89 WLS - Judge: No sign US eavesdropped on Cole suspect

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Judge: No sign US eavesdropped on Cole suspect

8:27AM Monday
February 4, 2013

By DAVID DISHNEAU
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.

By DAVID DISHNEAU

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) - The Guantanamo Bay prisoner accused of orchestrating the attack on the USS Cole faces a pretrial hearing in his war crimes tribunal.

The four-day hearing for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri begins Monday. Video of the proceeding in Cuba, where al-Nashiri has been held by the U.S. since 2006, is being fed to a viewing room at Fort Meade.

The numerous motions include one by the defense seeking to halt the government from restraining the defendant with belly chains while moving him around the U.S. prison in Cuba.

Defense attorneys say they may seek to postpone the hearing amid questions raised last week about whether a third-party government agency is capable of eavesdropping on conversations between the defendant and his lawyers.

The 2000 bombing of the Navy destroyer in Yemen killed 17 crew members and wounded 37.

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