Gitmo judge bars defense from secret CIA prisons

[sabra]

Source: AP

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Lawyers for a Guantanamo prisoner charged in the Sept. 11 attack do not need to visit secret CIA prisons where he was once held since the sites have likely changed and are no longer relevant, a military judge ruled.

The defense for Ramzi bin al Shibh wanted to inspect the clandestine overseas prisons where the Yemeni citizen was held from 2002 to 2006 - before he was moved to Guantanamo - to see if harsh conditions contributed to a mental disorder that has raised questions about whether he is competent to stand trial.

In a ruling released Tuesday, the military judge, Army Col. Stephen Henley, said that if the secret prisons still exist there have most likely been changes and "an inspection of the scene would serve little purpose" in determining whether bin al Shibh can stand trial.

Henley did grant a defense request to compel the U.S. government to turn over some information about "any and all facilities used to detain" bin al Shibh before he was sent to Guantanamo as part of a group of so-called high value detainees, all of whom are alleged to have been held under extremely harsh conditions.

Read more: http://www.modbee.com/world/story/829664.html

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

don't want anyone looking at the crime scene...

they probably have been destroyed or cleaned but the building/cell itself could still help the defense....hearing where torture took place and seeing the room...drives it home.

[Wizard777]

2. So basically the crime scenes have not been declared and preserved like Abu Ghraib was.

The second the Abu Ghraib story broke. Bush wanted to raze Abu Ghraib so the people of Iraq wouldn't be haunted by this monument of Saddam's Tyranny. The tortures and murders Saddam conducted there was a basis of the Plan B justification of the war. Then a military Judge said not so fast. That's a crime scene and you are not going to destroy it. He ordered a preservation of Abu Ghraib that was quickly backed by the provisional government. Now Abu Ghraib is a monument to the villainy of Bush & Cheney.