9/11 Charges Reinstated

I am a bit behind on this story, but the Obama administration recently announced that charges against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 4 other members of al Qaeda were recently reinstated in military tribunals. Of course this still won't stop Truthers from going on about how Osama isn't being charged....

Dear 9/11 Families,

We wanted to inform you that charges will be sworn tomorrow against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Bin ‘Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa al Hawsawi for their involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks. The eight charges common to all five of the accused are: Conspiracy, Murder in Violation of the Law of War, Attacking Civilians, Attacking Civilian Objects, Intentionally Causing Serious Bodily Injury, Destruction of Property in Violation of the Law of War, Hijacking Aircraft, and Terrorism.

The Conspiracy charge details 167 overt acts allegedly committed in furtherance of the 9/11 attacks, and alleges the following against the five accused in the following order:

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is alleged to have been the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks by proposing the operational concept to Usama bin Laden as early as 1996, obtaining approval and funding from Usama bin Laden for the attacks, overseeing the entire operation, and training the hijackers in all aspects of the operation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Of course the Truthers will also go on about how KSM was waterboarded, although there is no indication that the trial will even introduce any confession as evidence, well, other than the fact that he pled guilty, years after the last waterboarding.

Bush "Admits" Waterboarding of KSM

I don't know what the "admits" is supposed to mean in the headline; it's not as if this comes as some surprise:

"Yeah, we waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed," the former president told a business audience in Grand Rapids, Michigan. "I'd do it again to save lives."

KSM Back to the Tribunal?

I'm a little sorry to hear this as the trial would give the Truthers fits, but I'll stick with my earlier expressed opinion, which is that I'm a results guy, not a process guy. As long as the result is either life or death for KSM, I'll be satisfied.

President Obama's advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said, a step that would reverse Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s plan to try him in civilian court in New York City.

KSM Trial Moving from NYC

When will the conspiracy theories start?

The Obama administration on Friday gave up on its plan to try the Sept. 11 plotters in Lower Manhattan, bowing to almost unanimous pressure from New York officials and business leaders to move the terrorism trial elsewhere.

One suggested locale: Guantanamo Bay.

The trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed won't be held in lower Manhattan and could take place in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, sources said last night.

Administration officials said that no final decision had been made but that officials of the Department of Justice and the White House were working feverishly to find a venue that would be less expensive and less of a security risk than New York City.

My Response to Kevin Barrett

I was rather amused as to how Kevin Barrett quoted me (without identification of course) in his rant about the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that Pat cited below.

The traitor doth protest too much! Anybody with the faintest understanding of psychology can see that these lines are intended to PREVENT truth-seekers from supporting KSM's obvious and demonstrable innocence, by ridiculing the idea in a manner designed to play on truther insecurities and foster inaction. Anybody who thinks that this anti-truth propagandist really wants us to join Constitutionalists and anti-torture activists in a free KSM movement, and thus impede the sanctifying of the 9/11 big lie in the history books, is of questionable intentions and/or intelligence.

I posted the following response to his statement, although I do not know whether he will post it, since in typical truther fashion, he does not have open comments.

A salam alikom Kev. Sorry to disappoint you, but that quote you cited of mine, was not part of some reverse psychology secret gambit, it was my actual opinion. Sorry, it is not that complicated and nefarious. I am simply not that clever. As I have argued for years, I find the disingenuous nature of the self-styled ”9/11 truth movement” to be rather bizarre. I obviously don’t believe the US government carried out the 9/11 attacks, but if I did, I would be raising bloody hell over the issue. I and my comrades would be out in the streets. To the contrary, the vast majority of this movement seems to treat this matter with all the seriousness of a minor policy disagreement like the health insurance debate, content with an occasional post on a forum or the ubiquitous YouTube videos. This actually somewhat understates the matter, in that the recent healthcare debate has resulted in hundreds of angry protests involving tens of thousands of people, as opposed to the events of the truth movement, who have trouble breaking into the double digits in attendance with bored advocates rambling incoherently about put options.

Now Mr. Barrett, I would have to except from this comment. He actually seems to behave the way most people should behave if they actually seriously believed this stuff. Now I still think he is a complete
nutcase, but at least he is an honest nutcase who stands by what he believes. Jon Gold seems somewhat saner, although this is a rather low bar to clear, but he rather cowardly refuses to take a stand on virtually anything, taking this whole “just asking questions” game to an extreme in a movement hardly noted for its courage in the first place. I find the accusation that Gold is somehow working for us to be hilarious, especially given the outright scorn I have treated him with for years. But hey, I guess in a world where you believe even hobbyist blogger software engineers from Seattle are covert CIA operatives, anything is possible.

So to summarize, yes, I really do feel that if the “truth movement” really believes in what it says it believes, it should publically defend Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Anything else would be hypocritical.
You guys have been demanding an investigation and a public forum for years, insisting that the truth should come out in the courts. Now that there will be a public court hearing, filled with scores of top-notch Ivy League educated lawyers on both sides, retreating from backing up your public statements because somebody might call you names would be pathetic. Not that such a response would be much of a surprise from this movement.

Background on KSM

NPR has an interesting look back at Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's first trip to the US. Remember, he is one of the troofer's "Arabs living in a cave".

The professed mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is expected to arrive in New York for trial by the end of the year. But it won't be his first trip to America. He has been here before, as a college student in the early 1980s.

Mohammed's first real taste of America came at a small two-year Baptist school called Chowan College in 1983. Nestled among the cotton fields of Murfreesboro, N.C., Mohammed arrived hoping his time at Chowan would become a springboard to an American education.

KSM, 4 Others Coming to New York for Trial

I am a few days late getting to this, but it bears mentioning in case anyone missed it. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 4 of his comrades are now going to be tried in civilian courts in New York City, which predictably has brought criticism from Rudy Giuliani and others.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani accused the Obama administration of "repeating the mistake of history" by bringing the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and his accomplices to New York for a civilian trial, saying the administration has definitively reverted to a "pre-9/11 approach."

The mayor who oversaw rescue and recovery efforts in the wake of the attacks on lower Manhattan told "Fox News Sunday" the president is only granting the "wish" of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad at the expense of the American people and that the conspirators should be tried in a military tribunal.

I'll avoid the political aspects for now, but if you look at any of the troofer hangouts it is just amusing how they are all hoping for some dramatic Perry Mason moment where the "truth" is unveiled. Of course they ignore the fact that there is considerable evidence involved, without even getting into controversial subjects such as interrogation.

I just hope the troofers finally put their money where their mouth is. I want to see a free KSM movement, just as powerful as the free Mumia nuts. If they really believe what they say they believe, they have no excuse not to do something. Perhaps Richard Gage and David Ray Griffin can appear as expert witnesses or something?

Another Family Member Speaks Out on the Gitmo Trials

From the New York Daily News:

My focus that morning was on one of the five men. I could hardly believe my eyes when he came into focus: Khalid Shaik Mohammed, the man who boasted of having masterminded the attacks. He sat there in front of us, preening his beard. Did he seem humbled or chastened? Hardly. He looked like, deep inside, he was laughing in our faces.

What we then saw unfold was less of a trial than a farce. Mohammed dismissed his council - only to call them back. He sat there at the table, in front of his personal computer, complaining about something he had read in The Wall Street Journal - holding up the newspaper for the rest of us to see.

Before long, the scene was overwhelmed by a steady stream of what sounded to me like legal minutiae and trivialities. It was sickening. It was surreal.

I will never forget what interrupted that: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's defense declaring to the court that their client was requesting a cushion because his seat in the van had been too hard. A debate unfolded: the prosecution claimed the cushion had already been provided; the defense insisted he had not received one.

Was this really happening? I went outside for air. My on-base escort followed and asked me what was wrong. "Three thousand people are dead and they are arguing over a cushion," I answered.

Then came a two hour break - one for lunch, the second for the defendants' specially protected hour of prayer.

It wasn't long before the circus resumed. Back at trial, Mohammed burst out with this (according to my notes): "I did it I said I did it! I am proud I did it for jihad!! We say we are guilty just sentence me!"

The words were chilling but something cut even deeper to my core: his gaze. Mohammed turned to make eye contact with us. We stared back.

Obama Suspends Gitmo Prosecutions

If he was going to break one campaign promise, I would prefer it was this one.

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Jan. 20 -- In one of its first actions, the Obama administration instructed military prosecutors late Tuesday to seek a 120-day suspension of legal proceedings involving detainees at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- a clear break with the approach of the outgoing Bush administration.

The instruction came in a motion filed with a military court in the case of five defendants accused of organizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The motion called for "a continuance of the proceedings" until May 20 so that "the newly inaugurated president and his administration [can] review the military commissions process, generally, and the cases currently pending before military commissions, specifically."

My concern is what they do with figures like KSM and the 20th hijacker, Mohamed al-Qhatani. The article notes:

The legal maneuver appears designed to provide the Obama administration time to refashion the prosecution system and potentially treat detainees as criminal defendants in federal court or have them face war-crimes charges in military courts-martial. It is also possible that the administration could re-form and relocate the military commissions before resuming trials.

You put KSM and al-Qhatani in the federal court system and the possibility exists that a judge will set them free. Indeed, the fruitcakes at the ACLU are essentially asking for that:

"This is a good step in the right direction, although we still think that the unconditional withdrawal of all charges and shutting down this tainted system is warranted," said Jamil Dakwar, director of the human rights program at the American Civil Liberties Union. "The president's order leaves open the option of this discredited system remaining in existence."

Some 9-11 family members are outraged:

"We demand that this camp stay open and that the process continue," said Joe Holland, whose son was among those killed during the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and on the Pentagon in Washington.

"Right here, right now, this is a good process, they are getting a fair trial," Mr. Holland told reporters at the U.S. facility in Cuba, referring to the military commissions established by the Bush administration to try "war on terror" detainees held at the facility.

Let me make this clear. I don't care about the process, as long as the outcome is satisfactory. If KSM or al-Qhatani end up walking, then I am going to be quite outraged.

Sorry To Disappoint You There, Jon

Jon Gold, complaining about the recent announcement by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others that they are going to plead guilty to planning 9/11:

KSM...

And friends wrote a letter to the judge today that requests, "an immediate hearing session to announce our confessions," and I was AMAZED at the amount of articles citing well-known family members Lorie Van Auken, Mindy Kleinberg, Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, Bob McIlvaine, Donna Marsh O'Connor, Bill Doyle, Bruce DeCell, Barry Zelman, Michele Little, Sally Regenhard, and Monica Gabrielle's opinions on the subject. AMAZED!!!

In case you couldn't tell... there were 0.

I guess these family members don't count, they aren't celebrities.

They were proud to be guilty and that says a lot about them," said Maureen Santora, of Long Island City, New York, whose firefighter son Christopher died responding to the World Trade Center attacks.

At a press conference after the hearing, her husband Alexander held up photos of firefighters, his eyes brimming with tears.

"I know my son is with us," he said, his voice thick. He wore a New York Fire Department cap.

The Santoras were among nine victims' relatives who watched the proceedings, the first time family members have been allowed to observe the war-crimes trials. Maureen Santora watched from the back of the courtroom, wearing black and clutching a photo of her son in uniform.

Alice Hoagland of Redwood Estates, California, whose son Mark Bingham was on United Flight 93 whose passengers fought hijackers before it crashed in rural Pennsylvania, said the defendants should not be executed and become martyrs.

"They do not deserve the glory of executions," Hoagland said. "I want these dreadful people to live out their lives in a U.S. prison .... under the control of people they profess to hate."

Or these family members:

"I don't want them dying a martyr's death, but I want them gone," said Jay Saloman of Seaford, whose brother, Wayne Saloman, 43, was killed in the attacks. "I'm looking for some satisfaction."Monday morning, Saloman and his family watched with pride as his brother's 15-year-old son, Justin, cut the ribbon on a new playground at eafSord Manor Elementary dedicated to Wayne Saloman's memory.

It was a joyful moment for a family that has struggled with grief and anger in the wake of the attacks.

Who is disrespecting the family members again?

Will This Kill the Troofers?

KSM says he's ready to plead guilty:

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said Monday he is ready to confess but will wait until all five can respond to the capital charges in unison. He said: "We want everyone to plea together."

Or will they claim he's been brainwashed into believing he did it?

Michelle Malkin has similar thoughts. But Jules Crittenden points out that KSM's prior admissions of guilt haven't changed their minds.

My take? The Troofers will fall back to acknowledging that Atta and his buddies did the attack, but will claim that the government knew beforehand, let the attacks happen and made things worse via "controlled demolition" at the WTC. This "LIHOP plus CD" conspiracy theory was expressed to me by Rob Bishop a few years ago when I debated Jason Bermas on his radio show.

The good news, I suppose, is that we'll finally stop hearing the nonsense about how seven of the hijackers are still alive.

Update: More information here.

Correspondents say no trial date has been set and there seems little chance that one will begin before President-elect Barack Obama takes office.

He has said he is opposed to the military tribunal and has pledged to close down the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.

It is possible that they foresee that they may not be executed under an Obama Administration, and their hopes of martyrdom may give way to being held prisoner for life at Supermax in Colorado.

KSM Trial Begins

The trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed begins, with the defendant trying an interesting strategy in interrogating the judge. I don't know why he doesn't go with the "Dick Cheney did it" approach, which supposedly is obvious to everyone.

Invoking names such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Buchanan, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, he admitted organizer of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, probed the private opinions of the military judge who is overseeing his case Tuesday in a series of sometimes testy exchanges during a hearing on the judge's impartiality.

Mohammed, wearing a black turban, began by asking Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann about his religious beliefs and whether he had any association with the religious organizations of Pat Robertson or the late Jerry Falwell.

"If you are in one of those denominations, you are not going to be fair," said Mohammed, who switched between Arabic and English when he spoke to the judge. The judge said he had not belonged to any congregation for some time but had attended Lutheran and Episcopal churches.

The pretrial hearing provided Mohammed and four other defendants facing murder and war crimes charges for their alleged involvement in the terrorist attacks with the opportunity to discover any bias that would suggest Kohlmann should recuse himself. Three of the five, including Mohammed, are representing themselves.

Kohlmann, who will rule on his own impartiality, noted that he had responded to nearly 600 questions in writing. Tuesday's proceeding allowed the defendants and their attorneys to ask follow-up questions.

Hamdan Trial

The trial of Osama bin Laden's driver finishes its first phase, with the defense having rested, and the testimony of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed being read.

The statements of Mohammed, who first appeared in court in June and railed at the military commission system that is expected to try him as well, revealed no lack of self-confidence. He called himself the "executive director of 9/11" and said he oversaw all al-Qaeda cells operating outside Afghanistan. He dismissed drivers such as Hamdan, a Yemeni father of two with a fourth-grade education, as mostly "illiterate."

His statement said Americans do not understand that al-Qaeda is a multifaceted terrorist organization that also employs a support network of professionals, such as teachers and computer engineers. "We are not gangs," he wrote.

"As the American Army (we) have drivers, cooks, crewmen and legal personal," Mohammed wrote, according to a translation from his original Arabic that was provided to the jurors. "We also, are human beings . . . we have interests in life. Our people have wives and children and schools. . . . You can not understand terrorism and Al-Qaeda from 9/11 operation."

He said al-Qaeda has been able to carry out its attacks successfully because of the group's diffuse structure and penchant for secrecy.

For some reason Mohammed keeps claiming that Al Qaeda, rather than the Bush administration, carried out the attacks.

Jon Gold Asks Another Stupid Question

Jon Gold's whole shtick is that he is not making any claims, he is just asking questions, however they are usually stupid questions. Today, regarding the trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed:

Do you think we'll get a new picture of KSM? - Jon

Uhh, no. If he had been paying the slightest bit of attention to the trial he would know that photographers are banned from this court room, as is common practice, instead they have those courtroom sketch artists.

Bizarrely, Mohammed, who has openly bragged about planning the murder of 3,000 Americans, even before he was captured, complained about these sketches:

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Accused September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed objected that a courtroom sketch artist had made his nose look too wide on Thursday and sent her back to revise the drawing.

"He didn't like the nose," artist Janet Hamlin said.

Mohammed asked Hamlin to obtain a copy of a photo taken shortly after his 2003 capture in Pakistan and redraw the nose to look as it did in that picture, the artist said.

Mohammed and four accused co-conspirators appeared in court at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba for the first time on charges of conspiring with al Qaeda and murdering nearly 3,000 people in the 2001 hijacked plane attacks on the United States.

Cameras are banned in the top-security courtroom so news organizations hired Hamlin to sketch the scene. Military censors review Guantanamo courtroom sketches before they can be released to ensure they do not reveal any national secrets.

We are redrawing sketches to avoid offending the defendant? What kind of show trial is this?

Additionally the truthers are complaining that the trials are politically biased, citing the alleged omission of family members from the court room. Debra Burlingame, the sister of AA77 pilot Chick Burlingame, who famously characterized Loose Change with "The only thing they (the filmmakers) seem to have gotten right about the Sept. 11 attacks is the date when they occurred," takes issue with this:

The New York Daily News falsely and dishonestly reported yesterday (”9/11 Kin barred from Gitmo Trial,” by James Gordon Meek) that 9/11 family members have been barred from observing the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four of his co-conspirators. In fact, the Daily News and its reporter know that the trial, which has yet to be scheduled and which may not commence for several months, will be broadcast on closed circuit tv and all 9/11 family members will be able to monitor the gavel-to-gavel proceedings from remote locations here in the United States.

Further, it falsely reports that the DOD singled out one family member to “secretly” attend Thursday’s arraignment of these five 9/11 defendants, heavily insinuating that the purpose was to propagandize on behalf of the Bush administration, “alongside conservatives from the American Legion and Judicial Watch.” I am the family member the article names, calling me a “GOP loyalist whose brother Charles died in the attacks.” Essentially, the article accuses me of using my brother’s brutal murder as an opportunity to engage in a “covert” operation whose end is crass partisan politics.

The 9/11 Charges

I noticed a thread at JREf on this detailed 90 page document, which lays out the the charges against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five others in military tribunals. Of course we still are going to have to listen to the while, "there is no evidence against bin Laden" thing.

CHARGE I: VIOLATION OF 10 U.S.C. §950v(b)(28), CONSPIRACY

Specification: In that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin `Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi and Mohamed al Kahtani, persons subject to trial by military commission as alien unlawful enemy combatants, did, at various locations, from in or about 1996 to in or about May 2003, conspire and agree with Usama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, Mohammed Atef (a/k/a Abu Hafs al Masri), 19 individuals who hijacked four commercial airliners on September 11, 2001: (American Airlines Flight 11, hereinafter AA #11) Mohamed Atta, Satam al Suqami, Waleed al Shehri, Wail al Shehri, Abdul Aziz al Omari; (United Airlines Flight 175, hereinafter UA #175) Marwan al Shehhi, Hamza al Ghamdi, Ahmed al Ghamdi, Mohand al Shehri, Fayez Rashid Ahmed Hassan Al Qadi Banihammad (hereinafter Fayez Banihammad); (United Airlines Flight 93, hereinafter UA #93) Ziad Samir Jarrah, Ahmad Ibrahim A. al Haznawi, Ahmed al Nami, Saeed al Ghamdi; (American Airlines Flight 77, hereinafter AA #77) Hani Hanjour, Khalid al Mihdhar, Nawaf al Hazmi, Majed Moqed, Salem al Hazmi; and various other members and associates of the al Qaeda organization, known and unknown, and willfully join an enterprise of persons with the intent to further the unlawful purpose of the enterprise; said agreement and enterprise sharing a common criminal purpose known to the six accused to commit the following offenses triable by military commission: attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, murder in violation of the law of war, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, and terrorism.

Khalid Shekh Mohammed Tribunal Audio Out

The audio from a tribunal of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has been made public. The MP3 can be found here, along with a transcript in PDF format available here and a summary of evidence here. Of course the truthers will declare this is all fake, because uh... well... we all know how all of those military lawyers are just shills anyway!

It's a Great Day for the Irish

Except for lardbutt Rosie O'Donnell, who finds herself in hot water for her intemperate support for the mastermind of 9-11.

Rosie O'Donnell made a big deal on "The View" of her contention that one should not believe the confession of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed when he listed all the plots he'd cooked up against America and Americans, including 9/11, and that he personally beheaded Danny Pearl. After all, Rosie said with her typical razor-sharp analysis, he was tortured, he was confessing inside the torture capital of the world, Guantanamo Bay, and he didn't have a lawyer or a witness present.

This is what happens when you hate the president and the administration so much that even the world's most evil people look to you like little angels next to George W. Bush.

But he was robbed of his humanity! And he hates Bush, just like Ro!

She finds herself in some pretty interesting company:

O'Donnell echoed the sentiments of Palestinian terrorist Abu Jihad, who told WND today, "I am sure the Americans tortured Mohammad and forced him to say these untrue things. Isn't it strange it took three years since his arrest for the supposed confession?"

Pointing out Mohammed was arrested in March 2003, O'Donnell asked, "Why hasn't he admitted it until now?" according to clips posted on the weblog HotAir.com.

In fact, he admitted it years ago, even before he was captured.

Reaction Among The Blogs Regarding KSM Confession

Our buddy Allahpundit noticed an additional item in the confession:

He offered a chilling confession to “managing and following up on the Cell for the Production of Biological Weapons, such as anthrax and others, and following up on Dirty Bomb Operations on American soil.”…

Anthrax, you say? In fairness, he does not say he orchestrated the anthrax attacks.

Power Line notes that KSM was treated rather deferentially by the tribunal:

Beyond that, what is most striking about the hearing is the elaborate courtesy and respect with which Khalid is treated by the presiding officer. It is somewhat galling to see this sadistic mass murderer chatting amiably with the President of the tribunal, complaining that his name is misspelled in one of the pleadings, and comparing himself to George Washington. I can only wonder what those who howl endlessly about America's allegedly barbaric treatment of terrorist detainees would make of it. Khalid obviously saw no reason to fear for his own well-being.

The liberal blogs are focused like a laser on the torture issue. Democrat Tayler Marsh:

Not to worry, either. Because after living through waterboarding... elcectro shock...some more waterboarding... being hung by his thumbs and other delicate ahem extremities, there's no way he could be lying. Right? He wouldn't just be telling us what we want to hear, right?

The Mahablog:

Given the nature of the, um, inducements to the confessions, we have no way to know how much is true and how much is I’ll tell you anything you want to hear. All we know for certain is that the Bush Administration is, once again, waving the bloody shirt of 9/11 to distract us from its political problems.