9/11 ‘mastermind’ back before Guantanamo judge
he self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks declined to respond to a judge’s questions Saturday and his co-defendant was briefly restrained at a military hearing as five men charged with the worst terror attack in U.S. history appeared in public for the first time in more than three years.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants appeared for arraignment at a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay on charges that include 2,976 counts of murder for the 2001 attacks.
The hearing quickly bogged down before they could be arraigned. Mohammed repeatedly refused to respond to questions from the judge, Army Col. James Pohl; prisoner Walid bin Attash was put in a restraint chair for unspecified reasons and then removed from it after he agreed to behave; and lawyers for all defendants complained that the prisoners were prevented from wearing the civilian clothes of their choice.