GTMO DAILY ~ Camp Justice, June 12-17, 2023 Trial Report

June 17, 2023

Following is an updated report on this month’s Military proceedings in GTMO ~ June 12 to 17th.

Since C-VINE doesn’t have any volunteers at present in the Ft. Meade viewing room taking notes on the LIVE CCTV transmissions from GTMO… we are providing an eye-witness report via tweets from Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times. Carol is physically in GTMO reporting on the USS Cole Bombing proceedings that happened on October 12, 2000. (23 years ago) and remain in Pre-Trial Status.  The tweets at the bottom start on the 12th and move upward to the latest, (June 17th). Missing days are because of Closed Sessions not open to public purview.  Including reporters. The accused is Saudi citizen Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. You may read about the USS Cole Bombing description account HERE.

Note: At present, the only approved reporters in GTMO are from Main Stream Media. BUT… the public has access to watch these same exact LIVE proceedings (with a 40 second delay) that Carol can see, in a special viewing room on Ft. Meade. You may view court transcripts, list of detainees, judges, rulings, calendars, where the viewing rooms are, and everything “GTMO” in the following Office of Military Commissions Link: https://www.mc.mil/home.aspx

~~~ Linda Forsythe

Carol Rosenberg ~ TWEETS ~ June 12 – 17, 2023

(June 17): It’s travel day at Camp Justice, the war court complex at Guantánamo Bay. Legal teams and other court personnel are heading out on the Pentagon charter bringing in fresh staff and observers for the shortened Week 2 of this USS Cole bombing case pretrial hearing.

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Those staying behind will have Monday off as the holiday and will treated on Friday to the base’s monthly Surf and Turf.
The USS Cole bombing case is nearing a crossroads decision on the lasting effects of torture by the CIA — and a veteran military interrogator testified as the last expert witness that memory is degraded and the damage to reliable intelligence is profound.
Guantánamo Case Nearing a Decision on the Lasting Effects of Torture
A military judge heard from the final expert before he decides whether interrogations at Guantánamo were contaminated by years of C.I.A. detention.
Even years later, “the debility, dependency and dread doesn’t disappear when they walk into a clean room in suits,” said Steven M. Kleinman, who served in the CIA and then the Air Force from 1983 to 2015 and retired as a colonel with a specialty in human intelligence.
This testimony on torture was beamed to Guantánamo from Virginia. The witness, defense lawyer and prosecutor on that topic were all up there — and the judge engaged via video feed. The prisoner was voluntarily absent. About the secret courtroom annex here.
War Court Proceedings Stream to Guantánamo From a Secret Chamber in Virginia
The tribunals were intentionally set up offshore. Now, increasingly, military judges are hearing testimony and arguments from a classified annex.
As Mr. Soufan told it, Mr. Hamdan dropped to his knees in prayer, then turned cooperative. Sometimes he, his FBI colleague and the prisoner, unshackled, would sit on the floor and chat, he said. Sometimes he brought him a fish sandwich from McDonalds, as a treat.
Mr. Soufan said he first found Mr. Hamdan uncooperative because his U.S. captors had reneged on a promised call to his pregnant wife. So Mr. Soufan said in a day or so he brought him to a Gitmo courtyard, and rang up the wife in Yemen on a sat phone for a quick welfare check .
It’s a stunning crescent moon morning here at soggy Guantánamo Bay on Day 2, Week 1 of Judge Acosta’s final session presiding in the USS Cole case. Testimony on hearsay testimony at 0900.
nytimes.com
Appeals Panel Is Examining Guantánamo Judge’s Next Job on Ethics Grounds
The issue has cast a cloud over the coming proceedings in the U.S.S. Cole bombing case, which are scheduled to last three weeks starting Monday.

Mr. Soufan said he learned about Mr. Hamdan when he questioned his brother-in-law Abu Jandal in Yemen after 9/11. Then, one day, he realized that Mr. Hamdan was in a cell at Guantanamo. He was eager to question him because of his proximity to Bin Laden, went maybe the next day.

SIDE TWEET OF INTEREST From Robert Dunham:

Robert Dunham

Yet another ethics issue involving a military commission judges in Guantánamo: Appeals Panel Is Examining Guantánamo Judge’s Next Job on Ethics Grounds. nytimes.com/2023/06/10/us/

nytimes.com
Appeals Panel Is Examining Guantánamo Judge’s Next Job on Ethics Grounds

The issue has cast a cloud over the coming proceedings in the U.S.S. Cole bombing case, which are scheduled to last three weeks starting Monday.

Carol Rosenberg
Correction: the interrogation of Mr. Badawi that Mr. Soufan is describing took place in Yemen in 2001. Not 02.
General Naji wants Mr. Badawi to tell the US agents that he knew two guys named Harazi* and Tuhami from the jihad in Bosnia. Mr. Badawi said he did say that under earlier Yemeni interrogation but it was a lie. *Soufan has explained that Harazi was a Nashiri alias.
Mr. Soufan is explaining that, as he was questioning Mr. Badawi back then, Yemeni security officials are coming and going— some of them very deferential to the prisoner. At one point the head of the Presidential Guard for Ali Abdullah Saleh named Hamoud Naji interrupted…
The rain waters have receded on the pathway to court, the mud has dried and the mold has been wiped away from the seats inside. But today we had mosquitos settling on soldiers and spectators. #ExpeditionaryJustice
About today in court… It’s a finicky guard day. In addition to the strange pre-hearing silence imposed on the spectators gallery for the 29 minutes before the judge entered court, we saw a soldier direct a translator for the prosecution to screw a top back on his water bottle.