Alleged Planner of 9/11 Halts Trial by Essentially Firing His Lawyers

A pre-trial hearing for five Guantanamo Bay 9/11 suspects was abruptly halted on Monday when Walid bin Attash, a Yemeni accused of running an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, told his attorneys he no longer trusted them and indicated he would like to represent himself in the death penalty case.

"We have so many problems in the camp that take precedence over anything we are discussing here in the court," bin Attash said through an interpreter before the judge, Army Lieutenant Colonel James Pohl, silenced him due to security concerns.

It was the latest delay in a pretrial that has been postponed for several years. The most well-known of the five men, alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, appeared to have an orange beard. Mohammed had consented to the proceedings, unlike bin Attash.

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Bin Attash told his attorney, Cheryl Bormann, that he no longer trusts his legal team and would rather proceed without representation.

"He tells us that he doesn't know whether or not there is an FBI agent on his team," Bormann said. "Why? Well, because there were FBI informants on other teams. He tells us as he sits here today that he has no idea if there is a CIA operative on his team. Why? Well, because in this bizarre setting that actually has occurred."

Bin Attash's mistrust stems from a secret FBI investigation of the defense counsel that surfaced last year, derailing pre-trial hearings. The government has since acknowledged secretly monitoring earlier proceedings involving the same defendants.

Bormann, who was dressed in a black abaya, said she hadn't known that bin Attash was planning to ask to represent himself. She conferred with her client during the recess that was called because of the request.

"[He] explained to me today that he believes that he is still subject to torture, that where he is in Camp 7 and the constantly changing scenarios at Camp 7 are a duplicate of what he experienced in black sites," Bormann said once the hearing resumed. "He feels like he has no relief from the torture and that everything is orchestrated by the United States government here."

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Bormann said bin Attash fears that he will be tortured for speaking out.

Brigadier General Mark Martins, the chief prosecutor, responded to Bormann's concerns about what self-representation would look like for bin Attash by saying that he would be able to participate in hearings and could communicate with other detainees under a "sphere of privilege."

The pretrial is scheduled to continue Tuesday morning.

Reuters contributed to this report.