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9/11 suspects seek guilty plea bid
AFP - Tuesday, December 9
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Dec 8, 2008 (AFP) - - The five September 11 attacks suspects held at Guantanamo Bay confessed to terror charges, but postponed formally entering guilty pleas until a later court date, thwarting their bid for a speedy imposition of the death penalty and hoped-for martyrdom.
"We don't want to waste time," self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told the judge Monday at the war crimes trial, explaining that he and his co-defendants were seeking quick sentencing and forfeiting a jury trial.
The move signaled a bid by the five detainees to rush to capital punishment before the January 20 inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, who has vowed to close the controversial detention facility and opposes the military commissions process.
Sheikh Mohammed and two co-defendants -- Walid bin Attash and Ali Abdul-Aziz Ali -- said they would only plead guilty pending mental evaluations of two other detainees.
The judge, Army Colonel Stephen Henley, ruled to allow the three men to withdraw all their motions and plea, but he refused to do the same for Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi on concerns they were not mentally competent.
Henley tentatively scheduled a Wednesday morning session where defense lawyers can argue for prosecutors to hand them further information about al-Shibh's health.
All five defendants said they intended to be in court for the session, which is likely to be their last court appearance this year.
But with the judge postponing argument on the case's motions, there is little chance that the pleas would be entered this week, and they may not be heard until next year.
For the first time since the Guantanamo trials began, relatives of the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington that killed 2,973 people watched the tribunal proceedings.
Alice Hoagland -- whose son Mark Bingham died in the attacks when he fought United Airways Flight 93 hijackers -- said she was "really proud that the commission is proceeding in its slow and thoughtful and deliberate way."
Hoagland opposes putting Sheikh Mohammed to death. "I can't think of anybody who less deserves martyrdom," she said.
Monday's court session ended at 2300 GMT but not before Ramzi bin al-Shibh offered holiday greetings to "Osama bin Laden, God protect him" and to "the entire Islamic world" as dawn set on Eid al-Adha, the Muslim holiday commemorating Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son.
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Enlarge Photo
Al-Qaeda militant Khalid Sheikh Mohammed shortly after his arrest in 2003. Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants said Monday they would confess to terror charges that could bring the death penalty but postponed their guilty pleas.
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