{"id":659686,"date":"2026-08-29T12:01:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T12:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=659686"},"modified":"2026-08-29T12:01:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T12:01:59","slug":"judge-tosses-9-11-mastermind-ksms-confession-after-trial-date-set-cites-severe-coercion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=659686","title":{"rendered":"Judge tosses 9\/11 mastermind KSM\u2019s confession after trial date set, cites \u2018severe coercion\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

A military judge on Friday tossed out the confession that alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed gave the FBI almost 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

Military judge Lt. Col. Michael Schrama ruled that the confession had been made involuntarily after Mohammed \u201cwas essentially conditioned by the C.I.A. through torture coupled with years of isolation and solitary confinement,\u201d according to The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prosecution has failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Mr. Mohammad\u2019s statements to the F.B.I. were voluntarily given,\u201d Schrama wrote in his 45-page ruling.<\/p>\n

\n

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded at least 183 times by the CIA during a single month in March 2003. https:\/\/t.co\/8MtT24PZLq<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 RiderOfKarma (@RiderOfKarma) August 28, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The judge also conceded that Mohammed had been denied access to an attorney \u201cuntil long after he had confessed and was charged,\u201d the Times noted.<\/p>\n

According to the paper, Mohammed \u201cwas brutally interrogated by the C.I.A. in secret overseas prisons after his capture in 2003 and held incommunicado until his transfer to Guant\u00e1namo in 2006.\u201d The statements he made while overseas had already been excluded from the trial.<\/p>\n

Mohammed was later interrogated again in 2007 while at Guant\u00e1namo. It was his responses during this round of questioning that were essentially thrown out by Judge Schrama on Friday.<\/p>\n

The judge also set a trial date of June 5, 2028, leaving\u00a0prosecutors with nearly two years to figure out an alternate attack plan.<\/p>\n

However, in choosing June 2028 for the trial date, the judge rejected a January 2027 start date preferred by the same prosecutors.<\/p>\n

\n

BREAKING: Military judge sets a June 2028 trial date for alleged 9\/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. pic.twitter.com\/mkeuWDIfnv<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Polymarket (@Polymarket) August 27, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

During the 2028 trial,\u00a0\u00a0Mohammed will be prosecuted alongside other Sept. 11 suspects, including\u00a0Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi.<\/p>\n

The new trial date was announced after a federal appeals court threw out a potential plea deal last summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deal, negotiated over two years and approved by military prosecutors and the Pentagon\u2019s senior official for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a year ago, stipulated life sentences without parole for Mohammed and two co-defendants,\u201d the Associated Press<\/a> reported in July of last year.<\/p>\n

The deal was opposed by some family members of the Sept. 11 victims who believed that a trial would allow full discovery, thus allowing them to learn more about the devastating attacks instead of just forgetting about them.<\/p>\n

\u201cA plea deal allows this to be tucked away into a nice, pretty package, wrapped into a bow and put on a shelf and forgotten about,\u201d family member Brett Eagleson said at the time. \u201cThe only valid way to get answers and seek the truth is through a trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deal began to fall apart when then-War Secretary Lloyd Austin repudiated it. Attorneys for some of the family members of the victims pushed back by arguing that the deal was already in effect and that Austin was too late.<\/p>\n

\u201cA military judge at Guantanamo and a military appeals panel agreed with the defense lawyers,\u201d the AP reported. \u201cBut, by a 2-1 vote, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found Austin acted within his authority and faulted the military judge\u2019s ruling.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agreement was then voided.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving properly assumed the convening authority, the Secretary determined that the \u2018families and the American public deserve the opportunity to see military commission trials carried out,\u2019\u201d the judges in the case ruled. \u201cThe Secretary acted within the bounds of his legal authority, and we decline to second-guess his judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

US appeals court cancels plea deal for 9\/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, reopening possibility of death penalty. Judges affirm former Defense Secretary Austin\u2019s authority to reject deal, agreeing victims\u2019 families deserve a full military trial. pic.twitter.com\/qxT7xDnSEp<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Open Source Intel (@Osint613) July 11, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Returning to the present, family members of the victims are hoping the newly set trial date is finally it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been asking for a trial date for 20 years. Hopefully, this time it is for real,\u201d retired NYPD officer Jim Smith, whose wife Moira Smith died responding to the attacks, told the New York Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A military judge on Friday tossed out the confession that alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed gave the FBI almost 20 years ago. Military judge Lt. Col. Michael Schrama ruled that the confession had been made involuntarily after Mohammed \u201cwas essentially conditioned by the C.I.A. through torture coupled with years of isolation and solitary… Continue reading Judge tosses 9\/11 mastermind KSM\u2019s confession after trial date set, cites \u2018severe coercion\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":659687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-659686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=659686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/659687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=659686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=659686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=659686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}