9/11 mastermind appears in court in military vest

US NAVAL BASE AT GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba – Self-declared 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed wore a military-style camouflage vest as he made his first appearance at a pre-trial hearing here Wednesday.

The issue of what KSM and four alleged co-conspirators will wear when they eventually go on trial before a military tribunal at this US base in Cuba was one of several up for debate at this week’s hearings.

Sheikh Mohammed considers himself a prisoner of war and wants to wear the same uniform he wore while fighting for the US-supported mujahedeen in Afghanistan and in Bosnia, his defense lawyer said Tuesday.

The prosecution has dubbed the defendants “unlawful combatants”, and sought to deny them the right to military-style clothing on security grounds, but the military judge, Colonel James Pohl, dismissed this concern.

Mohammed and the other defendants also have the right to stay in their cells and not attend the hearings.

KSM had planned to attend Wednesday, then asked to be taken back to his cell, then changed his mind again and appeared at the hearing, the judge said.

In the end, he showed up during a break in the proceedings and wore a military-style vest over a white tunic. He wore a white turban on his head.

The hearings are to prepare for a 9/11 trial at some point next year.

KSM is accused of orchestrating the hijacked airliner plot that left 2,976 people dead, while his alleged Al-Qaeda accomplices are charged with providing funding and other support for those who crashed the planes.

All five face the death penalty if convicted.

Sheikh Mohammed, a Kuwaiti-born Pakistani who attended university in the United States, was regarded as one of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s most trusted and intelligent lieutenants.

In addition to felling the Twin Towers, the trained engineer claims to have beheaded US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 with his “blessed right hand” and to have helped in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six. – Agence-France Presse