 43, cheerfully chanted
verses from the Koran. He accused President Bush of being a murderous
crusader and defiantly rejected the help of defence lawyers during his
keenly anticipated appearance before a war crimes tribunal at Guantanamo
Bay.
Mr Mohammed and his four alleged co-conspirators each face death if convicted
of war crimes including murder, conspiracy, attacking civilians and
terrorism by hijacking planes to attack American landmarks. The murder
charges involve the deaths of 2,973 people at the World Trade Centre, the
Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania where passengers forced down their
aircraft.
Mr Mohammed looked noticeably thinner than at the time of his capture in the
northern Pakistani city of Quetta in March 2003. His appearance was in stark
contrast to the still photograph that the US showed the world - taken
moments after he had been roused from sleep and arrested - of an overweight,
unshaven and slovenly man with dishevelled hair and a vest.
All US law was evil, he said, and he accused the authorities of extracting his
confession by force. The CIA has admitted that Mr Mohammed was subjected to
the highly controversial interrogation technique known as waterboarding -
simulated drowning that human rights goups have described as torture. “All
of this has been taken under torturing,” he said. “You know that very well.”
He spent much of the first day of his trial grinning and chatting with his
four co-defendants. They included Ramzi Binalshibh, who is said to have been
the main intermediary between the 19 hijackers and Osama bin Laden, the
al-Qaeda leader, and Waleed bin Attash, who is accused of selecting and
training some of the September 11 terrorists. He lost a leg in Afghanistan
in 1997, appeared frail yesterday and sat on a pillow.
Asked by the judge, Marine Colonel Ralph Kohlmann, if he was satisfied with
the US military lawyer appointed to defend him, Mr Mohammed said that he
believed only in the law of God. “My shield is Allah most high,” he said in
heavily accented English learnt while studying mechanical engineering in
North Carolina in the mid-1980s. He added that his religion forbade him from
accepting a lawyer from the US and that he wanted to represent himself.
The judge warned him that he faced execution if convicted of masterminding the
attacks. Mr Mohammed replied: “Yes, that is what I wish. I wish to be
martyred. I will, God willing, have this, by you.”
According to a transcript of a military hearing held at the US Naval base in
Cuba last year, Mr Mohammed boasted not only of conceiving, planning and
masterminding the September 11 attacks, but of leading a string of other
spectacular atrocities, including the bombing of a Bali nightclub in 2002.
He also claimed that he personally killed the Wall Street Journal
reporter Daniel Pearl - abducted and decapitated in Karachi in early 2002 -
“with my blessed right hand”. At the same hearing he again alleged that he
had been tortured.
“It's an inquisition. It's not a trial,” Mr Mohammed said, his voice rising.
“After torturing they transfer us to inquisition land in Guantanamo.”
The five accused entered the specially constructed courtroom yesterday without
leg chains or handcuffs. A chain protruding through the floor was linked to
shackles in case any of the defendants needed to be restrained. Sixty
journalists sat behind a soundproof glass wall and heard proceedings with a
20-second delay so that the judge could cut off the audio when “classified”
information was being discussed.
Mr Mohammed was placed in secret CIA prisons after his capture and held
without charge, a period during which the CIA says that he was waterboarded.
The US military refuses to concede that the technique amounts to torture,
and Mr Bush himself has said that Mr Mohammed was subjected to harsh
techniques which do not constitute torture. Mr Mohammed was transferred to
Guantanamo Bay, along with a group of other “high-level” detainees, in 2006.
His court appearance provides the sternest test yet for President Bush's
controversial tribunal system, which has been beset by legal setbacks and
internal blunders and has been decried by international observers. Since Mr
Bush announced the plan for military commissions in November 2001, no case
has gone to trial. Both Barack Obama and John McCain, this year's
presidential candidates, have said that they want to close Guantanamo Bay.
Mr Obama opposes the tribunals; Mr McCain supports them.
In June 2006 the US Supreme Court effectively ruled that the military
tribunals were illegal under US law and the Geneva Conventions. The Bush
Administration resurrected them by getting the Military Commissions Act
passed by Congress in December 2006, which allowed, among other
requirements, a right of appeal.
Yet that legislation is also due to be contested at the US Supreme Court. The
law still allows as admissable confessions obtained through harsh
interrogations, as long as they took place before 2006, and if the military
judge finds the evidence “reliable” and “in the interests of justice”. The
military commission rules also allow the prosecution to withhold classified
sources and methods of interrogation from defence lawyers.
Controversial camp
April 2002 Camp X-Ray closed and prisoners transferred to Camp Delta
August At least 30 detainees have tried to commit suicide
March 2003 US appeals court denies detainees right to hearings in
America; five British detainees freed
January 2005 Pentagon announces investigation into alleged abuse of
prisoners
May Allegations, later withdrawn, of a Koran flushed down a camp toilet
by guards spark riots in Afghanistan in which four die
February 2006 UN officials call for closure of Camp Delta
June After three detainees hang themselves, President Bush speaks of
wish to close camps
October Fresh abuse inquiry ordered
December 430 remaining detainees moved to Camp Six, a new maximum
security centre
March 2007 US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, urges Congress to find
ways of closing Guantanamo, arguing military trials lack credibility because
of harsh treatment
June 2008 Charges brought against Binyam Mohammed, the last remaining
British resident in Guantanamo Bay
Source: Times archives
