A court sketch of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed reading a document during a hearing in May. Source: AP
FIVE Guantanamo prisoners charged in the September 11 attacks are back before a military tribunal, apparently forgoing the protest that turned their last appearance into an unruly 13-hour spectacle.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has portrayed himself as the mastermind behind the worst terrorist attack on US soil, and his four co-defendants sat quietly at the defence tables under the watchful eyes of military guards. Defendant Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi calmly responded to the judge's questions about his request for additional legal counsel.
It was a stark contrast to their arraignment in May on charges that include terrorism and murder. At that earlier session, one prisoner was briefly restrained, the men refused to listen to the court translation system headphones, they ignored the judge and two stood up to pray at one point.
The judge, Army Colonel James Pohl, started the pre-trial hearing that is expected to last a week to consider about two dozen preliminary legal issues required to move the case toward an eventual trial, likely at least a year away.
The main items on the week's agenda are broad security rules for the war crimes tribunal of five Guantanamo prisoners charged in the September 11 attacks, including measures to prevent the accused from publicly revealing what happened to them in the CIA's secret network of overseas prisons.
Prosecutors have asked the judge to approve what is known as a protective order that is intended to prevent the release of classified information during the eventual trial of the five.
This photo obtained on March 1, 2003 shows alleged plotter of the September 11, 2001 attack Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Picture: AFP
Lawyers for the defendants say the rules, as proposed, will hobble their defence. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed a challenge to the protective order, says the restrictions will prevent the public from learning what happened to Mohammed and his co-defendants during several years of CIA confinement and interrogation.
The protective order requires the court to use a 40-second delay during court proceedings so that spectators, who watch behind sound-proof glass, can be prevented from hearing - from officials, lawyers or the defendants themselves - the still-classified details of the CIA's rendition and detention program.
"What we are challenging is the censorship of the defendant's testimony based on their personal knowledge of the government's torture and detention of them," said Hina Shamsi, an ACLU attorney who will be arguing against the protective order during the pre-trial hearing at the US base in Cuba.
The order, which is also being challenged by a coalition of media organisations that includes The Associated Press, is overly broad because it would "classify the defendants own knowledge, thoughts and experience," Ms Shamsi said in an interview.
"It's a truly extraordinary and chilling proposal that the government is asking the court to accept," she said.
The military hearing is taking place at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Picture: AP.
Protective orders are standard method in civilian and military trials to set rules for handling evidence for the prosecution and defence. Military prosecutors argue in court papers that the Sept. 11 trial requires additional security because the accused have personal knowledge of classified information such as interrogation techniques and knowledge about which other countries provided assistance in their capture.
"Each of the accused is in the unique position of having had access to classified intelligence sources and methods," the prosecution says in court papers. "The government, like the defence, must protect that classified information from disclosure."
Army Brigadier General Mark Martins, the chief prosecutor for the military commissions, said on Sunday that the security precautions are necessary to prevent the release information that could harm US intelligence operations or personnel around the world, and not to prevent embarrassing the government or to cover-up wrongdoing.
"Our government's sources and methods are not an open book," Brig-Gen Martins said.
The US government has acknowledged that before the defendants were taken to Guantanamo in September 2006 they were subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as the simulated drowning method known as water-boarding. Defence attorneys say the treatment will be used to form the basis of their defence but the proposed protective order limits their ability to make that case in court and in public advocacy on behalf of their clients.
"It's a way in which the government can hide what it did to these men during the period of detention by the CIA," said Army Captain Jason Wright, a Pentagon-appointed attorney for Mohammed. "I think we need to bring the truth to the light of day on these issues."
The judge's approval of the protective order, which may not happen this week, must occur before the September 11 case can move forward. Defence lawyers cannot begin to review classified evidence against their clients until it is in place.
The protective order is the most contentious of about two dozen preliminary motions scheduled to be heard during the hearing. Other matters include whether the defendants can be required to attend court sessions, what clothing they are allowed to wear and defence requests for additional resources for what is considered one of the most significant terrorism prosecutions in US history.
The families of people killed in the September 11 attacks have been invited to military installations in the US states of New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and New York City to watch the pre-trial hearings. The general public can view the proceedings at Fort Meade, Maryland.
An earlier round of hearings in May was also transmitted to viewing locations for relatives of the victims, survivors of the attacks, and emergency personnel who responded to the disaster.
Mohammed and his four co-defendants are being prosecuted in a special military tribunal for war-time offenses known as a military commission. They were arraigned May 5 on charges that include terrorism, conspiracy and 2976 counts of murder in violation of the law of war, one count for each known victim of the September 11 attacks at the time the charges were filed. They could get the death penalty if convicted.
Mohammed, a Pakistani citizen who grew up in Kuwait and attended college in North Carolina, has told military officials that he planned the September 11 attacks "from A to Z" and was involved in about 30 other terrorist plots. He has said, among other things, that he personally beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The other defendants are Ramzi Binalshibh; Walid bin Attash; Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi; and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali.
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