9/11 defendants seize the opportunity for dawah, to the disgust of 9/11 family members. "'They're engaging in jihad in a courtroom,'" by Verena Dobnik and Samantha Gross for the Associated Press, May 5:
NEW YORK -- Moans, sighs and exclamations erupted Saturday as relatives of 9-11 victims watched four closed-circuit TV feeds from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that showed the self-proclaimed mastermind of the attacks and co-defendants trying to slow their arraignment, a move that drew outbursts from viewers of "Come on, are you kidding me?""It's actually a joke; it feels ridiculous," said Jim Riches, whose firefighter son, Jimmy, died at the World Trade Center. Riches watched the hearing from a movie theater at Fort Hamilton in New York City, one of four U.S. military bases where the arraignment was broadcast live for victims' family members, survivors and emergency personnel who responded to the attacks.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other defendants were arraigned on charges that include terrorism and murder, the first time in more than three years that they appeared in public. During the hearing, they generally refused to cooperate.
Like other relatives, Riches expressed frustration.
"It's been a mess for 11 years," Riches said as he stood in the rain during a break in the proceedings. "It looks like it's going to be a very long trial. ... They want what they want."
Riches, himself a retired firefighter who worked digging up remains in the days after 9-11, said he hoped that if convicted the five men would be executed.
"I saw what they did to our loved ones -- crushed them to pieces," he said.
About 60 people representing 30 families were in the theater at Fort Hamilton, where the military provided chaplains and grief counselors, Riches said. The other bases providing feeds were Fort Devens in Massachusetts, Joint Base McGuire Dix in New Jersey and Fort Meade in Maryland, the only one open to the public.
At Fort Hamilton, Lee Hanson said he became deeply angry as he watched the delays being caused by men he blames for the death of his son, daughter-in-law and 9-11's youngest victim -- his granddaughter, 2-year-old Christine Hanson. All were aboard United Flight 175, the second plane to crash into the twin towers.
"They praise Allah. I say, 'Damn you!'" said the silver-haired retiree from Eaton, Conn.
Several people who viewed the proceedings said they have little sympathy for the defendants' complaints about their treatment, given the brutality of the deaths of the nearly 3,000 victims of the attacks. Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times and subjected to other measures that some have called torture.
"My brother was murdered in the cockpit of his airplane, and we will have to stand up for him," said Debra Burlingame, who attended the viewing on behalf of her brother, Charles Burlingame, who piloted the jet that hijackers crashed into the Pentagon.
More than a decade after the attacks, she said, "we're back in the game ... and they decided to play games." She added, "They're engaging in jihad in a courtroom."...
Relatives said they were frustrated that it's taken so long. When it comes to justice, "it seems like it's an afterthought," said Eunice Hanson, 2-year-old Christine's grandmother.
Indeed it is.
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In another article, I read where KSM, had used henna on his beard...Where did he get henna in Gitmo? Do they have a henna store in Gitmo, or does henna have to be imported? Someone had to step and fetch it for him. How nice of the authorities, Quran's, prayer rugs, halal diets, lots of ice cream socials, bingo games, and henna...Did KSM apply the henna himself or was it done for him at the prison beauty shop? Usually in high security prisons, the guards do not give prisoners chemicals to play with...How do they know he wouldn't drink it?...Well, once a jihadist, always a jihadist, henna or no henna, so you can expect similar disruptions until the curtain finally falls, in a year or five...