9/11 defendants plead guilty at Gitmo: judge

The alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and four co-defendants sent a note to a military judge on Monday saying they wanted to confess and plead guilty before a US military court at Guantanamo Bay.

"The accused in this case had decided that they wished to withdraw all motions... and wished to enter pleas in what was termed as confessions in this case," the judge, Army Colonel Stephen Henley, said shortly after the pre-trial proceedings began.

"We all five have reached an agreement to request from the commission an immediate hearing session in order to announce our confessions ... with our earnest desire in this regard without being under any kind of pressure, threat, intimidations or promise from any party," Henley said, reading from the note.

When asked by the judge if he was prepared to enter pleas Monday to all the charges should the commission allow the defendants to withdraw their motions, Mohammed said "yes."

"We don't want to waste time," Mohammed told the judge.

The surprise move by the defendants came as the U.S. military resumed pretrial hearings at the Guantanamo naval base, in a remote U.S.-controlled corner of Cuba, for the accused plotters of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The hearings went forward as scheduled, even though the pending change in the U.S. administration made it unlikely defendants' trials would ever be held at the base.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, has said he will shut down the widely condemned Guantanamo prison camp and try detainees in the regular U.S. civilian or military courts rather than the special Guantanamo tribunals created by the Bush administration.

'Legal farce'

Rights groups blasted the trial, saying their guilty pleas would be dismissed by a "legitimate" court.

"It's abundantly clear that a coerced guilty plea resulting from years of torture and abuse would never have been accepted in a legitimate court and should not be accepted here," said the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Anthony Romero.

"Anyone who believes that this is a victory for American justice is sadly mistaken," Romero said in a statement.

Romero, who is Guantanamo observing the trial, said because of the flaws in the military commission system "it's still unclear whether the government can secure death sentences through guilty pleas."

The process "has been a legal farce from the beginning to the bitter end," Romero said.

It's abundantly clear that a coerced guilty plea resulting from years of torture and abuse would never have been accepted in a legitimate court and should not be accepted here

Executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union

Human Rights Watch

The New York-based Human Rights Watch, which also has an observer in Guantanamo, equally decried the process.

"What should have been a major victory in holding the 9/11 defendants accountable for terrible crimes has been tainted by torture and an unfair military commissions process," said HRW official Jennifer Daskal.

"These five men are known to have been mistreated and tortured during their years in CIA custody," including the acknowledged waterboarding -- a form of simulated drowning -- of Sheikh Mohammed, she said in a statement.

Under the commissions rules a judge cannot accept a guilty plea unless he determines the plea is voluntary and not coerced, Daskal said.

"In light of the men's severe mistreatment and torture, the judge should require a full and thorough factual inquiry to determine whether or not these pleas are voluntary," Daskal said.

What should have been a major victory in holding the 9/11 defendants accountable for terrible crimes has been tainted by torture and an unfair military commissions process

HRW official