GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) – An attempt to get the Sept. 11 terror case moving again quickly came to an abrupt end Monday as at least two of five defendants identified a new courtroom interpreter from their time in secret CIA custody before they were taken to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for a long-stalled military trial.
A hearing in the high-security courtroom had just begun when defendant Ramzi Binalshibh told the judge that he recognized the male interpreter sitting next to him at the defense table from his time in the so-called “black sites” overseas, where prisoners were subjected to treatment widely regarded as torture.
“The problem is I cannot trust him because he was working at a black site with the CIA and you know I am from there,” said Binalshibh, a 42-year-old from Yemen who was captured in Pakistan in 2002, speaking in English.
The identification of the man as someone who may have worked for the CIA, which was backed by at least one other defendant, led to defense fears that the interpreter may have been deliberately planted by the government.
If so, it would be the latest in a series of such incidents, including the discovery of listening devices disguised as smoke detectors in attorney-client meeting rooms and the revelation that the FBI had questioned support staff on the defense teams and directed them not to tell anyone about it.