Military judge throws out Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 2007 FBI confession

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - A military judge on Friday suppressed a key confession that alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed gave FBI agents in January 2007, finding the statements were not voluntary, CBS News and the New York Times reported.

Lt. Col. Michael Schrama wrote that prosecutors failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Mohammed's FBI statements were freely given. The 45-page ruling was not immediately released publicly, but lawyers familiar with the unclassified contents confirmed its thrust.

Mohammed was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and held by the CIA, which used waterboarding and other coercive tactics before he was moved to Guantanamo in 2006. Schrama found an unbroken continuation of CIA psychological conditioning and severe coercion into the later FBI sessions. He also found agents did not give Miranda warnings and told Mohammed he could not speak to a lawyer.

Earlier this week Schrama set trial for June 5, 2028, for Mohammed and co-defendants Walid bin Attash, Mustafa al-Hawsawi and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali. The date falls after the 25th anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Rear Adm. Aaron C. Rugh, the chief prosecutor, told the Times the government will decide soon whether to appeal.

Retired FBI agent Frank Pellegrino, who interviewed Mohammed in 2007, told CBS he believes the confession was voluntary and that he made clear Mohammed did not have to talk. Defense lawyers have long argued that CIA treatment poisoned later statements. Families of victims have warned that further appeals could push a verdict past the defendants' lifetimes.

Prosecutors had already set aside some CIA-era statements. Friday's ruling removes another pillar of the planned case and keeps the long Guantanamo proceedings in legal limbo even as a trial date finally sits on the calendar.