9/11 victims oppose Gitmo closure

U.S. NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba | After attending a hearing of 9/11 terror suspects here, nine family members of victims killed in the attacks said they are furious at President Obama for trying to shut down the detention facility.

Judith Reiss, who lost her son, Joshua, in the World Trade Center collapse, said that she was a “Mama for Obama” during the campaign last year.

“I have the right to say, ‘Mr. President, you’re making a mistake. You’re wrong,’ ” she said as her husband, Gary, stood at her side, wiping away tears..

The Yardley, Pa., couple was joined by Gordon Habermann, whose daughter, Andrea, died on her very first business trip to New York.

“I’m opposed to the closing of this facility because of political reasons,” the West Bend, Wis., native said.

“I think the current administration spoke too quickly on this,” he said, noting that the military has built a state-of-the-art facility that some say is the most secure courtroom in the world.

The angry words from the family members came on a day when all five of the prisons “high-value detainees” were scheduled to be in the courtroom. Each is charged with 2,973 counts of murder - one for each victim of the attacks in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania - and each faces the death penalty.

The pretrial hearing on several motions was delayed when all five defendants refused to attend, in part because the judge refused to allow 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and two terror suspects to speak at the session.

After a two-hour delay, three defendants showed up, though one asked to leave just as the session opened because the judge refused to let him speak.

“I want to speak directly to you,” demanded Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi, who left, a guard bringing along a pillow that had been placed on his seat just before the hearing opened.

Walid bin Attash, who Guantanamo military commission prosecutors allege acted as a bodyguard to Osama bin Laden and helped in the preparation of the 9/11 hijackings and the USS Cole bombing, repeatedly disrupted the proceedings.

After folding a small paper airplane during the hearing, Mr. bin Attash demanded that the judge respond to several messages he has sent.

“If you do not have enough patience to take this case, just give it to another judge,” Mr. bin Attash said. He later tossed the plane toward Al Abdul Aziz Ali, who is purported to have been a moneyman for al Qaeda.

The hearing was delayed again when a reference to harsh treatment at CIA prisons prompted a military censor to set off a small siren light by the judge’s bench.

“The government can’t hide the fact that they used sleep deprivation,” said Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, a lawyer appointed by the Pentagon to defend 9/11 suspect Ramzi bin al-Shibh. The censor hit a switch and the sound of static filled a soundproof spectator section behind glass partitions in the courtroom.

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