By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 16th, 2014
The judge who presides over the legal process concerning five 9/11 terrorist suspects adjourned preliminary hearings yesterday, after discovering that federal law enforcement agencies may have covertly contacted members of the defense teams.
Army Colonel James Pohl suspended the hearings until Wednesday, a problem “caused by Monday’s revelation that the FBI attempted to get a classification specialist on co-defendant Ramzi bin al-Shibh’s defense team to become an informant,” according to The Guardian.
Colonel Pohl further told the defense lawyers that, by Wednesday, their teams should inform him if they are aware of anyone else who might know about the federal surveillance. The judge’s move might indicate that he is considering a direct investigation of the FBI’s actions.
The issue of potential federal surveillance into the case arose just as the court was about to consider Bin al-Shibh’s mental competence for trial. But this is only the most recent problem for the controversial wartime court of Guantánamo, which has experienced a number of setbacks in its attempts to try the accused for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th, 2001.
Federal prosecutors asked the court to continue the scheduled hearings and essentially ignore the matter of possible FBI surveillance. Colonel Pohl flatly rejected that request.
The current mess began when the FBI apparently opened an investigation “into how an unclassified manifesto by accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed found its way to the media in January” according to The Guardian.
It seems the Bureau believes that someone on the defense teams may have released the unclassified document to the media – for their part, the defense attorneys insist that no violation of law took place.
Regardless, the FBI’s apparent attempts to turn some officials on the defense teams into government informers is almost certainly a conflict of interest, as such activity may keep the teams from ever providing a proper, independent representation for their clients.
Lawyers for the defendants admit they cannot say for sure who on their teams has been contacted by the FBI, and that this covert surveillance by law enforcement has helped create in the accused a firm distrust of their attorneys.
“My client is not here because he’s angry with me,” acknowledged Cheryl Bormann, an attorney for co-defendant Walid bin Attash.
Bormann added that it is no longer prudent for her to return to Bin Attash his own writings, for fear she may find herself under an FBI investigation for the disclosure of ‘privileged information’.
No one seems sure of just how – or why – the Bureau began establishing its contacts with defense teams.
“The prosecution repeatedly testified on Monday and Tuesday that it was unaware of any investigation of the defense attorneys,” stated The Guardian, which added that “the military task force that runs the detention center denied any knowledge as well.”
For its part, the FBI has declined to comment on the matter at all.
