FIVE MEN accused of planning the September 11th, 2001, attacks have told a military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay that they want to confess and plead guilty to offences that could carry the death penalty. In a letter to Col Stephen Henley, the military judge assigned to their trial, the five men, led by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, said they "request an immediate hearing session to announce our confessions".
Mr Mohammed, who faces charges of murdering 2,973 people, has admitted he developed the plot to fly aircraft into buildings in New York and Washington.
In court yesterday, he dismissed his military counsel and declared that he does not trust the judge, President George Bush or the CIA, which he claims tortured him.
"We don't want to waste our time with motions," Mr Mohammed said.
"All of you are paid by the US government. I'm not trusting any American."
Offering to plead guilty along with Mr Mohammed were his nephew, Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, Tawfiq bin Attash and Ali Aziz Abdul Ali, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi.
All five are accused of "conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, terrorism and providing material support for terrorism".
Prosecutors have described Mr Mohammed as "the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks", claiming he proposed the idea to Osama bin Laden as early as 1996 and that he oversaw the entire operation, including the training of the hijackers. Mr Bin Attash is charged with running an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, where two of the hijackers were trained, and of travelling to Malaysia in 1999 to observe airport security by US airlines.
Prosecutors say Mr Binalshibh was initially chosen as one of the September 11th hijackers but that he was unable to obtain a US visa. They say he helped find flight schools for the hijackers and engaged in numerous financial transactions in support of the conspiracy. Mr Ali is accused of sending about $120,000 to the hijackers for their expenses and flight training and arranging travel to the US for nine of the 19 hijackers. Mr Hawsawi is charged with providing the hijackers with money, western clothing, travellers' cheques and credit cards.
President-elect Barack Obama wants to close the detention centre at Guantánamo and try some of those held there in conventional civilian or military courts rather than under the tribunal system established by the Bush administration.