Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Miami Herald
September 25, 2008
A Marine Corps judge declined to recuse himself from a 9/11 mass murder trial despite arguments from an alleged al Qaeda kingpin that Guantanamo military commissions are an 'inquisition.'
By Carol Rosenberg
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed called his military commission an ''inquisition'' Wednesday in a failed effort to get his Marine Corps judge to stop presiding at the 9/11 mass murder trial.
''In your eyes, I'm an Islamic extremist,'' the alleged al Qaeda kingpin told Judge Ralph Kohlmann, arguing the colonel should step aside from the complex conspiracy trial on grounds of bias.
Kohlmann disagreed. He kept himself on the case even though he retires from duty on April 1 and is unlikely to preside at the full death penalty trial of five men accused of plotting the worst terror attacks on U.S. soil.
''The defense claim in this case is completely wrong,'' said Kohlmann, as he one by one rejected a series of objections that Mohammed and three of his fellow accused had raised.
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times]Chain of command[/FONT]
As chief of the war court judiciary, Kohlmann has not only the power to remove himself from the trial but to name his successor.
The defense claimed that Kohlmann had the authority from the bench to ameliorate harsh restrictions on attorney-client contacts, imposed on former CIA-held captives, and had chosen not to fully wield it.
They also argued that Kohlmann, a military judge advocate general since 1987, lacked experience with death penalty cases.
All five could face military execution if they are convicted of conspiracy in the mass murder of 2,973 people on Sept. 11, 2001. Prosecutors allege they plotted, financed and helped the 19 hijackers reach U.S. soil, some to train at American flight schools.
Three of Mohammed's alleged co-conspirators echoed his objections. They were Saudi Mustafa al Hawsawi, 40; Yemeni Walid bin Attash, age unknown, and Pakistani Ammar al Baluchi, 31, also known as Ali Abdal Aziz Ali, who is Mohammed's nephew.
The fifth is Yemeni Ramzi bin al Shibh, 36, who sat in court throughout the day while forbidding his Pentagon-appointed attorneys from raising arguments. He seeks to serve as his own counsel, like three others.
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times]Mental competency[/FONT]
But a military mental health team is evaluating his competency because the secret prison facility where he is held here, Camp 7, has him on psychotropic drugs.
The major thrust of the argument of the 9/11 accused is that, by wearing the uniform of a U.S. military officer, Kohlmann could not be impartial at trial -- a problem that would not be remedied had the judge agreed to to step aside.
By law, the military tribunal system that the Bush administration created after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks dictates that the judge comes from one of the four branches of the U.S. military. Commissioners, or jurors, come from the U.S. military officers' ranks as well -- and decide both verdict and sentence.
''I believe that we are part of an inquisition,'' said Mohammed, 43, who allegedly boasted on paper to planning the 9/11 attacks ``from A to Z.''
''We are your enemy,'' Mohammed said, speaking unshackled from a seat at the defense table in a blend of Arabic and the English he learned as an engineering student in his 20s in North Carolina.
''You are an officer in the United States armed forces,'' he added. ``Myself and my brothers will be judged by the same armed forces that are killing our people.''
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times]Pretrial protest[/FONT]
He delivered the protest as part of a pretrial hearing process called voir dire, routine at military courts martial, in which the accused can question the judge's ability to be impartial.
Kohlmann has allowed Mohammed to function as his own attorney and retain a U.S. Navy captain, Army lieutenant colonel and two Boise, Idaho, criminal defense lawyers as standby counsel.
In another proceeding Wednesday, the next captive up for full-blown trial by military commission entered a not guilty plea to conspiring with al Qaeda.
Ali Hamza al Bahlul, a Yemeni in his late 30s, appeared before another judge, Air Force Col. Ronald Gregory, and declared his unending enmity toward the United States. Bahlul is accused of making al Qaeda propaganda films as Osama bin Laden's media secretary and sometimes bodyguard in Afghanistan until 2001.
Bahlul has said he will attend his trial, which is slated to begin Oct. 28. But he has forbidden his Pentagon defense attorney from mounting a defense under a self-styled boycott.
''If you let me go to Yemen, I will fight the American government,'' Bahlul said cheerfully, sitting unshackled in the tribunal building. ``I will fight them with my tongue and with my hand . . . until the last drop of blood.''
September 25, 2008
A Marine Corps judge declined to recuse himself from a 9/11 mass murder trial despite arguments from an alleged al Qaeda kingpin that Guantanamo military commissions are an 'inquisition.'
By Carol Rosenberg
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed called his military commission an ''inquisition'' Wednesday in a failed effort to get his Marine Corps judge to stop presiding at the 9/11 mass murder trial.
''In your eyes, I'm an Islamic extremist,'' the alleged al Qaeda kingpin told Judge Ralph Kohlmann, arguing the colonel should step aside from the complex conspiracy trial on grounds of bias.
Kohlmann disagreed. He kept himself on the case even though he retires from duty on April 1 and is unlikely to preside at the full death penalty trial of five men accused of plotting the worst terror attacks on U.S. soil.
''The defense claim in this case is completely wrong,'' said Kohlmann, as he one by one rejected a series of objections that Mohammed and three of his fellow accused had raised.
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times]Chain of command[/FONT]
As chief of the war court judiciary, Kohlmann has not only the power to remove himself from the trial but to name his successor.
The defense claimed that Kohlmann had the authority from the bench to ameliorate harsh restrictions on attorney-client contacts, imposed on former CIA-held captives, and had chosen not to fully wield it.
They also argued that Kohlmann, a military judge advocate general since 1987, lacked experience with death penalty cases.
All five could face military execution if they are convicted of conspiracy in the mass murder of 2,973 people on Sept. 11, 2001. Prosecutors allege they plotted, financed and helped the 19 hijackers reach U.S. soil, some to train at American flight schools.
Three of Mohammed's alleged co-conspirators echoed his objections. They were Saudi Mustafa al Hawsawi, 40; Yemeni Walid bin Attash, age unknown, and Pakistani Ammar al Baluchi, 31, also known as Ali Abdal Aziz Ali, who is Mohammed's nephew.
The fifth is Yemeni Ramzi bin al Shibh, 36, who sat in court throughout the day while forbidding his Pentagon-appointed attorneys from raising arguments. He seeks to serve as his own counsel, like three others.
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times]Mental competency[/FONT]
But a military mental health team is evaluating his competency because the secret prison facility where he is held here, Camp 7, has him on psychotropic drugs.
The major thrust of the argument of the 9/11 accused is that, by wearing the uniform of a U.S. military officer, Kohlmann could not be impartial at trial -- a problem that would not be remedied had the judge agreed to to step aside.
By law, the military tribunal system that the Bush administration created after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks dictates that the judge comes from one of the four branches of the U.S. military. Commissioners, or jurors, come from the U.S. military officers' ranks as well -- and decide both verdict and sentence.
''I believe that we are part of an inquisition,'' said Mohammed, 43, who allegedly boasted on paper to planning the 9/11 attacks ``from A to Z.''
''We are your enemy,'' Mohammed said, speaking unshackled from a seat at the defense table in a blend of Arabic and the English he learned as an engineering student in his 20s in North Carolina.
''You are an officer in the United States armed forces,'' he added. ``Myself and my brothers will be judged by the same armed forces that are killing our people.''
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times]Pretrial protest[/FONT]
He delivered the protest as part of a pretrial hearing process called voir dire, routine at military courts martial, in which the accused can question the judge's ability to be impartial.
Kohlmann has allowed Mohammed to function as his own attorney and retain a U.S. Navy captain, Army lieutenant colonel and two Boise, Idaho, criminal defense lawyers as standby counsel.
In another proceeding Wednesday, the next captive up for full-blown trial by military commission entered a not guilty plea to conspiring with al Qaeda.
Ali Hamza al Bahlul, a Yemeni in his late 30s, appeared before another judge, Air Force Col. Ronald Gregory, and declared his unending enmity toward the United States. Bahlul is accused of making al Qaeda propaganda films as Osama bin Laden's media secretary and sometimes bodyguard in Afghanistan until 2001.
Bahlul has said he will attend his trial, which is slated to begin Oct. 28. But he has forbidden his Pentagon defense attorney from mounting a defense under a self-styled boycott.
''If you let me go to Yemen, I will fight the American government,'' Bahlul said cheerfully, sitting unshackled in the tribunal building. ``I will fight them with my tongue and with my hand . . . until the last drop of blood.''