9/11 defendants ignore judge at Guantanamo hearing
Source: AP
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) They knelt in prayer, ignored the judge and wouldn't listen to Arabic translations as they confronted nearly 3,000 counts of murder. The self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and four co-defendants defiantly disrupted an arraignment that dragged into Saturday night in the opening act of the long-stalled effort to prosecute them in a military court.
Their refusal to participate in the hearing helped bring their arraignment to a crawl. It took more than eight hours for the judge at the U.S. military base in Cuba to ask the men to enter pleas to 2,976 counts of murder and terrorism in the 2001 attacks that sent hijacked jetliners into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The men all deferred their pleas.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the admitted 9/11 architect, cast off his earphones providing Arabic translations of the proceeding and refused to answer Army Col. James Pohl's questions or acknowledge he understood them. All five men refused to participate in the hearing; two passed around a copy of The Economist magazine and leafed through the articles.
Walid bin Attash was confined to a restraint chair when he came into court, released only after he promised to behave.
Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iCptyyoiKAL2YwchDcReV-h6SqkA?docId=c43d242c2fb04abd851b60e7eec60bd5
Robb
(39,665 posts)PSPS
(13,615 posts)Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)Anyone involved with the nonsense should burn their degree in Law, they are not fitting to have one.
Adsos Letter
(19,459 posts)Solly Mack
(90,787 posts)Archae
(46,350 posts)They've been locked up for years, tortured, gee, makes them happy, doncha think?
lunatica
(53,410 posts)In the mind of many not only are these men in the belly of the beast, but they're also standing up to the beast knowing full well they will not escape. They'll become martyrs and therefore a rallying cry.
Cheney must be happy today because his plot to perpetuate eternal war will work out as he dreamed.
may3rd
(593 posts)court TV ratings would go through the roof
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)court to run here. (in case it's needed)