Guantanamo trial halted over FBI spying

April 15th, 2014

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

The trial of five alleged al-Qaeda members accused of involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks was halted on Monday after a defense lawyer said the Federal Bureau of Investigation had turned a member of his defense team into a secret informant.

Attorney James Harrington told Judge James L. Pohl, the army colonel overseeing the controversial military tribunal at the US military prison of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, said that the FBI agents also questioned other members of his legal team as well as people working for other defendants.

“We have an impossible situation in terms of representing our client(s) … on any issue,” Harrington told the judge, who abruptly halted the proceedings on Monday morning.

“To say this is a chilling experience for all of us is a gross understatement,” he added.

Harrington did not reveal the nature of the FBI questioning in court, but said later that the FBI agents grilled his defense security officer about the release in January of writings by alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to the media.

The attorney said that two FBI agents on April 6 approached the security officer, a non-lawyer appointed by the tribunal to assist with the handling of classified material in the death-penalty trial, and asked him to provide information to the FBI on a regular basis.

Harrington said the security officer, who would have had “unlimited access to our files,” was forced to sign a document, which was written to imply the beginning of an “ongoing” relationship with the bureau.

Harrington told reporters after the hearing that the FBI may have shaken the trust that the 9/11 legal teams have established with the defendants, who face charges of terrorism, hijacking, conspiracy, and murder.

“If you’re one of the detainees, you say, ‘Now they can spy on my lawyers, and spy on someone on the lawyers’ team and get information on the lawyer, how can I possibly trust the lawyer, or any lawyers?’ That’s a valid question,” Harrington said.

Attempts to try the terror suspects in a US civilian court in 2009 failed due to Congressional opposition. According to new regulations for the trial of the five men, confessions that have been made under torture cannot be used in court.

All five defendants have said they were tortured during detention. The CIA has admitted that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – who is of Pakistani origin but was born in Kuwait, was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and transferred to the Guantanamo base in Cuba in 2006 – alone was waterboarded 183 times.

Defense lawyers say the trial lacks legitimacy because of restricted access to their clients, while US rights groups have also questioned the fairness of the proceedings.

The lawyers have argued that the suspects were subjected to various forms of torture and held without a chance to examine the evidence against them.

GJH/ISH

Source Article from http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/15/358672/guantanamo-trial-halted-over-fbi-spying/