Guantanamo judge orders Khalid Sheikh Mohammed lawyers not to discuss torture

As the long-delayed hearings resumed at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, Mohammed's defense team argued that his shackles reminded him of the simulated drownings he was subjected to at secret American interrogation sites.

The US government has fought every effort to allow descriptions of waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" into court testimony, arguing "our government's sources and methods are not an open book".

Colonel James Pohl, the military judge presiding over the hearing, yesterday rejected Mohammed's lawyer's attempt to raise the subject in the courtroom.

"I'm telling you I don't think that's relevant to this issue. That's the end of that," he told Captain Michael Schwartz, for the defence.

When the captain tried to persist Col Pohl said: "Are you having trouble hearing me? Move on to something else."

Mohammed and his four fellow defendants watched the proceedings calmly, in stark contrast to their last appearance in May where one of the accused had to be physically restrained and another ranted incoherently at the court room.

The 47-year-old Kuwaiti, whose greying beard was dyed orange with henna, said in Arabic: "I don't there's any justice in this court," after being asked whether he understood his rights.

Mohammed faces 2,976 counts of murder, one for each of the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks.