Judge urges 9/11 suspects to accept legal help

"It would be best for you to accept the assistance of counsel. If it sounds as if I am trying to talk you out of representing yourself, that would be accurate," Judge Ralph H. Kohlmann told one of the defendants, Mustafa Ahmed Hawsawi, who the government says was an Al Qaeda paymaster in the 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

Kohlmann, a Marine colonel, had similar advice at a second military commission hearing later in the day for Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, who also is charged with being a financial conduit between Al Qaeda leadership and the Sept. 11 hijackers as they trained in the United States.

Both men said at their June 5 arraignment at the naval base here that they wanted to represent themselves, as did the plot's self-described mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and the two other alleged plotters. At the time, Kohlmann allowed Ali to do so, at least for the time being, but said he was concerned that Hawsawi may have been coerced into firing his defense lawyers during a pre-hearing conversation with Mohammed.

Kohlmann told both men that they could face the death penalty if convicted and that it would be all but impossible for them to defend themselves in such a protracted, complicated legal battle without experienced lawyers.

Without a legal team on the outside, Kohlmann told them, they wouldn't be able to communicate with potential witnesses or perform other important administrative and investigative duties because they are locked up in a maximum-security facility. And they would have to draft complicated opening and closing statements and legal motions without any legal training or access to much of the case materials that specially approved lawyers would have, he said.

"All of these things are usually done in a trial better by a lawyer with special knowledge and experience with the laws and procedures," Kohlmann said in separate comments to both men. "In addition, you will not be given access to classified materials before trial because you lack the security clearances, [which] would severely hinder any effort by you to represent yourself."