Another key issue is whether computer data and other evidence obtained during joint U. But since they did it, you know, rough justice style, it becomes a much bigger and more difficult case to prosecute. That observer status afforded me privileges that wouldn't have been extended to me as journalist, including the ability to sit in the courtroom for the entire proceedings. During one break, KSM stood, looked back and made sustained eye contact with me.
His face betrayed no emotion of any kind, but his stare was penetrating. Finally, I smiled and raised my arms to my sides with cupped hands facing up. He gave no response. Of course, they said. Despite facing the death penalty for their roles in the Sept.
They could not even file legal motions in their defense, they said, or have pretrial documents translated into their native languages. In separate hearings, Mohammed and Walid bin Attash and their legal advisors ticked off one example after another of a pretrial system that they said was barely operating.
We are in hell ," Mohammed told the military judge, Marine Col. Ralph H. Kohlmann, in his broken English. That arraigwas nine years ago, and things have gone downhill since. At least four judges have come and gone. Key prosecutors and defense lawyers have either retired or moved on, some out of sheer frustration. The hearing on the qualifications of a new judge, Air Force Col.
Matthew McCall, was the 42nd round of pretrial hearings since the arraignment in May Defense lawyers are objecting to literally dozens of issues that they say would deprive their clients of a fair trial — and the American public of the transparent, just and legitimate verdict that they deserve.
For his part, Pellegrino fought off mandatory retirement for years, he told me, because he wanted to have the full weight of his FBI authority behind him when he finally testified against Mohammed in court.
Connell said if the detainees had been taken to a U. And then that had a lot of consequences afterwards. President Barack Obama tried to move the trial to the Southern District of New York in and was shot down by Congress, citing security and financial considerations. President Joe Biden, like his Democratic predecessor, has suggested support for Guantanamo's closure, but when press secretary Jen Psaki was asked in July, she said "I don't have a timeline for you.
More than a dozen people involved in the process told me this week that it could take another decade for the self-admitted mastermind to face justice. And if defense lawyers have their way, one told me, there will never be a trial at all. It lacks even the most basic due process protections afforded even minor criminal suspects in conventional American courts, he said. But when it gets pushed aside and kept away, it just gets forgotten. By adopting the same kind of brutal tactics that dictators had used, he said, the U.
Facebook Twitter Email. Reddit Share this article on Reddit. Email Email this story. Share Share this story. Quote icon. Published pm UTC Sep. The military commissions at Guantanamo were established by former President George W Bush in to prosecute detainees accused of organising the September 11 and other attacks outside the bounds of US criminal law.
The US Navy base at Guantanamo is on the island of Cuba, where inmates do not have most of the protections of US law and where successive administrations have refused to apply international conventions. But public backlash and political pressure from Congress forced Obama to back down on the plan to conduct the trial in the US instead of Cuba, and after a two-and-half-year pause, proceedings returned to the military tribunal in Guantanamo.
Mohammed was captured by the US in a covert operation in and rendered to CIA black sites in Afghanistan and Poland, where he was waterboarded times and sexually attacked, according to his lawyer. Stan Honda reflects on the death and destruction he witnessed and some of the iconic images he captured that day. The attacks fuelled racism and increased US government surveillance, altering the lives of countless Muslim Americans.
By William Roberts. So here we are torturing people and pretending it's not torture and then thinking that we can give them a fair trial. It's just disgusting. We should have never got into that," Smith said. Clive Stafford Smith, who has represented many people in Guantanamo, believes the detention centre is "a black stain" in the US democratic system.
I was one of the three lawyers who brought Russell v. Bush, the very first case that opened it up to lawyers.
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