A courtroom drawing by artist Janet Hamlin, reviewed by the U.S. military, shows Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (C) and co-defendant Walid bin Attash (L) attending a pretrial session in Guantanamo Bay December 8, 2008. The U.S. military resumed pretrial hearings at the Guantanamo naval base on Monday for five accused plotters of the September 11 attacks, even as the pending change in the U.S. administration made it unlikely their trials will be held at the base. REUTERS/Janet Hamlin/Pool (CUBA)From Yahoo News/AP:
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba – Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said Monday he will confess to masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks, throwing his death-penalty trial into disarray and shocking victims' relatives who watched from behind a glass partition. Four other men also abandoned their defenses, in effect daring the Pentagon to grant their wish for martyrdom. The judge ordered lawyers to advise him by Jan. 4 whether the Pentagon can apply the death penalty — which military prosecutors are seeking — without a jury trial.
"When they admitted their guilt, my reaction was, 'Yes!' My inclination was to jump up and say 'Yay!' But I managed to maintain my decorum," said Maureen Santora, of Long Island City, N.Y., whose firefighter son Christopher died responding to the World Trade Center attacks.
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My Comment: I cannot say that I am surprised. These prisoners have nothing better to do than focus on their trial .... and to disrupt it by always producing a late minute surprise.
After a while .... they will no longer have any surprises.