9/11, Debra Burlingame, Guantanamo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, September 11

9/11 Families’ Differing Views Of Justice: the full price for war crimes vs. style and no more hugs

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CBS News reports:

After years in detention, this week marked the first time that five men accused of direct involvement in the September 11, 2001, terrorism attacks on America made their first joint appearance in a military court, at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It was the start of a process which, the government expects, will bring justice for the families of 9/11 victims. But, as heard from two close relatives of the victims, those families don’t view the Guantanamo proceedings the same way.

“We must not forget the 2,973 people that were so brutally murdered as a result of this conspiracy,” said Debra Burlingame. Her brother, Charles [Charles Frank “Chic” Burlingame III], was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11.
…
“This is a way to be there for him, to witness for him these men getting American justice,” she said. The five men arraigned this week are accused of planning 9/11, training the 19 hijackers, and wiring them money to carry out the attacks. “They are being given a great deal more of due process then they deserve, quite frankly,” Burlingame said.

The long-delayed commissions are controversial – such as allowing government prosecutors to use hearsay evidence and statements coerced from the detainees under torture … while limiting the witnesses whom detainees may call. But Burlingame supports the process wholeheartedly. “We mustn’t let this turn into a focus so much on process that we forget who it is we are dealing with and what it is they did,” she said.

Process is a focus for Carie Lemak [sic] [Editor — the correct spelling of her last name is ‘Lemack’], whose mother Judy [Judith Camilla Larocque] was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first hijacked plane to crash into the World Trade Center. She said she rejects any mistreatment of detainees that’s occurred and, she says, so would her mother. “These are not good people, but I’m also very concerned about the system of justice that this country stands for, and want to make sure that we have trials that aren’t perceived as kangaroo courts around the world,” Lemak said. “She would want to see the American system of justice demonstrated around the globe for what it is, which is a beacon of hope – that even though they can treat us terribly, we are going to treat them humanely.”

At his arraignment, defendant Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged architect of 9/11, told the commission he would welcome becoming a “martyr” – and that worries Lemak, who opposes the death penalty sought by the government in this case. “I want them to go to jail for the rest of their lives,” she said. “Since my mom’s been murdered, the biggest kind of torture for me is not being able to hug her ever again, and to me that’s the fate that these people deserve – to be locked up in a jail cell for the rest of their lives and never get to hug anyone they love again.”

Update: Also see how al Qaeda wins

9/11, al Qaeda, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Lawfare, mainstream media, Military Commissions, September 11

Binalshibh admits 9/11 guilt but how did Khalid Sheikh Mohammed et al plead?

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At his arraignment Thursday, Ramzi Binalshibh admitted he committed an overt act in the 9/11 attack plot:

“I’ve been seeking martyrdom for five years. I tried to get a visa for 9/11, but I could not,” said [Ramzi] Binalshibh, who was a member of the German-based Hamburg cell of Al-Qaeda which planned and then carried out the attacks.

A native of Yemen, Binalshibh shared a Hamburg apartment with Mohammed Atta, a key leader of the 19 hijackers who took over four planes on the day to use as weapons, but unlike Atta and the others, he was unable to get a US visa. — Agence Free Presse (France)

Yet I looked through dozens of news reports and commentaries before determining how he and co-defendants Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarek Bin ‘Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi pled to the charges and specifications against them.

As former federal prosecutor, Andrew C. McCarthy noted Friday in the National Review Online:

“…the media leave us in the dark about that detail. It went unreported in breathless on-sight accounts from the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Associated Press. Instead, reporters give us dark reminders that KSM was held for years in secret CIA prisons — secret, at least, until the press exposed their existence. (Have I mentioned that he killed almost 3,000 Americans on one day?) The “black sites” may be an interesting subject, but they’re irrelevant to an arraignment. (Fear not, MSNBC: There will be plenty of time between now and the trial for jihadists and their sympathizers to contend that abusive interrogations and harrowing incarcerations should result in the suppression of evidence or the dismissal of charges).”

I wasn’t there, but we can safely assume there were no guilty pleas — the combatants, who apparently read the newspapers, are taking the tack that the commissions are illegitimate. Whether they actually entered formal not guilty pleas is unclear from the reporting, which focused instead on KSM’s courtroom antics. (We’ll come to those momentarily). Procedurally, the matter is of little moment: If getting straight answers from defendants is a problem, as it appeared to be in Thursday’s occasionally chaotic session, judges typically order that pleas of not guilty be entered for the record.

[Editor — McCarthy was the lead prosecutor of the ‘Blind Sheik’ and those who conducted the first attack upon the World Trade Center.]

It took me more than two hours online to find out how they pled — they did not.

Instead, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed et al staged one last act (for that day) of al Qaeda lawfare against the United States of America:

The session concluded with a formal reading of the charges, in which the chief prosecutor, Bob Swann, coldly read out the highlights: that the defendants did commit murder “in the violation of the laws of war” that led to the deaths of 2,970 people. The judge then asked the defendants to rise for the formal arraignment: All five remained seated. The judge then said he would defer their entering of pleas to a later date. — Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, for Newsweek, in their [4-page, 1,736 word] article’s last paragraph

The mainstream media is so engrossed with repeating al Qaeda’s propaganda they all but forgot to mention an important fact about Thursday’s arraignment. Two reporters seemingly wrote the lone exception only because they had room left on the page. Yet even they failed to correctly state the number murdered: 2,973.