July 21, 2023
The KSM et al 9/11 pre-trials were canceled yet again for the month of July as many of you know and aren’t surprised.
As of today, now all of the multiple proceedings over the next couple months are canceled or continued.
My questions for the official reasons why all the GTMO cancelations, were answered by a DOD Official with Knowledge of Military Commissions.
He said; “The judge in the 9/11 case has cancelled every hearing scheduled since the announcement of the plea negotiations in MAR 2022. The judge cited “plea negotiations” as the reason for the majority of the cancellations. Initially, the hearings were postponed while the commission waited for government “policymakers” to decide on the “policy principles” offered by the defense in the plea negotiations. The government has not made a decision on the “policy principles” and won’t for “some time.
Barring any COVID interference, the SEP KSM et al hearing will proceed as scheduled because the mental capacity report on one of the accused 9/11 defendants, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, is complete. The judge used the capacity review board to cancel recent hearings, saying that “it would be prudent” to delay case testimony and legal arguments until September because a panel of military mental health experts was investigating the mental capacity of Ramzi bin al-Shibh.
If the independent medical panel concludes that Ramzi is unfit for trial, the prosecutors will challenge that finding. The prosecutors have argued that all five accused should be tried at the same time to spare the families of the victims from multiple trials.”
As of Friday, I received a text message from another DOD Official giving the following updated information…
“Oh, by the way, as of last night COVID is back at GTMO. Four detainees have it. Maybe September will be canceled after all, too. Stay tuned!”
Ugh! That’s exactly how GTMO shut down for two weeks to flatten the curve in March of 2020. Are we headed for another shutdown? Watch September closely for the KSM et al 9/11 case. As of this report… September is still on.
Now we move on to the final two weeks of July and 1st week of August where we see the recent cancellation in the JUL/AUG Nurjaman hearing (aka the Bali Bombing case). The defense filed a motion to cancel. Additionally, there is not a judge in that case now. The previous judge, US Navy CAPT Larsen, presided over his last hearing a couple months ago. The Navy has moved him to another assignment.
You can read about what happened with the Bali Bombing case here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Bali_bombings
As of June… the 2nd week of the Hadi pre-trial in August had been canceled in advance and leaving one remaining week scheduled for that month.
Three days ago I was notified by a DOD Official with Knowledge of the Military Commissions that the AUG Hadi hearing was still scheduled.The military judge for Hadi is US Army Col Pritchard.
You can read about the Hadi case here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/10/us/politics/gitmo-iraqi-prisoner.html
Fast forward to now as the defense team had filed an unopposed motion to cancel the remaining week in the Hadi hearing. Hadi had plead guilty in JUN 2022 and will be sentenced next year. Therefore the remaining week is officially continued (canceled) as of this morning.
For now, I will conclude this report and move on to Part TWO which will point important reminders about what President Trump said and left in place when he was in office.
It’s almost like he KNEW what was going to happen. The man who historically seems to be multiple steps ahead of his enemy detractors, has played ingenious chess moves.
What are the reasons multiple attempts to shut GTMO down has failed, and Trump stated he didn’t want GTMO closed because it needs to be filled up with bad guys? Why the expansion and buildup?
Why all the continuations and pretrial delays? Yes, the majority of the various Commissions are still in Pre-trials after over 20 years.
Stay tuned… for the “GTMO REBOOT is Imminent”.
~~~ Linda Forsythe