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T O P I C R E V I E W
gnome44
Posted - 03/06/2007 : 6:30:54 PM I kind of thought this was interesting. I get uncomfortable when media are not allowed at these hearings...and when the transcripts are edited before release...
------------------------------------- At Gitmo detainee hearings, no journalists allowed
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Reporters will be barred from hearings that begin Friday in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the 14 terror suspects who were transferred last year from secret CIA prisons, officials said Tuesday.
Interest in the 14 is particularly high because of their alleged links to al Qaeda.
Among them is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks. He was captured in Pakistan in March 2003.
In announcing the hearings, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he could not say which of the 14 would go first or how long the process would take.
No word of the hearings will be made public until the government releases a transcript of the proceedings, edited to remove material deemed damaging to national security, he said.
Whitman said the Pentagon is planning to withhold the name of the detainee from the edited hearing transcript, although that will be reconsidered.
The hearings, which the Pentagon calls combatant status review tribunals, are meant to determine whether a prisoner is an "enemy combatant." If the prisoner is deemed to be an enemy combatant, then President Bush can designate him as eligible for a military trial, the first of which are expected to begin this summer.
News coverage of previous combatant status review tribunals -- of which there were more than 550 between July 2004 and March 2005 -- was not prohibited, although there were restrictions on some information.
Whitman said the hearings for the 14 formerly held in CIA prisons will be closed to the news media in order to protect national security interests that could be compromised by statements made by the detainees.
"Because of the nature of their capture, the fact that they are high-value detainees and based on the information that they possess and are likely to present in a combatant status review tribunal ... we're going to need an opportunity to redact things for security purposes before providing that in a public forum," Whitman said.
He appeared to be referring to the fact that the 14 were held for an undisclosed period in a secret CIA prison network that Bush acknowledged for the first time last September 6. The president said at the time that the CIA program "has been, and remains, one of the most vital tools in our war against the terrorists."
In additional to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 14 also include Ramzi Binalshibh, who is believed by U.S. authorities to have helped plan the September 11 attacks. He was captured in September 2002 in Pakistan.
Another is Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian raised in Saudi Arabia who was believed to be a link between Osama bin Laden and many al Qaeda terrorist cells before he was captured in Pakistan in 2002.
The Pentagon opened the Guantanamo Bay prison in January 2002 but so far no captives have been put on trial.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
