The%20National%20Guard%20%20/%20Flickr)”>(Photo: The National Guard / Flickr)GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA – A military judge on Thursday ordered the government to immediately suspend a third party’s ability to kill the audio feed during military commission proceedings for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other defendants accused of planning the 9/11 attacks.
Army Col. James Pohl, the military judge, said only he and the court security officer are authorized to use the censor button to prevent the media and other observers watching the tribunal on closed circuit television from hearing classified information being discussed in open court.
“I order the government to disconnect any ability of a third party to suspend broadcast of the proceeding, and I order any third party not to suspend proceedings,” Pohl said. “This is the last time that will happen. No third party can unilaterally cut off the broadcast.”
The third party still has the ability to monitor the commission.
The judge’s order, effective immediately, came down after the audio feed to the proceedings was interrupted Monday when defense attorney David Nevin, who represents Mohammed, discussed the title of an exhibit pertaining to the CIA’s secret black site prisons, where the self-professed 9/11 mastermind and his alleged co-conspirators had been held prior to their transfer to Guantanamo.
When Nevin uttered the word “secret,” a warning light, which is silent, positioned on the judge’s dais, started to flash and the sound of white noise was fed through the audio feed. Moments later, the monitors inside the gallery went black. The outage lasted three minutes. (The courtroom is visible to members of the gallery but is separated by soundproof glass; the audio feed is delayed by 40 seconds).
Neither Pohl nor the defense attorneys representing the accused appeared to be aware who was responsible for censoring the transmission of the proceedings.
“Who is listening to this? Who is controlling these proceedings?” Nevin asked.
“If some external body is turning the commission off under their own view of what things ought to be, with no reasonable explanation … then we are going to have a little meeting about who turns that light on or off,” Pohl said.
It was later revealed by the government that the third party monitoring the hearings who was responsible for the interruption during Nevin’s discussion about the secret overseas prisons where Mohammed was detained was the “original classification authority,” or OCA, likely a reference to the CIA since that is the agency that operated the black site prisons.
Pohl said on Tuesday the third party who censored Nevin was wrong.
In response to questions by Truthout at a news conference Thursday afternoon, Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, Guantanamo’s chief prosecutor, declined to reveal the identity of the third party censor nor would he disclose whether the censor had been controlling the proceedings at a location on Guantanamo or on US soil.
Navy Cmdr. Walter Ruiz, defense attorney for Mustafa al Hawsawi, one of the five 9/11 suspects on trial, asked reporters present whether Martins adequately answered questions related to the transparency of the proceedings.
“We have more questions than we have answers,” Ruiz said.
He noted that he too is waiting for more details to be revealed about the identity of the secret third party censor.
“Who is the invisible hand? Who is the master of puppets?”
Ruiz was highly critical of the military commissions, saying it has created an “illuson of justice.”
“This is phone currency,” he said. “Counterfeit and phony currency.”
Separately, Nevin filed an emergency motion with the court Thursday morning asking for an immediate suspension to proceedings until the defense can get a better understanding of who is listening to attorney/client communications. Pohl said he would take up the motion when pretrial hearings resume on February 11.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.