A military judge has thrown out the confessions of 9/11 defendant Walid bin Attash, and now all four men in the case have lost their key confessions as evidence.
Story Snapshot
- The judge ruled that bin Attash’s statements to federal agents in 2007 and 2008 were not given freely.
- He found the FBI’s “clean team” interviews carried over the pressure of earlier CIA interrogations.
- Agents never told bin Attash that what he said to the CIA could not be used against him.
- This is the fifth time a military judge has tossed “clean team” confessions.
What The Judge Ruled And Why
Lt. Col. Michael Schrama is the military judge overseeing the 9/11 case at Guantanamo Bay. He issued his ruling on Wednesday, October 7, and it struck all of bin Attash’s statements to federal agents as involuntary. Prosecutors say bin Attash helped train two of the hijackers and, at the direction of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, traveled on U.S. passenger planes in Southeast Asia to look for weak spots in airline security.
The judge found that the FBI agents never told bin Attash that what the CIA had pulled from him in forced interrogations between 2003 and 2006 could not be used against him. The FBI questioned him at a former CIA “black site,” or secret prison, at Guantanamo. The judge wrote that the FBI sessions “effectively maintained the coercive psychological pressure established by the CIA.” Agents also brought tea, dates and snacks to build a bond. The judge found that copied a CIA method of using food and drink to keep a prisoner talking.
What A “Clean Team” Was Supposed To Do
The CIA held the 9/11 suspects in secret prisons from 2003 to 2006 and used harsh methods on them. Statements from that time were judged coerced and could not be used in court. So in 2007, the government sent new teams of FBI agents, called “clean teams,” to question the men again from scratch. The goal was a fresh confession that the earlier treatment had not touched. Prosecutors long called these interviews their best evidence.
The case is being heard by a military commission, a special court run by the military for foreign terror suspects. It sits at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. According to agents, bin Attash once told them, “Tell the judge that I am very proud for my part in the Planes Operation.” That statement is now off the table.
All Four Defendants Now Affected
With this ruling, the “clean team” confessions of all four 9/11 defendants have been thrown out. A judge suppressed Ammar al-Baluchi’s statements in April 2025. Judge Schrama threw out Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s in August and Mustafa al-Hawsawi’s in a ruling dated October 2. The other ruling came in 2023 in the separate USS Cole bombing case.
So far, prosecutors are appealing only one of the excluded confessions, al-Baluchi’s. They chose not to appeal the ruling on Mohammed, the accused mastermind, so they could keep the trial date. That trial is set for June 5, 2028.
What This Means For The Families
Nearly 3,000 people were killed on September 11, 2001. A quarter-century later, the men accused of planning it still have not gone to trial. Prosecutors still have other evidence, including recordings from the prison recreation yard and money-transfer records, according to reports. But the confessions they once called their strongest proof are gone, and the families of the victims are still waiting for a trial.
Sources:
thegatewaypundit.com, bostonglobe.com, justsecurity.org
