9/11 architect, four others face trial

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, faces trial this week alongside four co-defendants, officials said.

The four days of trial hearings will be held at the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, The Sunday Telegraph reported. The trial will be broadcast to the world on a 20-second delay so classified material can be muted, the British newspaper said.

Mohammed is one of three detainees the CIA admits to waterboarding, an "enhanced interrogation" technique that simulates drowning. He was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and sent to Guantanamo in 2006, allegedly through secret CIA prisons in Poland and Jordan.

There is a chance the trial could be in vain if President-elect Barack Obama jettisons the laws under which the trial is being conducted.

"This is just a PR exercise. Nothing will come of it. It will all be shut down before the trial is completed," said Clive Stafford Smith, who represents former British resident Binyam Mohammed, who is awaiting trial in Guantanamo Bay.