9/11 Judge: "Why Is This So Hard?"

[xchrom]

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/05/911-trial-khalid-sheikh-mohammed



Saturday's arraignment of the alleged 9/11 conspirators at Gitmo's war court wheezed along like an old man with a two-pack a day habit, as the accused boycotted the proceedings and their defense attorneys sought to shift the focus of the proceeding to their clients' abuse in American custody.

"He is not participating because of the torture that was imposed upon him," said David Nevin, the attorney representing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Niven said that Mohammed, who appeared in white attire with his beard dyed reddish-brown, was "deeply concerned about the fairness of the proceeding."

All five detainees opted to silently protest the arraignment, where it took about an hour and a half merely to establish legal representation for the defendants as Judge Captain James L. Pohl struggled to control the courtroom at times. The hearing was a stark contrast from four years earlier, when Mohammed had gone on an six-minute rant claiming responsibility for everything from the 9/11 attacks to the gruesome murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Where Mohammed had once sought to be tried by military commission, comparing himself to American founding father George Washington battling the British, Saturday he showed no evidence of his previous taste for theatrics and bombast. The Obama administration had initially intended to try Mohammed and his alleged co-conspirators in a federal court in New York, but reversed course after a fierce bipartisan backlash. While opponents of a criminal trial agued that it would be both a security risk and a spectacle, the scene at Gitmo's war court could only be described as a mess.

"I think a federal judge would have said 'sit down, counsel!' about 90 minutes ago," said Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel with Human Rights Watch, who was observing the arraignment from Fort Meade, Maryland. On the other hand, Prasow said, Pohl may be concerned about how bringing the hammer down on the defense might impact the legitimacy of the proceedings, since military commissions are more favorably disposed toward the prosecution than federal courts. "Pohl is obviously aware that the world is watching," Prasow said.

[BigDemVoter]

1. I was watching this earlier. . . .

and was thinking, "Why is there such surprise that there's a circus atmosphere?" I, for one, am NOT shocked by any of the defendants' behavior; I think any simple minded moron could have foreseen this.

What struck me was that some family member stated that that these defendants would not be allowed to avoid participating in this trial.


Yeah, right.