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A whining five-fiend circus opened in Guantanamo Bay yesterday as 9/11 ringmaster Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four co-conspiring clowns made a mockery of the military tribunal trying them on 2,976 counts of murder.
In court for the first time in more than three years, Mohammed — who says he personally beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl — refused to speak, stood up to pray and even removed earphones providing Arabic translations of the proceedings.
The terror fiend and his four cohorts did all they could to defy the court, delay the proceeding and cause anguish for family members of victims watching the hearing.
In perhaps the most brazen act, suspect Ramzi Binalshibh ended the 13-hour day by giving a mocking thumbs-up and a smile to two 9/11 victim relatives who were staring daggers at him through a glass partition from the area reserved for people who lost loved ones.
The taunt caused one of the heartbroken 9/11 family members to exclaim “mother f—-r.”
In another sick and tasteless gesture, defendant Walid bin Attash made a paper airplane out of a piece of legal paper and placed it over his microphone. A guard soon confiscated the cruel reminder of the attack.
Mohammed, who in 2008 vowed to plead guilty so he could be executed and become a martyr, frequently gazed downward in stony silence, as if he were sleeping. At other moments, he moved his head to watch the courtroom maneuvering. At other times, he smiled and chatted with his terror pals.
As prosecutors read the charges and a description of the horrific hijackings, Mohammed paid no attention and stared at his lap, apparently reading.
Adding to the hearing’s circus-like atmosphere, Mohammed — who wore a white turban and gray beard streaked with red dye — and three of the accused randomly stood at various times during the hearing and bowed in prayer.
Later, while bin Attash’s lawyer was speaking with Army Col. James Pohl, the tribunal’s president, bin Attash removed his shirt in an effort to show scars he claimed came from abuse by guards. It was not clear if he actually had any marks on him.
At one point, two of the terrorists passed around a copy the Economist magazine and skimmed it.
Despite the disruptions and Mohammed’s refusal to speak, Pohl said the hearing would forge ahead whether Mohammed and his pals liked it or not.
“One cannot choose to not participate,” Pohl said.
The arraignment hearing is the first step in what is expected to be a lengthy trial, described by Pentagon spokesman Todd Breasseale as “the Nuremberg of our times.” The suspects are due back in court June 12.
Mohammed, captured in Pakistan in 2003, has said he engineered the 9/11 attacks “from A to Z,” along with 30 other terror plots.
Yesterday, he tried to engineer a farce at the hearing.
When Mohammed removed his earphones, his four cronies followed suit — and the chaotic proceedings could only resume after an interpreter’s translation was aired loud enough for the entire courtroom to hear.
Bin Attash had to be put in a restraint chair because he had earlier refused to come. He was later released.
His lawyer, Cheryl Bormann, showed up in conservative Muslim garb and asked the court to order all women present to wear similar clothing.
She and the other defense lawyers complained that their clients couldn’t wear civilian clothes of their choosing and about their location in the courtroom. They also complained they lacked the resources to defend their clients.
Cmdr. Walker Ruiz, a lawyer for alleged conspirator Mustafa al-Hawsawi, questioned Pohl’s authority to even open the proceeding — but Pohl slapped him down.
Out of nowhere, at around noon, Binalshibh began shouting. “Maybe you’re not going to see me anymore . . . It’s about the treatment at the camp . . . Maybe they are going to kill us!”