Gitmo prisoners oppose Obama's 120-day halt

Says he wants to proceed with the trial

Guantanamo Bay/CUBA (Agencies)

Four of the five men accused of organizing the September 11 terror strikes
Wednesday opposed a move to suspend their trials as called for by President Barack Obama immediately after taking office.

The self-proclaimed mastermind of the attacks, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, opposed the 120-day halt Obama requested and asked for the trials to proceed, as did Ali Abd al-Aziz, Wallid ben Attash and Mustapha Ahmed al-Hawsawi.

"I would like to continue," Mohammed said.

Only Ramzi ben al-Shaiba, whose mental status is due to be evaluated this week, did not object. Military Judge Stephen Henley suspended the session which lasted just 10 minutes.

Earlier a military judge Wednesday ordered the suspension of the trial of a Canadian held at Guantanamo Bay, in what could be the first step toward closing the controversial prison.

The request was to halt proceedings in 21 pending cases, including the death penalty case against five Guantanamo prisoners accused of plotting the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

"In the interests of justice, and at the direction of the president of the United States and the secretary of defense, the government respectfully requests the military commission grant a continuance of the proceedings in the above-captioned case until 20 May 2009," said the document to be put forward by prosecutors Wednesday.

Obama has vowed to close the prison on a US naval base in Cuba, which has become a symbol of US excesses around the world.

A stain on the U.S. human rights record

Statement from protesters

Obama has pledged to shut down the Guantanamo prison camp that was widely seen as a stain on the United States' human rights record and a symbol of detainee abuse and detention without charge under the administration of his predecessor, former President George W. Bush.

Defense lawyers expected and supported a freeze of the tribunals, which have moved in fits and spurts amid numerous legal challenges. They had complained that the tribunals allowed hearsay evidence and coerced testimony and were subject of so much political interference that fairness was impossible.

Obama's order was widely anticipated. Jamil Dakwar, who is monitoring the tribunals for the American Civil Liberties Union, had said earlier Tuesday that waiting for the order was comparable to a death watch for a patient whose demise was certain.

"We're just waiting for the reading of the will," Dakwar said.

About 248 foreign captives are still held at the detention center that opened in January 2002. The Bush administration had said it planned to try 80 prisoners on war crimes charges, but only three cases have been completed.

Human rights activists and military defense lawyers had urged him to halt the special tribunals that are formally known as military commissions and move the prosecutions into the regular U.S. courts.

Activists demand Gitmo closure

Activists stage a rally in Jakarta, calling Obama to immediately close Guantanamo Bay

Indonesian human rights activists staged a rally in Jakarta on Wednesday calling for new U.S. President to immediately close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

Around 20 activists wearing faceless white masks and orange jumpsuits similar to Guantanamo inmates' uniforms were joined by scores of supporters in a march on the U.S. embassy.

Carrying banners reading "Stop Torture," they demanded Obama close the "war on terror" prison in Cuba in his first 100 days in office.

"Torturing terrorist suspects is against the values of human rights advocated by America," read a statement distributed by the protesters from a coalition of human rights groups.

"In closing Guantanamo, the U.S. will return to its moral values as a civilized country that respects human dignities."

But they said closing Guantanamo was only a "first step" for Obama.

"The closure of Guantanamo must be the first step that Barack Obama needs to do before closing other U.S. secret prison facilities in Afghanistan, the British Indian Ocean territory of Diego Garcia, Jordan, Pakistan, Thailand and in Eastern Europe," the statement said.