Sept. 11 families fear war-crimes trial
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — People who lost relatives in the Sept. 11 attacks fear alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will use his upcoming war-crimes trial to boast about his role and rally support for al-Qaida.
Unlike some war-crimes defendants who are boycotting the process at Guantanamo Bay, Mohammed's lawyer told The Associated Press on Tuesday that his client has given no indication he will do so.
Mohammed, who was al-Qaida's No. 3 when he was captured in Pakistan in March 2003, tried to glorify his role in the Sept. 11 attacks and dozens of other terrorist acts during an appearance before a military panel last year.
He will have a much bigger audience next month when he and four alleged co-conspirators are arraigned on death-penalty charges at the U.S. naval base. Journalists from around the world are expected to attend, and the military plans to show the proceedings to victims' relatives on closed-circuit television at U.S. military bases.
Those families are bracing for another round of self-aggrandizing rhetoric from the man who claimed during a hearing in March 2007 that he was responsible for the Sept. 11 operation "from A to Z."
"It was horrifying to hear it and certainly it's hurtful, but it pales in comparison to the losses we live with every single day," said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son died at the World Trade Center in New York.
Bruce de Cell, whose son-in-law also died in the twin towers, said he believes that providing Mohammed the opportunity to speak publicly is "a necessary evil" in seeing that justice is done.
Navy Capt. Prescott Prince, Mohammed's Pentagon-appointed attorney, conceded Mohammed could make remarks similar to the rambling speech he made last year when he even cited George Washington as a revolutionary. The military provided a transcript but did not release the audio, citing fear that hearing his voice could rally supporters.
Charles "Cully" Stimson, a former Pentagon official, predicted Mohammed will stage-manage every detail of his defense because of his "massive ego" and to "garner support for not only the righteousness of what he did but also the wider audience out there."
Prince said Mohammed was cooperative during their first meeting, and plans to meet with him again on Thursday. He said he has no indication that Mohammed will boycott the trial, as five Guantanamo detainees charged with other crimes have done.
Prince said the military is harming his efforts to defend Mohammed, telling AP that the military canceled flights to the isolated base in southeast Cuba and is imposing a "crushing overuse of secrecy."
"There is no appreciation or no real willingness for the defense to have realistic and meaningful contact with their clients," Prince said. He said delays in security clearances for two civilian attorneys from Idaho have slowed the team's efforts to mount a defense.
The U.S. originally charged six men in the Sept. 11 case, but late Monday dropped the charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi who allegedly had hoped to become the "20th hijacker."
His Pentagon-appointed attorney, Army Lt. Col. Bryan Broyles, suggested that his client's harsh interrogation, authorized by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, could have influenced the decision.
"In any instance in which the United States wishes to impose the death penalty, my opinion is that such a case requires clean hands on the part of the U.S.," Broyles told AP.
"I am gratified that someone has finally made the decision not to proceed against Mohammed al-Qahtani in the face of the manner in which we detained him and wrung statements from him."
Mohammed also was subjected to harsh interrogation tactics, including waterboarding, by the CIA. Broyles said the United States "does not have clean hands" in the cases of any of the five now charged in the attacks.
The Defense Department refused to disclose Tuesday why it dismissed the charges against al-Qahtani, but noted they can be reinstated.
Air Force Capt. Andre Kok, a spokesman for Susan Crawford who makes the decisions on whom to charge, said she "is not required to make public the reasoning behind her decision, and she has chosen not to do so."
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AP writer Andrew O. Selsky contributed to this report.
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MICHAEL MELIA | May 13, 2008 04:57 PM EST |
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