The judge, Army Col. James Pohl, has been allowing the five defendants to skip sessions of their pretrial hearings, but he has said they will be required to attend their actual trial, which is likely at least a year away. “This is one sort of psychological torture,” he said. The strange action came on the second day of a weeklong series of hearings addressing a range of pre-trial legal issues in the military commission trial of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mr. Bin Al-Shibh, and three others at the US Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Bin al-Shibh was the only defendant of the five who chose to attend Tuesday’s hearing. Robert Durand, later said bin al Shibh was provided with a "freshly prepared meal" that met Muslim dietary standards, but "the defendant complained that his lunch did not include condiments such as olives and honey." All five defendants are facing a military tribunal on charges that they helped plan and/or help with logistics in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks that left nearly 3,000 dead. They could get the death penalty if convicted. The pre-trial hearings are set to continue through Friday.
– A 9/11 defendant abruptly asked to leave a pre-trial hearing yesterday, alleging that there had been "problems between me and the guards on a daily basis" revolving around food. Ramzi bin al-Shibh was the only 9/11 defendant who had decided to attend the hearings; the other four had opted to stay in their Guantanamo Bay cells. "I cannot remain here," bin al-Shibh told the judge, according to the Christian Science Monitor. "There are problems with the food." Bin al-Shibh didn't specify what those problems were, but he did say that in some cases (such as during lunch-hour meetings with his lawyers) he hadn't been provided any lunch at all. "This is one sort of psychological torture." He said it had bothered "the brothers as well," meaning his co-defendants. A military spokesman tells the AP that bin al-Shibh got a "freshly prepared meal" every day that met his religious requirements. But "the defendant complained that his lunch did not include condiments such as olives and honey."