Guantanamo court convenes amid chaos, confusion

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The Guantanamo war crimes court convened in a chaotic session on Monday with accused Sept. 11 plotters disrupting the proceedings while U.S. government lawyers debated whether an administrative hiccup had left them facing any charges at all.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 hijacked plane plot, tried unsuccessfully to banish all Americans from his defense table in the courtroom at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and complained when the judge asked him to limit his comments.

"This is terrorism, not court. You don't give us opportunity to talk," Mohammed told the judge, Army Col. Stephen Henley.

...

But Mohammed, who has repeatedly acknowledged his guilt on charges that could lead to his execution, later told the court, "We don't care about the capital punishment ... we are doing jihad for the cause of God."

Defendant Ramzi Binalshibh, whose mental competency to act as his own attorney is the subject of an ongoing challenge, told the court, "We did what we did and we are proud of this. We are proud of 9-11."

Problems with the Arabic-English interpretation and outbursts from the defendants punctuated what is widely expected to be the last week of hearings in the special Guantanamo tribunals establishe

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N1J357342.htm

[gratuitous]

1. How dare they!

They sound just like the folks in the aftermath of Haditha and Abu Ghraib. None of them seem to feel guilty at all for the monstrous crimes they're accused of.

[Winterblues]

2. Can anything those people say have any credibility any more?

They have been locked up for seven years enduring all sorts of "harsh interagations" and who klnows what. I do not believe any of them are in their right mind....What monsters we have become..

[No Elephants]

3. Defendants' saying they are proud of 911 sounds to me like a confession. Find them guilty.

[EFerrari]

7. If you'd been snatched and tortured and locked up for all these years,

you'd confess and brag, too.

[happyslug]

8. Confession of What? None of these Defendants had anything to do with 9/11

Remember most of these people were picked up in Iraq or Afghanistan. Iraq had NO Al Queda prior to 9/11, Afghanistan did have Al Queda training camps, but the people involved either DIED in the Attack or still on a lose (An exception can be made for the "20th Hijacker" i.e. the one that missed the flight, but he is NOT being charged with this Group).

You can NOT convict someone who supports terrorism, if that support is only verbal. You have to have evidence of something more, like giving someone cash to do the attack, to provide a ride, something more then saying he liked what the Al Queda did on 9/11/2001.

Now, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to being the master mind behind 9/11, but in traditional American Law, a conviction can NOT stand on a confession alone. You need more, something physical or another person who said the person who confessed did the crime. The additional evidence does NOT have to be enough to convict someone, but it has to exist. Thus the need for this trial, to produce the evidence that supports his confession.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_Shaikh_Mohammed
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/ksm.htm

[Bette Noir]

4. Hey, guys-- how about giving them an honest trial in an honest court?

That's the American way-- or it used to be, before Bush. Starting tomorrow, noon, it can be, again.

[Mark Twain Girl]

5. Wow, that was quite a read, thanks for posting. nt

[mbperrin]

6. Chaos? No fighting in the war room, gentlemen!

Strangelove hat tip...

[Zhade]

9. Oh, the irony -- holding war crimes trials while the b*s* administration walks.

PUKE.