VIDEO: Arun Rath's Notes On The Guantanamo Bay Pre-Trial Of Self-Proclaimed 9/11 Mastermind

Pre-Trial Hearings, Today & Tomorrow

I am at the 'Jerk House,' it's actually referring to jerk chicken, they have a really nice little spot here. You can see some beautiful trees behind me and the bay. 

I could talk a bit about what happened today. In court we have the five accused in the 9/11 trial. Top of the list is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed; he is known as the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, he's actually gone on record claiming responsibility for planning the attacks from A to Z. He was not in court today, none of the defendants were there in court, they waived their right to appear--which sometimes they're not allowed to do, if it's, say, a hearing for something particularly important, they're required to go.

They did not show up today, but I imagine they will show up tomorrow because there's going to be some rather interesting testimony on Abu Zubaydah, who's considered one of the highest valued detainees in Guantanamo, [he] will be taking the witness stand tomorrow. He has not been seen since 2002, I think since his capture. He's a complicated figure -- early on he was referred to as being part of Osama bin Laden's inner circle, he was associated with Al Qaeda...it seems like he was more of a 'freelance,' you know, to think of a better term you could use.

But the reason he'll be testifying is because -- and this is something I reported on earlier this week no WGBH -- some of the accused are claiming that they're still suffering abuse here in Guantanamo. In particular, one defendant Ramzi bin al-Shibh says that he's being subjected to vibrations and sounds in his cell that's reminiscent of what he was exposed to when the CIA was working him over in the sessions of abuse and torture that he suffered. He says that that's going on in his cell in Guantanamo, and that he's been complaining about that really for a couple of years. So apparently, according to the lawyers, Abu Zubaydah has also experienced some of the same sort of things, so he will be taking the stand and testifying. And again, this is the first time he's been seen in about 14 years, since he was taken into US custody.

And the other interesting thing is, they'll be taking about Camp 7; Camp 7 is where the highest valued detainees are kept and it's top secret, no one ever gets to go on tours of Camp 7. So having a prisoner from there talk about the conditions, and he'll probably be limited in what he's allowed to talk about, will be interesting. 

Life In #Gitmo

I can tell you a bit about life down here at Guantanamo. You can get a little bit of a sense as you look behind me, it's quite beautiful here....And here at the Jerk House, it's probably one of the better places to eat on the base, it's quite a mix of people. People have an idea about Guantanamo, thinking just the prison, but it's actually a full, very busy military facility. There are contractors, a lot of different people -- you know there are high schools and churches, and anything else you would see at any kind of military community. It's just strange because it's isolated so much, nothing can go back-and-forth between here and Cuba. There's one road, but nobody really travels that road. 

Questions from Facebook

Could you describe the demeanor of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?

It's actually a great question. He looks pretty healthy, he's certainly not hunger-stricken -- he's got a good belly on him. He's got a full, massive beard that he's dyed orange, I guess to show devotion. And it's bigger and orange-er than the last time I saw him...He's a man who clearly takes a great deal of care with his appearance, with his headdress, his camouflage. He's always somebody, we know this from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's history, he's someone who's very media-savvy. His entire plotting of the horrendous 9/11 plot was to make it as much as a spectacle, and upset and demoralize us, as much as he could. So all of the details, planning that went into that, he was behind those. He was the guy who thought about using box cutters as weapons, he would have the hijackers train to kill with box cutters on farm animals. His original plan was even more fantastic: he wanted to hijack 10 planes, and I believe the story went that bin Laden told him to scale that back. 

Since 9/11 was so central to our social and political culture, why isn't there more mainstream coverage of the trial?

I ask the same question, I complain about this all the time. And I wish I had a good answer for this, but I guess I could just rant about some of my own frustrations because the way I feel, this is the 9/11 trial. If there ever were a trial of the century, of great importance--again, this was the man who planned the details of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans. And I'm shocked that there's not more interest to see him go to court and see him be tried. And as someone who was in New York myself when 9/11 occurred, laying my eyes actually on that individual, it's an experience I have a hard time putting words to. It's a very deep, raw feeling, if that makes any sense. 

In terms of why the lack of coverage and interest, I could just speculate at best. I imagine there might be some kind of vicious circle where there's not a lot of reporters coming down here, I'm one of only seven who are here for these hearings, so people don't hear about it. People maybe even don't even know these are going on because they're not getting coverage, so people aren't interested because they don't know it's going on, and because they don't know it's going on they're not interested...Maybe news organizations think maybe they shouldn't cover it. 

Watch the full video above to hear more from Arun on the details of the trail on Guantanamo Bay.