9/11 defendants denounce U.S. proceedings at Guantanamo

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his alleged Sept. 11 co-conspirators denounced their war crimes trial as illegitimate Thursday and all but one vowed to accept possible death sentences as a path to martyrdom.

Mohammed and his four codefendants rejected representation by the military and civilian lawyers assigned to defend them, but the judge hearing their capital case temporarily ordered attorneys to continue representing two of them.

It was disclosed during the arraignment that alleged Hamburg terrorism cell coordinator Ramzi Binalshibh had been compelled to take psychotropic drugs while imprisoned here. The Army lawyer representing reputed money facilitator Mustafa Ahmed Hawsawi said he had been intimidated by the others into joining the boycott.

Binalshibh objected to being denied the right to represent himself, insisting he has full command of his faculties despite the medication. He echoed Mohammed’s desire for martyrdom, reminding the court that he had tried to be among the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackers but was denied a U.S. visa.

Mohammed, known in counterterrorism circles as KSM, took command of his first public appearance since his arrest in Pakistan five years ago. He told the judge, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, that he considered all U.S. law evil and the proceedings against him “an inquisition, not a trial.”

When Kohlmann informed the self-proclaimed Al Qaeda operations chief that the charges against him could result in a death sentence, the defendant replied amiably: “This is what I wish. I’m looking to be a martyr for a long time.”

Mohammed rejected representation by Navy Capt. Prescott Prince, saying Prince wore the uniform of his American enemies and had pledged allegiance to President Bush, “who wages systemic war against the Islamic world.”

When asked if he understood that he faced the death penalty if convicted, Mohammed chanted verses from the Koran about only God being his protector, then repeated them in English for the court. He told the high-security courtroom packed with lawyers, clerks and guards that he would represent himself at a trial the prosecution proposes to start in September.

He also disputed the judge’s assurances that the lawyers were provided for his benefit, saying that “after five years of torturing … you transfer us to Inquisition Land in Guantanamo.”

Defendant Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, Mohammed’s nephew, who speaks fluent English and disclosed that he was a college-trained computer engineer, said it was late for his U.S. jailers to be offering him legal help.

“Everything that has happened here is unfair and unjust. Since the first time I was arrested, I might have appreciated that,” Ali, who says his real name is Ammar al Baluchi, said of the offer of free legal representation.

“The government is talking about lawyers free of charge. The government also tortured me free of charge all these years,” he said.

Kohlmann told him he considered it unwise for the defendants to insist on representing themselves, to which Ali retorted, “For me, this proceeding in its entirety is unwise.”

Kohlmann rejected appeals from each defendant’s military lawyers to postpone the arraignment until they had had more time to convince the men that they should accept professional counsel. Kohlmann also repeatedly cut off similar arguments by civilian trial lawyers with death penalty experience, telling them to sit down and be silent as he had already made his rulings.

Mohammed denounced U.S. law, pointing to some states’ acceptance of homosexual marriage as evidence of its immorality.

“Evil laws are not the laws of God, laws allowing same-sexual marriage,” he told the court. “I consider all American laws under the Constitution to be evil.”

Kohlmann ordered the military attorneys to remain on the defendants’ cases as “standby counsel,” in case the men change their minds and want advice during the proceedings. He let the civilian lawyers remain at the arraignment but said he would decide later whether to grant them the status of assistant counsel that would allow them to meet with the prisoners.

Under the John Adams Project of the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Assn. of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Mohammed has been provided the services of capital case experts David Nevin and Scott McKay “to supplement the under-resourced military defense teams,” the ACLU said in a statement.”It hardly comes as any surprise that after holding individuals in solitary confinement for five years and subjecting them to torture, these detainees would reject the legal system and offers to represent them,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU, on hand to observe the arraignment. Like other human rights observers here, Romero again urged the Pentagon to move the war crimes trials to U.S. federal courts or military courts martial, “where constitutional guarantees still apply.”

Only Hawsawi, a Saudi alleged to have supplied the Sept. 11 hijackers with money and Western clothing, appeared in court without a civilian lawyer and initially was less engaged with the other four. His Army lawyer, Major Jon Jackson, told Kohlmann his client was being intimidated by the others into joining their boycott of legal representation.

“They asked if he was in the Army now,” Jackson quoted the other defendants as saying to bait Hawsawi.

When asked if he wanted his military attorneys to represent him, Hawsawi said, “I want to represent myself, by myself.”

Kohlmann allowed Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Ali to represent themselves but deferred decision on Binalshibh and Hawsawi until he could determine whether those choices were made “knowingly and voluntarily.”

Asked by Kohlmann whether he needed an interpreter, Mohammed replied that his English was “not bad,” but he said he wanted help because he had been misinterpreted during his initial hearing last year.

“They were putting many words in my mouth,” Mohammed said of the English transcript of his Combatant Status Review Tribunal in March 2007, in which he reportedly confessed to masterminding the Sept. 11 plot and beheading Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Mohammed chatted animatedly with his four codefendants before and during the arraignment. They passed messages to one another at the end of each of five long defense tables where they were seated.

All were dressed in white tunics and white skullcaps, except for Binalshibh, who had a black cap. (He was also the only defendant who was shackled.) They smiled and laughed quietly for half an hour before the judge entered, and they continued their conversation while Kohlmann read out explanations of tribunal rules and procedures.

During a midday break in the arraignment of the five, Mohammed was shown a courtroom sketch artist’s rendition of him, which he rejected, complaining that he didn’t like how his nose appeared. He told artist Janet Hamlin that he would approve the image only if she modified it to conform with his FBI picture in which he appears disheveled, wearing a stretched-out white undershirt. Under the Geneva Conventions protection against “parading” of prisoners of war, captives have the right to approve or reject images of themselves before they can be made public.

 carol.williams@latimes.com