A Guantanamo prisoner accused in the Sept. 11 attacks complained yesterday that his confinement and obstructions by the US military are complicating his court-approved effort to serve as his own lawyer.
Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, one of five men charged in the attacks, said the military did not deliver two letters and a motion that he wrote to the judge ahead of the pretrial hearing.
The judge, Marine Colonel Ralph Kohlmann, said Ali’s situation will only become more difficult and tried to persuade him to accept his lawyers. Without a security clearance, he said Ali will not have access to certain classified material during the death penalty trial.
“The way the rules are, you will not have access to classified material to assist you in your case,” he said.
Ali said one of his letters disputed allegations that the defendants were coerced into rejecting their lawyers — the focus of this week’s hearings — saying the accusations were the result of a poorly translated joke by the attacks’ confessed mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
“I should have a right to write a letter to the judge directly,” said Ali, a nephew and alleged lieutenant to Mohammed who spoke in English.
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Commander Jeffrey Gordon, said the military is looking into Ali’s allegations. He declined further comment.
The five co-defendants were transferred to Guantanamo from secret CIA prisons in 2006 and face possible execution if convicted on charges including murder and conspiracy for the 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Four of them say they will represent themselves, setting up further logistical challenges as they attempt to mount a defense while locked in a top-secret prison at the remote US Navy base in southeast Cuba.
Kohlmann called the hearings this week to explore allegations that Mohammed bullied the others into going along with his decision to represent himself at the June 5 arraignment. One defense lawyer said an interpreter overheard other defendants asking a detainee, “So, you’re in the Army now?”
But Ali said Mohammed was only teasing another detainee, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, about the white robe he wore inside the courtroom.
“Mr. Mohammed was joking, just criticizing the clothes he was wearing. He was saying, ‘Are you in the American Navy now,’” he said. “We need translators from our native language who understand our accent.”
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS