The Ten Strangest Things About the 9/11 Arraignment

[rug]

May 6, 2012
Posted by Amy Davidson

“Why is this so hard?” Colonel James Pohl, the judge presiding over the military prosecution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 defendants, said at their arraignment yesterday. At that point, it was already well into the hearing, which would careen on for more than thirteen hours, including breaks for lunch and prayer and shouting. The actual arraignment began about nine hours in; the defendants deferred entering a plea, and the next hearing was set for June 12th. The prosecutors read the eighty-seven-page charge sheet in shifts.

- snip -

10. The Leg: Walid bin Attash, who is accused of training the hijackers, was brought into court in a restraint chair by three guards. As Michelle Shephard, of the Toronto Star, describes it, “A fourth guard brought in his prosthetic leg separately about a minute later.”

9. The Beard: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was last seen with a salt-and-pepper beard. Saturday, he had a red beard. During a break, a Navy spokesman, Captain Robert Durand, told Carol Rosenberg, of the Miami Herald, that the prison “does not provide detainees with hair dye.”

8. “Bite-sized chunks”: The defendants wouldn’t put their earphones in for the simultaneous translation. The court brought in interpreters who would just repeat the proceedings in Arabic for everyone to hear. This got noisy, confusing, and long, with overlapping talk. After some trial and error, Pohl instructed the lawyers to speak in “bite-sized chunks.” The interpreters ended up interpreting complaints about the quality of their interpretation.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2012/05/the-ten-strangest-things-about-the-911-arraignment.html#ixzz1uHqVyR9S

[bemildred]

1. Going through the motions, or trying to, but why? And why now? nt

[leveymg]

2. Sham and farce. Proceedings designed to prevent testimony that would reveal the role US

intelligence has had operating with al-Qaeda (Saudi and Paki paramilitary) against the Russians, Serbs and other parties around the world during the decade after the Russians left Afghanistan.

Sham and farce.

[99th_Monkey]

3. This is why Obama is using drones instead of criminal justice system courts

These carnival trials are usually quite messy and unpredictably so.

Yet we endure that kind of messiness when it comes to other crimes that have a sensational angle; i.e. Casey Anthony,
Michael Jackson's doctor, etc. So I don't have a lot of sympathy or support for just murdering "suspects" (along with
any family members, friends or acquaintances who are unlucky enough to be within blast-range) with drones because
it's too "inconvenient" or embarrassing to use our criminal justice system under the Constitution.

[rug]

4. Sovereignty, along with justice, has become collateral damage.