9/11 Suspects Ask to Make 'Confessions' - AP story

By ANDREW O. SELSKY, AP

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Dec. 8) – The alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and four co-defendants told a military judge Monday they want to immediately confess at their war-crimes tribunal, setting up likely guilty pleas and their possible executions.

The five said they decided on Nov. 4, the day President-elect Barack Obama was elected to the White House, that they were abandoning all efforts to defend themselves against the capital charges. It was as if they wanted to rush toward convictions before Obama — who has vowed to end the war-crimes trials and close Guantanamo — takes office.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and another defendant said at their arraignment in June they would welcome execution as a path to martyrdom. But word that they were giving up their defense came as a shock to some of the victims' families.

A select group of relatives of the 2,973 people killed on Sept. 11, 2001 were able to see the proceedings in person. Maureen Santora, of Long Island City, N.Y., whose son Christopher died responding to the World Trade Center attacks, wore a black top and black pants and clutched a photo of him in his firefighter uniform.

Alice Hoagland, of Redwood Estates, California, was there for her son Mark Bingham, who is believed to be one of the passengers who fought hijackers on the United flight that crashed in rural Pennsylvania. She said the defendants' announcement was "like a real bombshell to me."

She told reporters she hoped Obama, "an even-minded and just man," would ensure the five alleged mass murderers are punished. She did not elaborate. Nine family members came to Guantanamo for the pretrial hearing but it was not immediately clear if all attended.

Abruptly reversing course on previous attempts to defend themselves in the death-penalty case, the five announced they wanted to drop all defense motions. The judge said competency hearings were pending for two of the detainees, precluding them from immediately filing pleas.

In a letter the judge read aloud in court, the five defendants said they "request an immediate hearing session to announce our confessions."

The letter implies they want to plead guilty, but does not specify whether they will admit to any specific charges. It also says they wish to drop all previous defense motions.
The judge, Army Col. Stephen Henley, asked Mohammed and his co-defendants if they were prepared to enter a plea. All five said yes, but there was no indication when they would be allowed to do so.

Mohammed, who has already told interrogators he was the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, also told the judge Monday that he had no faith in him, his Pentagon-appointed lawyers or President George W. Bush.

Sporting a chest-length gray beard, Mohammed said in English: "I don't trust you."

The pretrial hearings this week could be the last court appearance for the high-profile detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The first U.S. war-crimes trials since World War II are teetering on the edge of extinction. Obama opposes the military commissions — as the Guantanamo trials are called — and has pledged to close the detention center holding some 250 men soon after taking office next month.
Henley was assigned to the case after the previous judge resigned for undisclosed reasons in November. The defendants, who are representing themselves, were also expected to question Henley about whether any conflicts would prevent him from impartially overseeing the death-penalty case.

No trial date has been set, and it is all but certain none will begin before Obama takes office on Jan. 20. Still, the U.S. military is pressing forward with the case until it receives orders to the contrary.
"We serve the sitting president and will continue to do so until President-elect Obama takes office," said Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman.

Jennifer Daskal of Human Rights Watch, who is also an observer at this week's hearings, urged Obama to try terror suspects in federal court "where attention will focus on the defendants' alleged crimes rather than the unfairness of the commissions."

The military commissions have netted three convictions, but have been widely criticized for allowing statements obtained through harsh interrogations and hearsay to be admitted as evidence.
The victims' family members were expected to watch from a gallery at the rear of the cavernous, high-security courtroom and were not allowed to address the defendants.

http://news.aol.com/article/911-suspects-ask-to-make-confessions/271343

* * * * *

Note: Some members of the San Jose group spoke to Alice Hoagland at a Richard Gage event there and apparently she has some real questions about the OCT.

The truth shall set us free. Love is the only way forward.

KSM...

And friends wrote a letter to the judge today that requests, "an immediate hearing session to announce our confessions," and I was AMAZED at the amount of articles citing well-known family members Lorie Van Auken, Mindy Kleinberg, Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, Bob McIlvaine, Donna Marsh O'Connor, Bill Doyle, Bruce DeCell, Barry Zelman, Michele Little, Sally Regenhard, and Monica Gabrielle's opinions on the subject. AMAZED!!!

In case you couldn't tell... there were 0.

You know the kinds of articles I'm talking about. "Today, to many people's surprise, KSM & others agreed to confess. 9/11 Family Member, and "Jersey Girl" Lorie Van Auken (one of the family members that fought for the creation of the 9/11 Commission) had this to say..."


Do these people deserve to know how and why their loved ones were murdered? Do we deserve to know how and why 9/11 happened?

Jon -

It would be absolutely stunning if any or all of the "Jersey Girls" and/or Bob McIlvaine would call a press conference and question this.

Is there any way we can encourage/facilitate this?

Also, I'm working on a project that involves family members/victims and am hoping to get your assistance with it. I will email you directly once I have a first draft of the proposal done, sometime in the next ten days or so.

Thanks again for all your hard work.

Cheers!

They do their own thing...

I occasionally recommend things, but again, they do their own thing.


Do these people deserve to know how and why their loved ones were murdered? Do we deserve to know how and why 9/11 happened?

Here's a quote obtained...

By Spencer Ackerman of Kristen Breitweiser. Spencer attended the 9/11 People's Commission in Washington D.C. on 9/11/2004.

Reached on Monday afternoon, Kristen Breitweiser, whose husband Ronald died in the World Trade Center, said she had not heard of the pleadings and wanted to know whether the administration gave Mohammed anything in return for his admission of guilt. She did, however, say that she hoped any information about the attacks that remains classified pending Mohammed’s trial “would be swiftly released.”


Do these people deserve to know how and why their loved ones were murdered? Do we deserve to know how and why 9/11 happened?

DARE WE HOPE?

Dare we hope these guys take the stand and start testifying how they worked with Dick Cheney to plan 9/11?
I guess that would be too easy.
we can dream anyway.

Torture yields confessions.

Torture, and the threat of more torture, can make people do whatever you want them to do and say whatever you want them to say.

Will they confess to the controlled demolition of WTC 7?

Will they confess to getting US air defenses to stand down?

Confessions don't mean squat when they come from someone who has been tortured and held in Gitmo.

They were probably promised a quick and relatively painless death, which would be preferred to a daily dose of torture and then eventual death.

There were no other choices for them in this bullshit kangaroo system set up by the Bush Crime Family.

Boy do you have that right

Who wouldn't confess when you have torture staring you in the face. This whole thing is a complete farce. Figures, the whole government is a farce. I have always wondered how these people can sleep at night. Perhaps Icke is right. Perhaps they are from some other world. They sure are not human.

We are dealing with hardened sociopaths,

so in some ways they are from a different world, a world without empathy or conscience, just cold calculation and unchecked ego. This is why we have to work to keep these amoral and totally corrupt people from positions of power and influence.

We are facing the darkest side of human nature, and can only address it by shining the light of truth and love everywhere, forcing it out of the shadows and exposing it for all to see.

The truth shall set us free. Love is the only way forward.

Hardened Sociopaths

You hit the nail on the head LeftWright. You may not believe it but I pray for them every day. I think they are beyond human help. I actually feel sorry for them. They have no idea what love is.

Government Trying To "Close" Many Lingering Chapters?

NIST/WTC 7, the FBI anthrax case and now this.

There seems to be coordinated efforts on the part of the government to close various chapters pertaining to the past 8 years.

In any event, these examples seem to demonstrate that the "corporatocracy" is very interested in creating positive public perceptions, however flawed they may be.

They seem to fear a skeptical public.

I noticed that too, Aidan.

They rushed to get the anthrax case closed and it didn't work. No one bought it.

The NIST findings were so obviously bogus. No one bought that.

Maybe this will blow up in their faces too.

I sure hope so.

The desperation is palpable

There is obviously a very strong effort underway to reinforce the created meta narrative ( or cultural meme, take your pick) during this transition period to shut the door on the growing counter narrative primarily pushed by the truth movement.

At least 40% of the American people KNOW this is all bogus, and the perps know this.

Beware the limited hangout, brothers and sisters, talk to everyone you know about the long history of false flags, patsies, CIA drug running and money laundering.

Be calm and keep it real.

The beginning of the end game is not too far ahead.

Choose love over fear, as fear will not take us anywhere we want to be.

The truth shall set us free. Love is the only way forward.

LIHOP

I was queried today about how we might react to this news. Certainly the people who have been standing by listening to our MIHOP theories will throw this in our face the same way they throw around the OBL "confessions." I think for a while we will be forced to play the LIHOP card. That's fine by me. At high government levels, LIHOP and MIHOP are the same thing. I also plan on asking the cynics pointing to this "confession' and who are old enough to remember the JFK assassination if they accept they validity of the Howard Hunt confession, as well, just to F%#K with their head a little and make them think.

And then there is the comment in the article, "Maureen Santora, whose firefighter son Christopher was killed at the World Trade Center, says she wants to lock eyes with those accused of killing her son and 2,972 others in the bloodiest terrorist attacks ever on U.S. soil." With all due respect to Maureen's tragic loss of her son, my reply might be "Is Maureen equally anxious to lock eyes with the stock traders who with foreknowledge of the attacks attempted to profit from her son's death."

I think we'll be fine.

"Conspiracies? That's crazy talk!..."

"...Anyone who thinks that gas prices rising at every gas station in the United States to 4.00+ a gallon simultaneously...

...then falling back down to 1 dollar+ a gallon within the same calendar year...

...within a month after a man is elected President who intends to launch a major govenment alternative energy program...

...is anything but a coincidence is nuts! Crazy! Serious Mental Cases!

How could such a big conspiracy happen? It's too big. People couldn't keep a secret that big. There would be people running to the media with the truth...."

I'm glad someone here posted this

..."The five said they decided on Nov. 4, the day President-elect Barack Obama was elected to the White House, to abandon all defenses against the capital charges. It was as if they wanted to rush toward convictions before the inauguration of Obama, who has vowed to end the war-crimes trials and close Guantanamo."

What a COINCIDENCE!
I can't even begin to express how stupid this is. I mean, am I crazy? Does anyone else know what i'm feeling here? To think people actually beleive this stuff...

Yes, it really should be met with howling derision

were it not so serious and did it not affect so many billions of people.

As I posted in the comments section on AOL (yes, I still have my original account from 1994):

How convenient for the Bush/Cheney regime that they all want to admit to their role in a crime before any evidence has been presented and before the possibility of a public trial can take place.

Why wouldn't they want to take the opportunity to excoriate the American government and the western world for its treatment of the Muslim world, if they took years to plan and organize the 9/11 attacks?

Remember the long speeches by Saddam Hussein at his trial?

Why would these alleged "terrorists" pass up this opportunity to increase their infamy before martyrdom?

Come on people, the only way this makes sense is if the "confessions" are being written for them and/or they have been tortured to the point where they just want it all to end.

Anyone held by these sociopaths needs to be independently evaluated for competency as I strongly suspect that most of these poor souls have been tortured into insanity.

Let's have the FBI bring Ali Mohamed out of their protective custody and see what he has to say in a public courtroom, shall we?

Fortunately, the American people are not as stupid as some believe.

Another sad day in the U.S.

Love is a verb, brothers and sisters, and there is much work left to do. Let's get busier!

I hope that you and yours are well.

The truth shall set us free. Love is the only way forward.

This was posted at

This was posted at rawstory

Turley: 'Strange alliance' between Bush and alleged 9/11 mastermind

David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Tuesday December 9, 2008

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Turley_Strange_alliance_between_Bush_and_1...

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, often described as the mastermind of 9/11, and four other prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay told a military judge on Monday that they wish to plead guilty to all charges.

Law professor Jonathan Turley sees this confession as a "strange alliance" between Mohammed and George W. Bush, where both men get what they want -- martyrdom in Mohammed's case and vindication in Bush's -- and President-elect Barack Obama is stuck in the middle with a dilemma on his hands.

Great Article and Video.

This has mainstream potential due to the credible well known guest and Rachel Maddow Show. May ease some of our skeptical brothers and sisters into the truth with this one. I forwarded it to Crooks and Liars and posted it on Reddit. Everyone do what you can.

Sorry, double post

Sorry, double post