Judge: No Sign US Eavesdropped on USS Cole Bombing Suspect

2:55 PM, Feb 4, 2013   |    comments
  • This November 9, 2011 courtroom sketch by Janet Hamlin, shows terror suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 46, who was arraigned at a hearing on charges related to the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. US officials at the Guantanamo Bay Naval base in southeastern Cuba, where the trial is being held, are walking a tightrope as they balance the public's right to an open society with a free flow of information, with the need to ensure that US security interests are paramount and nothing of a sensit
  • A gaping hole mars the port side sustained by the guided missile destroyer USS Cole after a terrorist bomb exploded and killed at least five people and injured 36 during a refueling operation October 12, 2000 in the port of Aden, Yemen. (Photo Courtesy of U.S. Navy/Getty Images)
    
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DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) - A judge at Guantanamo Bay says he's seen no evidence the government eavesdropped on private conversations between the prisoner accused of orchestrating the attack on the USS Cole and his lawyers.

Army Col. James Pohl denied a defense motion Monday to halt a pretrial hearing for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Pohl called a recess so defense lawyers can decide whether to continue representing al-Nashiri despite their lingering suspicion that the CIA can monitor their privileged conversations.

The issue springs from last week's episode in another Guantanamo case in which an undisclosed government agency unilaterally silenced the courtroom loudspeakers to prevent spectators from hearing classified information. Pohl says that capability no longer exists.

The hearing in Cuba, where al-Nashiri has been held since 2006, is being fed to a viewing room at Fort Meade.

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