9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on trial

Sitting in the front row of a military court at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the world’s most notorious defendants, appeared to be listening intently.

“Can you confirm that Mr. Muhammad pleads guilty to all charges and specifications without exceptions or substitutions?” the judge asked his lawyer as Muhammad watched.

“Yes, we can, your honor,” replied the lawyer.

Sitting in court, 59-year-old Mohammed, his beard dyed bright orange and wearing a hat, tunic and trousers, looked hardly like a photograph distributed shortly after his capture in 2003

Muhammad, the accused mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, was due to plead guilty this week – more than 23 years after almost 3,000 people were killed in what the US government described as “the world’s most outrageous crime American Land in Modern History”.

But two days later, just as Muhammad was supposed to formally enter his decision — the product of a controversial deal he struck with U.S. government prosecutors — he instead watched silently as the judge said the proceedings had been halted on federal orders. appeal court.

It was expected to be a landmark week for a case that has faced a decade of delays. Now, with a new complication, it continues into an uncertain future.

“This is going to be the eternal process,” said a relative of one of the 9/11 victims.

Mohammed previously said he planned “Operation 9/11 from A to Z” – hatching the idea of ​​training pilots to fly commercial jets into buildings and passing those plans on to Osama bin Laden, leader of the militant Islamist group al-Qaeda .

But he has not yet been able to officially admit his guilt in court. This week’s pause comes amid a dispute over a deal struck last year between US prosecutors and his legal team in which Muhammad would not face a death penalty in exchange for his guilty plea.

The US government has months tried to break the agreementsaying that allowing the deal to go forward would cause “irreparable” harm to both him and the American public. Those who support the deal see it as the only way forward in a case complicated by the torture Mohammed and others have endured in US custody and questions about whether it taints evidence.

After a last-minute appeal by prosecutors, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court called for a delay to give them time to consider the arguments before ruling.

But the victims’ families had already flown in once a week to the base to watch the pleas in a viewing gallery, where thick glass separated them and members of the press from the rest of the sprawling, high-security courtroom.

Attendees won their spot on this week’s edition through a lottery. They arranged childcare and paid for kennels for their pets – knowing they could be recalled at any moment. They learned Thursday night while speaking to the media at a hotel on the base that the requests would no longer be honored.

Elizabeth Miller, whose father, New York City firefighter Douglas Miller, died in the attacks when she was six, said she supported the deal moving forward to “bring finality” but acknowledged there were other families who the feeling was too indulgent.

“What’s so frustrating is that every time this goes back and forth, each camp gets their hopes up and then dashes them again,” she said as other relatives nodded in agreement.

“It’s like eternal limbo… It’s like constant whiplash.”

This week’s pause is just the latest in a series of delays, complications and controversy at the base, where the US military has held detainees for 23 years.

The military prison at Guantanamo Bay was established during the “war on terror” that followed the 9/11 attacks, which Muhammad is accused of masterminding. The first detainees were brought there on January 11, 2002.

Then-President George W. Bush had issued a military order to set up military tribunals to try non-US citizens, saying they could be held without charge indefinitely and could not legally challenge their detention.

Dressed in bright orange coveralls, the 20 men were taken to a temporary detention camp called X-Ray, where the cells were open cells and the beds were mats on the floor.

The camp, surrounded by barbed wire, is now long-abandoned and overgrown, with weeds growing over wooden watchtowers and signs along the fence saying “forbidden” in red text.

Although conditions at Guantanamo have improved, it continues to face criticism from the United Nations and rights groups for its treatment of detainees. And it continues to challenge American officials and advocates who hope to see it shut down.

As president, Barack Obama promised to close the prison during his term, saying it was against US values. These efforts were revived under the Biden administration.

Unlike Mohammed, most of the people held there since its inception have never been charged with a crime.

The current detention centers are off-limits to journalists, with access only to those with security clearances.

A short drive away is an Irish pub, a McDonald’s, a bowling alley and a museum serving military personnel and contractors on the base – the majority of whom have never entered the prison grounds.

As legal teams, journalists and families gathered at the base for Mohammed’s planned pleas, a covert operation was carried out early in the morning to transport a group of 11 Yemeni detainees from the base for resettlement in Oman.

With this transfer, the base, which once held nearly 800 detainees, now holds just 15, the lowest number in its history.

Of the rest, all but six have been charged or convicted of war crimes, with lawyers arguing their cases in complex legal battles in the base’s heavily guarded courtrooms.

As the court was dismissed on Friday, the judge said Muhammad’s pleas, if granted, would now go to the next US administration.