9/11 Suspect Grills US Judge on Religion

This is exactly why international terrorists cannot be tried within traditional legal systems. Ordinary laws and courts are not equipped to handle fanatical islamic terrorists and their pack of turncoat leftist lawyers.

That Sheikh Mohammed would challenge the judge is to be expected, that's just another grandstanding tactic. What is unheard of is the judge allowing himself to be grilled. This judge better take control of this trial or it will be turned into a farce. This trial is extremely important as it will set precedent for all that follow.

Mohammed needs to be kept in a separate cell and participate in court via closed circuit TV to prevent him from disrupting the trial. His lawyers must not be allowed to stray from pertinent statements or to make propaganda speeches from the court.


FROM ISLAMONLINE.NET

9/11 Suspect Grills US Judge on Religion
CAIRO — In an usual Guantanamo military trial, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks has grilled a US military judge about views on religion and torture and whether he belonged to an extremist religious group, reported the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, September 24.
"The government considers all of us fanatical extremists," Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann.
"How can you, as an officer of the US Marine Corps, stand over me in judgment?"
Mohamed, a Pakistani national, asked the judge whether he belonged to an extremist religious group.
"We are well-known as extremists and fanatics, and there are also Christians and Jews that are very extremist.
"If you, for example, were part of Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson's groups, then you would not at all be impartial towards us," he said, referring to US evangelical Christian leaders who have denounced Islam as violent.
The judge replied that though he attended some Lutheran and Episcopal services in the past, he is religious.
"When I have attended church, I was a member of various Lutheran churches and Episcopal churches, and I have not attended any of them for a long time because I have moved so often."
Mohammed and four other suspects are being tried over charges of conspiring to carry out the 9/11 attacks on the US.
They are among 15 "high-value" Al Qaeda prisoners previously held in CIA custody and later sent to Guantanamo, most of them in 2006.
The widely criticized Guantanamo Military Commissions are the first US war crimes tribunals since World War Two.
They were established to try non-US captives whom the Bush administration considers "enemy combatants" not entitled to the legal protections granted to US soldiers and civilians.

Complex
Mohammed also grilled the US judge about his views on torture and his knowledge of coercive interrogation tactics the CIA has admitted using on him.
Kohlmann replied the line between acceptable interrogation and torture is impossible to quantify without seeing the details.
He said he had given two articles to a high-school seminar in 2005, discussing the pros and cons of harsh interrogation techniques.
"I set out the scenarios ... to try to show it's a complex question," he said.
Mohammed is one of three Guantanamo suspects known to have been subjected to CIA waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning used in interrogation that human rights groups consider torture.
The judge was also asked about how he followed news coverage on the day of the 9/11 attacks and replied that his memory was imprecise.
He also said he had no opinion on the facts of the 9/11 attacks, which triggered US President George W. Bush's "war on terror."
Mohammed's questions to the judge carried political statements about US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the prejudice of Christians and Jews against Islam, and even the writings of Richard Nixon.
Some comments prompted a government censor to cut off his microphone, citing national security concerns. The judge eventually lost patience.
"I will not allow you to act in a manner that is disrespectful to this court. . . . Do you understand me clearly?" Kohlmann said.

Disqualifying
The US judge has denied a request by the five defendants for a late start to accommodate the fasting schedule in the holy month of Ramadan.
He also brushed off a request to end the day early for the holy month.
Defense attorneys said they are considering whether to ask Kohlmann to disqualify himself based on his answers.
Lawyers have long complained of problems that make it impossible for their clients to get a fair trial.
They complain that the court translators are incompetent, as the defendants don't speak English, and that they can't talk to friends and family of the accused without prosecutors finding out about it.
"Today was more evidence of chaos," said Jackson, a lawyer for Mohammed's alleged moneyman, Mustafa Ahmed Hawsawi.
"It shows that despite hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, the system is not functioning."