Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: a Guantanamo, intanto

qualcuno inizia a parlare
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122874988767988097.html
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Four Other 9/11 Suspects Want to Confess
By JESS BRAVIN
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants
said they wanted to confess to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror conspiracy
and asked a military judge to take their guilty pleas at once.
"We don't want to waste time," Mr. Mohammed told the judge, Col.
Stephen Henley. "We want to enter a plea" to capital charges stemming
from the hijack attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
[Khalid Sheikh Mohammed courtroom drawing] Getty Images
A courtoom drawing reviewed by the military shows Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, top, and co-defendants Walid Bin Attash, second from top,
and Ramzi Bin al Shibh, left, attending a pre-trial session in
Guantanamo Bay.
The move stunned the high-security courtroom here, which was scheduled
to hear a host of defense motions challenging the military charges
against the defendants. Instead, long-simmering conflicts burst open
between defendants, who have made no secret of their wish for
martyrdom, and American defense attorneys obligated to fight the
government's effort to execute their clients.
"I wanted to enter a plea from the first arraignment day," said Ali
Abdul Aziz Ali, Mr. Mohammed's nephew and alleged assistant. The five,
who were held for years in secret prisons overseas by the Central
Intelligence Agency before their 2006 transfer here, were subjected to
harsh interrogation techniques including waterboarding, a form of
simulated drowning, in Mr. Mohammed's case. All five men face a
possible death sentence.
Col. Henley ruled that Mr. Mohammed, Mr. Ali and Walid bin Attash,
accused of running an al Qaeda training camp, could drop the motions
and enter pleas. They are acting as their own lawyers because of their
stated distrust of Americans.
But defense lawyers claimed that two defendants, Ramzi Binalshibh and
Mustafa al Hawsawi, were mentally incompetent to take such a serious
step, and the judge deferred a decision until psychological
evaluations were considered by the military commission, as the court
here is called.
The most explosive of the defense motions -- alleging that a
commission administrator, Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, exerted unlawful
influence over the prosecution -- was slated to move forward Monday
afternoon, with the general taking the stand. Military judges in three
other cases here, including that of Salim Hamdan, the former Osama bin
Laden driver who was sent home to Yemen last month, found enough
evidence of improper actions to bar Gen. Hartmann from those
proceedings.
Mr. Mohammed said the defendants had met to discuss their case and
after a Nov. 4 meeting signed a letter to the judge seeking to
withdraw the defense motions and seeking a hearing "in order to
announce our confessions." The Defense Department refused to release a
copy of the letter.
The defendants were annoyed when the judge said he had only read their
letter Sunday. "Is the commission using a carrier pigeon?" Mr.
Mohammed scoffed. Col. Henley said he had lacked a secure facility in
which to read the letter before arriving at this offshore base.
The move, which the defendants apparently believe would hasten an
execution they consider martyrdom, raised other issues. Col. Henley
said he would have to schedule a hearing sometime after this week to
ensure that their pleas are knowing and voluntary. Moreover, he asked
prosecutors to file briefs on an apparent ambiguity in the 2006
Military Commissions Act, which suggests that a death sentence can
only be imposed if a unanimous military jury agrees. At this stage, no
jury has been seated.
Monday's proceedings were the first here to which the government
brought relatives of 9/11 victims.
"The United States is doing its best to prove to the world that this
is a fair proceeding," said Hamilton Peterson of Bethesda, Md., whose
parents were passengers on United Flight 93. "It was stunning to see
today how not only do the defendants comprehend their extensive rights
and how they take them for granted, they are explicitly asking the
court to hurry up because they are bored with the due process they are
receiving."
Observers from civil-liberties groups, who have been attending
proceedings here for years, said the defendants' eagerness to plead
guilty doesn't compensate for a military commission system that denies
defendants some rights normally accorded in civilian courts and
regular courts-martial.
Jennifer Daksal, an attorney with Human Rights Watch, said the
defendants may well have pleaded guilty had they been prosecuted in
civilian court.
"What should be a major victory for holding the 9/11 conspirators
accountable has instead been tainted by torture and unfair trial
proceedings," she said.

 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Four Other 9/11 Suspects Want to Confess
toh, che fortunata coincidenza, Obama sta per entrare in carica e
chiudere Guantanamo e magia, i terroristi rinchiusi cominciano a
parlare, così Merdoch (il wsj è roba sua,e conoscendone la voracità si
comprerà anche il NY Times sull'orlo del fallimento) potrà fare la
campagna di propaganda su Guantanamo che non va chiusa perchè funziona

 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122874988767988097.html
Sì avevo letto. Strano, in effetti. Ora che forse si chiuderà Guantanamo (ma 
è anche vero che loro magari non lo sanno), questi parlano. Bah. Bene, 
comunque: speriamo abbiano notizie interessanti da condividere.
Namib