GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- Jasmine Norwood will be in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for a week, covering important pretrial hearings for Khalid Shaikh Mohammad and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees who are accused of being masterminds, funding, planning, and supporting the September 11 terror attacks.
Press at the naval base in Guantanamo talked with defense attorneys Monday about some of their biggest concerns and points they planned to make in court.
The defense talked about the obstacles they have had over the years, including, trying to get approval to bring witnesses from the United States, and the lasting effects their clients have sustained from being tortured during what the government refers to as Enhanced Interrogation Techniques.
"Everybody here knows the torture that was endured so I won’t go into too much detail, we all know that the torturing including water boarding, water torture, forced nudity, and other heinous things,” Alka Pradhan, Human Rights Counsel at the Guantanamo Bay Military, said.
"Mr. Hawsawi to this day suffers from those injuries he sustained during those years of degradation and torture. To this day Mr. Hawsawi has to choose between defecating and eating because when ever he has bowel movements he has to re-insert parts of his anus," Mustafa Ahmed Adam Al Hawsawi’s attorney Walter Ruiz explained.
Hawsawi is accused of being an organizer and financier of the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001.
Media members also had a casual conversation with Chief Prosecutor General Mark Martins.
Martins said in conversation and in a written statement, “The men are being lawfully, humanely held as belligerents.”
Pre-trial proceedings start Tuesday.
Jasmine Norwood will be in the courtroom and will have the latest information.
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