FT article dances about the issue of ruined testimony in "Face of 911".

[azul]

The face of 9/11

By Demetri Sevastopulo

Published: August 15 2008 18:03 | Last updated: August 15 2008 18:03

Khaled Sheikh Mohammed was happy to die. But on June 5 – the day the self-confessed mastermind of the September 11 attacks on the US resurfaced after five years in the CIA’s shadowy network of secret prisons, and then behind the concertina wire at Guantánamo Bay –

~snip~
This was a big day for both the prisoners and the Bush administration. Mohammed and his four co-defendants were to be arraigned: they would hear the charges against them, be informed of their rights and have the chance to enter a plea. The Pentagon hoped the high-profile commission would refute criticism that the first US war crimes trials since the second world war were nothing more than kangaroo courts designed to guarantee convictions. This was also the first time a senior al-Qaeda member would be put in the Guantánamo dock over 9/11. While a US military commission delivered a five and a half year sentence on one of Bin Laden’s former drivers, Salim Hamdan, he was so inconsequential that he was not mentioned in the 567-page report produced by the bipartisan, independent 9/11 Commission.

~snip~
“I do not mention the torturing,” said Mohammed. “I know this is a red line.” It was strange that the judge allowed these words to reach us in the press gallery. Why hadn’t he hit the switch and cut off the sound at the mention of torture? The chanting began again. “My shield is Allah...”

~snip~
Mohammed knew exactly how he would respond to the courtroom script. When asked whether he understood that he could face the death penalty, he responded calmly: “Yes, this is what I wish ... I have been looking to be a martyr for long time.” Was he sure he understood? “I understand very well.”

Then he started reciting from the Koran again: “Nothing shall befall us save what Allah has ordained for us.” The judge, sensing that he was losing his battle to convince Mohammed to accept legal representation, urged him to keep an open mind and to talk to his lawyers. But speaking on behalf of the advocates, Mohammed shot back that Kohlmann would not give the lawyers a chance to speak in court. The military commissions, he said, were a “contradiction” and the defendants had been tortured before arriving in “Inquisitionland”.

~snip~
“I do understand that I will be killed for the sake of God,” Bin al-Shibh said, “but I don’t understand that I am guilty.” He said he had studied Islamic jurisprudence and sharia law while in college. Had he ever used this knowledge in his work? “Not officially,” he replied, to laughter in the media room.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ee1c1194-68d0-11dd-a4e5-0000779fd18c,s01=1.html?nclick_check=1


They appear to have been tortured, the testimony probably is inadmissable in regular legal proceedings, and so makes a sham of this war crimes trial by military commission.

This article was by a witness and tells the standard narration, but also reads between the lines of something more alarming.