Carol Rosenberg’s Post

The USS Cole case went back into session last week for the first time since June and there's been still no release of four days of transcripts of public hearings on the Pentagon's transparency website, mc.mil. I did two dispatches: In First Court Appearance, U.S.S. Cole Case Judge Sets Goal of 2025 Trial https://lnkd.in/enGyN4YT and Tougher Security Measures Are Causing Upset at Guantánamo Prison, https://lnkd.in/ex2TNa87 For now, these are only window you get into those capital case hearings.

Update: I spotted a new stone, now fading a bit, dedicated to Yudhvir Singh Jain signed, "love your dear darling daughter," with heart.

My latest dispatch from Guantanamo... The Navy lawyer for the man accused of plotting the attack on the USS Cole asked the trial judge to order the prison to unshackle the prisoner during meetings. He said they've met unshackled 150 times before. In doing so, today's war court hearing put a spotlight on simmering tensions in the Pentagon’s secretive prison. https://lnkd.in/ex2TNa87

Just in: Today's news from the USS Cole court at Guantanamo Bay... An Army judge who was in law school at the time of the U.S.S. Cole bombing restarted hearings in the case on Monday and declared it was his intention to put the accused mastermind of the attack on trial at Guantánamo Bay in 2025. If he does, the trial would start a quarter century after the terrorist attack that killed 17 U.S. sailors off Aden, Yemen.

A British court has put on hold the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pending assurances from the United States that he would not face the death penalty.

Latest version of why it is taking so long to get the 9/11 case to trial at Guantanamo Bay: Prosecution and defense attorneys in the decade-old pretrial hearing phase have only this month come up with a system by which lawyers for the defendants can interview Guantanamo prison medical providers as possible trial witnesses. (The defendants got to Guantanamo in 2006; medical staff come and go on 6- to 12-month rotations.) The court has released the form letter, as approved by the judge.

I just looked at the Guantanamo court calendar and, wow, the military judges have reserved court for every Monday through Friday from April 1st until Thanksgiving week. Up first, 4/1/2024: The U.S.S. Cole case goes back into session with a new judge and new lead prosecutor at the court for the first time. Our updated guide is here. https://lnkd.in/efKPxdSc

Good afternoon from Guantánamo Bay. With the hearing closed yesterday, we intrepid court correspondents paid a visit to Radio Gitmo — the base radio station with a sassy motto and a popular gift shop. We were given a tour of the state of the art studios and then were allowed to, gingerly, look inside the old school card catalogue for the old school, rarely spun vinyl.

The military judge in the Sept. 11 case has postponed his retirement. He is the fourth judge to preside in a dozen years of pretrial hearings. What's likely in store for 2024 and why it matters. https://lnkd.in/enmE8hc5

Update for the deep divers from this morning's pretrial hearing in the long-running Sept. 11 case at Guantanamo Bay: Col. Matthew McCall, the Sept. 11 case judge, just announced that he is extending his time on the case through 2024. He was supposed to retire in June. Now, he says, he has obtained permission to stay on longer from a three-star general, is awaiting final word. Why so important? The case is approaching three weighty pretrial crossroads questions that have been handed off from military judge to military judge -- and the extension should give Judge McCall time to rule on them. Here they are: No. 1: The question of admissibility of the so-called clean-team confessions, from 2007. One 9/11 prosecutor has called them “the most critical evidence in this case.” The judge in Guantanamo's other capital case has thrown out that evidence. No. 2: The question of whether to dismiss or downgrade the case to non-capital because of outrageous government conduct. One defendant just put that fully briefed, fully argued question before this judge, as reported earlier this month. The delay could give the other three defense teams time to do the same. No. 3: The question of whether government/CIA restrictions on defense team investigations make the case unfair. In 2018, the first judge threw out the 2007 confessions for that exact reason. Successive judges have been revisiting that question ever since.