GUANTANAMO BAY — A week of pretrial hearings in the military prosecution of 9/11 architect Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four al Qaeda cronies begins today at the US naval base here after delays from a hurricane threat, a telecommunications breakdown and a rat infestation.
Attorneys for the confessed terror thugs are expected to seek dismissal of the capital charges by arguing the tribunals are unconstitutional. They are also expected to demand the CIA’s former clandestine service chief, José Rodriguez, testify about waterboarding.
Mohammed and his co-conspirators — Walid Bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Al Hawsawi — are expected to attend in person.
“We just want to see them, to know that the wheels of justice are turning,” said Tom Acquaviva of Wayne, NJ, who is observing the hearings. His son, a Cantor Fitzgerald exec, was killed on 9/11.