The U.S. war crimes tribunal holding court at the naval detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appointed a U.S. military lawyer to serve as the legal representative to the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. The military ordered Navy Capt. Prescott Prince to serve as the lawyer for Khalid Sheik Mohammed following February charges of murder and conspiring to commit terrorist acts against the United States and its interests.
Defense Department officials must first approve the charges and the possible death penalty before the case can proceed, but Prince already mounted protests against the fairness of the trial. Of note is the issue of "waterboarding" and the detention of KSM at CIA "black sites." The rules outlining court procedures in Guantanamo prohibit the use of evidence gained through torture, following the rules of international treaties, but it leaves the ultimate decision to the trial judge.
“You start with the fact that you’ve broken the rules — a secret prison, torturing. Waterboarding. Harsh extreme techniques. Using cruel, coercive techniques to extract information,” said Prince. “I just don't see how you can give him a fair trial.”
Meanwhile, Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al-Darbi, the brother in-law of Khalid al-Mihdar who helped hijack American Airlines Flight 77 and crash it into the Pentagon, walked out of his pretrial proceedings at the Guantanamo court, calling the whole system a "scam."
“I believe there is no international court or local court in the United States that treats detainees or accused people the same way we are treated here,” Darbi said through a translator.
Following bickering between his lawyers and translators, his attorney advised him his presence at the hearing was voluntary, after which he got up and left under escort.
Darbi faces charges of conspiracy to commit and providing material support for terrorist acts against the United States and its interests. He allegedly trained and taught at al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan in the late 1990s and provided material for a plot in 2002 to attack ships off the Strait of Hormuz.
