“USS Cole Bombing Case Could Restart After Lawyers Find Hidden Microphone”

Would you find it alarming as a prisoner facing the death penalty if the room where you met with your lawyers was equipped with a hidden microphone? That was the ethical dilemma civilian attorneys paid by the Pentagon faced while representing a detainee in U.S. military custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The defense team, composed of one senior military attorney and three civilian attorneys with experience in capital punishment cases, found the listening device and abruptly withdrew from the case. Military prosecutors argued that the microphone was an antiquated feature in the room from the past and not functioning. This explanation was accepted by the military judge in the case, Air Force Col. Vance Spath, who has since retired from service and is now an immigration court judge.

The defendant, a Saudi national named al Nashiri, has been detained at Gitmo since 2002. Al Nashiri was formally charged in 2011 with organizing al-Qaeda’s suicide bombing of the Navy’s USS Cole on October 12, 2000, as the ship refueled during a stop in Yemen. 17 Navy sailors were killed and dozens more injured in the terror attack.

Unlike a criminal trial in civilian court, much of the proceedings in al Nashiri’s matter remain classified. However, the military court’s calendar shows that the courtroom is reserved for the USS Cole bombing case during the entire month of October, a sign that hearings could soon restart under the newly appointed judge, Air Force Col. Shelly Schools.

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