GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE — In a major procedural blow to federal prosecutors, a military judge ruled Friday that confessions made by alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to FBI agents at Guantanamo Bay are inadmissible in court.
Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Schrama concluded in a 45-page ruling that the prosecution failed to prove the 2007 statements were given voluntarily. The judge cited what he described as an "unbroken continuation of the CIA’s psychological conditioning and severe coercion" following years of imprisonment in secret overseas black sites, where Mohammed was subjected to extensive abuse, including being waterboarded more than 100 times.
Furthermore, the court found that federal agents during the 2007 interviews intentionally omitted standard warnings regarding Mohammed’s rights to remain silent and consult legal counsel.
The decision strips the government of what prosecutors had long touted as core evidence heading toward trial. The ruling arrives just days after Schrama formally scheduled the long-delayed trial for June 2028, rejecting a government push for an accelerated timeline. Chief prosecutors have five days to evaluate whether they will formally appeal the suppression order, leaving the path forward for the military commission system heavily contested as the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks approaches.
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