DEC. 8, 2008
5 Charged in 9/11 Attacks Seek to Plead Guilty
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba -- The five Guantánamo detainees charged with coordinating the Sept. 11 attacks told a military judge on Monday that they wanted to confess in full, a move that seemed to challenge the government to put them to death.
The request, which was the result of hours of private meetings among the detainees, appeared intended to undercut the government's plan for a high-profile trial while drawing international attention to what some of the five men have said was a desire for martyrdom.
But the military judge, Col. Stephen R. Henley of the Army, said a number of legal questions about how the commissions are to deal with capital cases had to be resolved before guilty pleas could be accepted.
The case is likely to remain in limbo for weeks or months, presenting the Obama administration with a new issue involving detainees at the naval base at Guantánamo Bay to resolve when it takes office next month.
At the start of what had been listed as routine proceedings Monday, Judge Henley said he had received a written statement from the five men dated Nov. 4 saying they planned to stop filing legal motions and "to announce our confessions to plea in full."
Speaking in what has become a familiar high-pitched tone in the cavernous courtroom here, the most prominent of the five, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, said, "we don't want to waste our time with motions."
"All of you are paid by the U.S. government," continued Mr. Mohammed, who has described himself as the mastermind of the 2001 attacks. "I'm not trusting any American."
Mr. Mohammed and the others presented their decision almost as a dare to the American government. When Judge Henley raised questions about the procedure for imposing the death penalty after a guilty plea, some of the detainees immediately suggested they might change their minds if they could not be assured they would be executed.
The announcement Monday sent shockwaves through the biggest case in the war crimes system here -- the case for which some government officials say the system was expressly devised. With the case suddenly at a critical juncture, President-elect Barack Obama may find it more complicated to carry out his pledge to close the detention camp here.
Brooke Anderson, a spokeswoman for the presidential transition office, declined to comment.
Military prosecutors have sought the death penalty against all five men since filing charges last February in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
Mr. Mohammed has emerged as the outspoken leader of the detainees in the courtroom and, presumably, behind closed doors. In September, Mr. Mohammed requested permission for the men -- three of whom are defending themselves -- to meet without lawyers to plan their defense. A military judge granted the request with the approval of the prosecution, and the men met several times for a total of 27 hours and prepared a written statement.
On Monday, Judge Henley methodically questioned each man to determine if he agreed with the joint statement.
One of the five detainees, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, told the judge, "We the brothers, all of us, would like to submit our confession." Mr. bin al-Shibh is charged with being the primary contact between the operation's organizers and the Sept. 11 hijackers.
National security specialists said the strategy appeared orchestrated by Mr. Mohammed, who has repeatedly tried to turn to the legal process into an international platform.
"These guys are smart enough to know that they're not ever going to see the light of day again," said Andrew C. McCarthy, a former federal terrorism prosecutor who is chairman of the Center for Law and Counterterrorism in Washington. "I think they're trying to make as big a publicity splash as they can."
For the first time, the Pentagon arranged for relatives of 9/11 victims to travel to Guantánamo to attend the session. A group of them, who spoke to reporters afterward, said they were struck by the extensive rights accorded the accused men. One of the relatives, Hamilton Peterson, said he was offended by the detainees, who he said were sneering and laughing in the courtroom. "They seemed to view these proceedings as a joke," Mr. Peterson said.
In an outburst, Mr. bin al-Shibh said he wanted to congratulate Osama bin Laden, adding, "We ask him to attack the American enemy with all his power."
Some lawyers who have been following the prosecutions said the timing of the effort to plead guilty was significant, coming in what may have been the last major hearing here in the Bush administration. Mr. Obama has suggested that he might end the military commissions and charge the detainees in existing American courts.
Vijay Padmanabhan, an assistant professor at Cardozo Law School who was until July a State Department lawyer with responsibility for detainee issues, said the five detainees had worked to use criticism of the military tribunals to their advantage.
"They are trying to ensure their martyrdom in a manner that continues to attack the credibility of the legal system challenging them," Mr. Padmanabhan said.
In Monday's session, which was covered by an international press corps from the Arab world, Spain, Brazil, Japan and elsewhere, Judge Henley directed prosecutors to submit full legal arguments by Jan. 4 on the procedures in capital cases outlined by the Military Commissions Act, which governs proceedings here.
Among other fundamental issues, Judge Henley asked for analysis of whether the men could be sentenced to death if they pleaded guilty instead of being found guilty by a panel of military officers. Because this week's proceedings were to consider legal motions to be decided by the judge, no panel was present.
Another potential hurdle to guilty pleas was a claim by lawyers for two of the detainees that they may not be mentally competent to represent themselves.
The judge ruled that those two detainees could not make decisions about their cases on Monday. The two are Mr. bin al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, charged as a Qaeda financial operative. In addition to Mr. Mohammed, the other detainees are Walid bin Attash, who is accused of selecting many of the hijackers, and Ammar al-Baluchi, a nephew of Mr. Mohammed who is said to have been one of his key deputies in the Sept. 11 plot.
The judge said the competency issues might not be resolved for a substantial period. The three detainees who are representing themselves said they would wait to enter a plea, as Mr. Mohammed put it, "until a decision is made about our brothers."
The judge ruled that he would permit the three men who represent themselves to withdraw motions filed on their behalf, which would set the stage for a guilty plea.
Human rights groups monitoring the proceedings said the judge's uncertainty about the procedures for accepting guilty pleas in a death-penalty case here illustrated the difficulties of using a new legal system to prosecute terrorism suspects.
"It is indicative about the last four years of a failed commission process," said Anthony D. Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
But a Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. Jeffrey D. Gordon, said, "These are extraordinarily complex issues, and we have worked hard to ensure that those accused of war crimes get full and fair trials."
Alice Hoagland, the mother of Mark Bingham, who was killed on Sept. 11, said she was pleased that the military judge had not rushed to allow guilty pleas. The detainees "do not deserve to be dealt with as martyrs," Ms. Hoagland said. "They do not deserve the glory of execution."