WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors preparing to try accused September 11 plotters expect criticism if they seek to use defendants’ statements as evidence, because some suspects were abused during interrogation. But they say it will not deter them.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of five September 11 suspects to be arraigned next week, is shown in the photograph during his arrest on March 1, 2003. REUTERS/Courtesy U.S.News & World Report

A team of federal prosecutors working under military leadership is helping to prepare cases against “high-value” terrorism suspects, including five facing charges of participating in the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The cases begin next week with the arraignment of the five at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The authorities are mulling whether and how to use the defendants’ own words against them, despite accusations that harsh CIA and military interrogations have made any information obtained from them unreliable.

“Certainly there’s a number of prosecutions where we’re going to try to draw upon statements defendants have made. It’s evolving,” said a U.S. official involved in the process.

He said the prosecutors were aware of the questions over defendants’ statements and had been “judicious in what they seek to have admitted.”

“No matter which statements the government offers, there will be an extraordinary hue and cry,” he said. He said cases were unlikely to be decided by statements alone.

The officials spoke to Reuters this week, before the September 11 suspects are arraigned next Thursday at a Guantanamo military war crimes court. The suspects will be asked basic questions about their representation by an attorney and given an opportunity to enter a plea.

The trial is not expected to start for several months -- possibly after a new president takes office in January.

MASTERMIND

The five suspects include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the 2001 attacks. The military dropped charges earlier this month against a sixth September 11 defendant, Mohammed al-Qahtani, but did not say why.

The CIA has acknowledged subjecting Mohammed, also known as KSM, to a simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding as it sought to learn of impending attacks.

Qahtani’s military interrogations included being forced to act like a dog, being stripped naked in front of a woman, and having women’s underwear put on his head, government reports say.

Qahtani tried to kill himself in April, his lawyer said.

Human rights advocates say such questioning methods are illegal torture and make useless any statements from the suspects, whether used against themselves or in other cases.

FBI agents had warned that harsh questioning of terrorism prisoners amounted to “borderline torture” that jeopardize legal cases, a Justice Department report said last week.

But U.S. legal officials say they are prepared to meet challenges to their evidence.

FBI agents have reinterviewed suspects and compiled other evidence, officials said. Such evidence includes laptop computers and papers seized with the suspects. Prosecutors are prepared to argue that computer data would be admissible even if the laptop’s location was learned through coercive interrogations, a defense official said.

Other potential witnesses include battlefield captives and witnesses already convicted on U.S. terrorism charges.

The FBI interviews were noncoercive, officials said. Statements made in official proceedings -- such as Mohammed’s claim of responsibility for a number of attacks during an administrative hearing -- are also potentially available.

POWER OUTAGE

The Guantanamo detention center has long been criticized by human rights groups and the military courts have been plagued by legal delays and setbacks, including an embarrassing power outage during the first hearing in a new $12 million courtroom in May.

Some military attorneys have expressed resentment at the Justice Department’s growing involvement. The department has worked with the Pentagon, which remains in charge of the prosecutions, since 2006 when 14 “high-value” suspects were transferred to Guantanamo. Those include the five to be arraigned next week.

But officials said the department could contribute prosecutors with years of experience in major, high-profile cases, including death penalty and terrorism cases.

Patrick Rowan, acting head of the Justice Department’s national security division, declined to comment on the chances trials would continue in their current controversial format after U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office. But he said the 2006 law establishing the military commission system for trying foreign terrorism suspects provides for continuity, and that the trials will be fair.

Asked whether he faced political pressure to get convictions or guilty pleas from those charged, Rowan said, “The prosecutors want to prosecute them and convict them, but we’re not triers of fact, we’re not the judges. We want to go to trial, then it’s up to the judge and the jury to decide.”