9/11 'mastermind' to be charged over attacks

9/11 'mastermind' to be charged over attacks

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is shown in undated photos released by the FBI in 2001.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others are appearing before a military judge
• The five face charges of terrorism linked to the September 11, 2001 attacks
• Some say the proceedings could be a "circus"

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (CNN) -- The arraignment of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was under way Saturday, but distractions were delaying the proceedings.

It is Mohammed and four others' first appearance before a military judge in Guantanamo Bay since being charged a month ago.

Along with Mohammed, the others are Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin 'Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi.

The five are charged with terrorism, hijacking aircraft, conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury and destruction of property in violation of the law of war.

The first challenge the court faced was over translations.

Mohammed's lawyer said that his client "will decline to communicate with the court." As the proceeding got started, not a single defendant spoke.

Because they wouldn't speak, the judge could not confirm that the defendants could hear the translation of the proceedings. Time elapsed while they set up loudspeakers in the court to carry the translations. Some lawyers objected to this solution, too, and translation remained a problem at the outset of the hearing.

The judge, Col. James Pohl, said he would enter a not guilty plea on Mohammed's behalf if he refused to enter a plea.

Two of the defendants, Bin 'Attash and Binalshibh, started praying in the court.

The charges allege that the five are "responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., resulting in the killing of 2,976 people," the Defense Department said.

If convicted, the five face the death penalty.

"I've had conversations with other people who believe the circus is going to begin with the first appearance," said Rear Adm. Donald Guter, who once served as the Navy's top lawyer.

"One of the most important things that's going to happen at arraignment is the scheduling of the trial and the scheduling of the motions hearings, and I'm sure there will be many," according to Neal Puckett, a lawyer and retired Marine colonel who has spent most of his career in military courtrooms.

Technically, once the five are arraigned, the court has met the constitutional requirement for a speedy trial.

"The reality of course is that no one at Gitmo is getting a speedy trial. The rules are written as such to run the clock from the time that the charges are actually preferred or sworn, and of course that process has sort of started and stopped and started and stopped several times," Puckett said.

The military initially charged Mohammed in 2008, but President Barack Obama stopped the case as part of his effort to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

Unable to close the center, Obama attempted to move the case to federal court in New York in 2009, only to run into a political firestorm. The plan was dropped after complaints about cost and security.

Last April, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the five would face a military trial at Guantanamo Bay.

The decision was met with some criticism, including from the American Civil Liberties Union.

ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said last month the administration is making a "terrible mistake by prosecuting the most important terrorism trials of our time in a second-tier system of justice."

"Whatever verdict comes out of the Guantanamo military commissions will be tainted by an unfair process and the politics that wrongly pulled these cases from federal courts, which have safely and successfully handled hundreds of terrorism trials," Romero said.

CNN's Larry Shaughnessy contributed to this report.

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