UPDATED ON:
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
04:48 Mecca time, 01:48 GMT
 
News Americas
9/11 suspects ask to 'plead guilty'

Mohammed, centre, is the alleged planner of the
September 11 attacks [AFP]

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged planner of the September 11 attacks, and four other suspects have asked to plead guilty to the charges they face at a Guantanamo Bay tribunal.

"We all five have reached an agreement to request from the commission an immediate hearing session in order to announce our confessions," said a note said to be from the five read out by the judge, Army Colonel Steven Henley, at a hearing on Monday.

The note said the confessions were being made "without being under any kind of pressure, threat, intimidations or promise from any party," Henley said.

Mohammed, a Pakistani, and four others - Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi, Walid bin Attash and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali - were charged earlier this year with conspiring with al-Qaeda to kill civilians.

The judge also allowed defendants Walid bin Attash and Ali Abdul-Aziz Ali to withdraw all their motions and go to pleas, but he refused to allow the same for two other defendants saying he had concerns over their mental competence, AFP reported.

All five face the death penalty if convicted.

Relatives look on

The note said the defendants made their decision on November 4, the day Barack Obama won the US presidential election.

More than 200 prisoners remain held at the
Guantanamo prison camp [AFP]
Obama has said he will shut down the widely condemned Guantanamo Bay prison camp and try detainees in the regular US civilian or military courts rather than the military tribunals created by the Bush administration.

The note also said all five wished to plead guilty and withdraw any pending motions filed by their military-appointed lawyers, Henley said.

When asked by the judge if he was prepared to enter pleas Monday to all the charges should the commission allow the defendants to withdraw their motions, Mohammed, dressed in white and wearing a white turban, with a long grey and black beard, said "Yes."

"We don't want to waste time," he told the judge, speaking in English, adding that "I am not trusting any Americans".

The five defendants were watched at the tribunal proceedings by five relatives of those killed on during the 2001 attacks, in which 3000 people were killed.

Alice Hoglan, the mother of Mark Bingham, who was killed in the attacks, said she was "really proud that the commission is proceeding in its slow and thoughtful and deliberate way, despite the histrionics of these guys."

'Waterboarding'

Al Jazeera's Nasser Hssaini at Guantanamo Bay said the pleas were a major victory for the US military tribunals, which have been widely condemned by international human rights groups.

Obama's opposition to the tribunals make it unlikely that they will continue after he takes office on January 20.

The US claims Mohammed confessed to masterminding the attacks and to involvement in about 30 other plots, but his lawyers say the confession was extracted by torture.

The CIA acknowledged earlier this year that Mohammed had been interrogated using the controversial "waterboarding" technique which simulates drowning.

 Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Feedback Number of comments : 7
 
Joe
Australia
09/12/2008
Anything is possible when tortured.
If we are to believe that this confession is not the product of constant torture, then we are as naive as they come. It is well documented that many confessions obtained under such conditions have turned out to be false but that does not seem to matter to the US administration. They still regard it as a victory.

kimmy
Canada
09/12/2008
confessions
Of course they are going to confess. They were tortured. The US will see this a vindication of their efforts. A very sad day for democracy.

Adamu
Nigeria
09/12/2008
9/11 "suspects" tortured to plead guilty
What do you expect from someone who has been tortured in order to extract confession from them? Gradually, the world is beginning to unravel the hypocracy of Western democracy and cowardice of Islam-haters. When a "civilisation" is near its end their leaders become desparate and behave in the most savage behaviour. History is only repeating itself. Poor "Western Civilisation"!

Fact Checker
United States
12/12/2008
Guilty or Tortured?
Go to www.ameritocracy.com to vote and comment on Khalid Sheik Mohammed's statement, along with 1000s of others.

Ben
Netherlands
12/12/2008
9/11 Suspects ask to plead guilty
"Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which they have had all the guarantees necessary for their defence" (Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948). Their alleged guilt aside, no country that espouses freedom and democracy for all can ever be trusted if it has severed this golden thread of justice if it has indeed tortured the defendants. You should read about the case of the 'Guildford Four'

Kaji Ali
Pakistan
09/12/2008
Not guilty?
Should we be naive enough to think that they are not responsible?

Bigmel1981
Malaysia
09/12/2008
9/11 suspects ask to plead guilty
Total setup

 
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