9/11 Mastermind Meets Defense Attorney
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A defense attorney met with suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for the first time at Guantanamo Bay, but the Pentagon-appointed lawyer said he could not reveal details because of “unnecessarily broad” military restrictions.
The Navy lawyer, Capt. Prescott Prince, said he used the two-and-a- half-hour meeting Thursday to explain Mohammed’s rights in his upcoming death-penalty trial, but he still does not know whether his client will accept his help.
“This is the first time he’s had an opportunity to meet someone who can honestly say he represents his well-being,” Prescott said Friday in a telephone interview after returning from the Guantanamo Bay naval station in southeast Cuba. “That is a lot for him to digest after having been incarcerated from his capture in 2003.”
Prince said he could not share anything Mohammed said, how he looked or the conditions of his confinement under an “unnecessarily broad” protective order that he was required to sign before the meeting. He said he was seeking clearance from the Pentagon to release some details.
A Pentagon spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mohammed and five other prisoners at Guantanamo were charged in February for their roles in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. They could get the death penalty if convicted. A Pentagon official who oversees the military tribunals must approve the charges before an arraignment is scheduled.
Mohammed, al-Qaida’s No. 3 leader at the time of his arrest in Pakistan, has been held apart from the general detainee population at Guantanamo in a hidden facility with more than a dozen other “high- value” detainees transferred from secret CIA custody in 2006.
He is one of three Guantanamo prisoners who the CIA says were subjected to particularly harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, which creates the sensation of drowning.
Last year, Mohammed allegedly confessed to planning 31 terrorist attacks around the world before a military panel in Guantanamo.
Prince, a member of the Naval reserves who is a Virginia criminal defense lawyer in his civilian life, was assigned to represent Mohammed earlier this month. He said he plans to visit Mohammed again in two weeks.
(AP)
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Bet if the shoe was on the other foot, there wouldn’t be any worries about a defense attorney for the accused. This human filth would be hudge, jury and executioner.
Damn this fooking nambie-pamby “rights” shit. Let’s execute this guy and get it over with. Aligators, red ants, old sparky…take your pick…
April 25th, 2008 at 7:58 pmWe need something worthy of the dignity and might of the United States. Something old-fashioned. Something old school.
April 25th, 2008 at 8:46 pmI say we take them down to the USS Constitution with a full guard of marines in early-19th century uniforms. We hang them old school from a yard-arm while at sea. This, after having flogged them. Nothing could be more satisfying to many people than seeing these animals kicking at the end of a rope. Their bodies would then be buried at sea in the traditional style: sewn in a canvas bag with a 32 lb shot at the feet. All for it, raise your right hands and say “aye.”
Representing this scum is probably going to be good notoriety for this criminal defense lawyer. At least KSM serves some purpose–free advertising. And he can write a book about it afterward. Good business! P.S.: the liberals would have this scum given full Constitutional protections of a US citizen and tried in a US court. He doesn’t deserve the honor.
April 26th, 2008 at 2:19 am