Sept. 11 Suspects Offer to Plead Guilty at Guantanamo
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Five al-Qaeda members accused of planning the Sept. 11 terror attacks offered to plead guilty to charges that may lead to execution and the martyrdom some of them profess to seek.
Relatives of five of the almost 3,000 victims of the 2001 attacks witnessed today’s hearing in a military courtroom at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay Navy Base in Cuba.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who claimed he was the mastermind of the attacks, and his co-defendants said it was “our earnest desire” to admit guilt in the 2001 airline hijackings that brought down the World Trade Center in New York, damaged the Pentagon near Washington and led to a plane crash in Pennsylvania.
Mohammed said he wanted to end the proceedings because “I do not trust Americans.” He and two co-defendants said in June they want to be martyred for the attacks.
The hearing may be the last before President-elect Barack Obama takes office and begins carrying out his promise to replace the war-crimes tribunal system for detaining and trying alleged terrorists.
‘Absence of Contrition’
“There was a complete absence of contrition. They were laughing, they were clowning,” said Hamilton Peterson, of Bethesda, Maryland, whose father, Donald, and stepmother, Jean, died on United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania.
The five men “were proud to be guilty,” Santora said.
Bloomberg.com: Worldwide
It looks as if they will get the martyrdom they so crave.
But why has it taken this long? If they want to admit guilt and not even contest the case against them, why aren't they already sleeping with their 40 virgins??
