Sept. 11 Defense Seeks Torture Evidence at Cuba Hearing

[Purveyor]

By David Glovin - Jan 28, 2013
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others accused in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks returned to a military courtroom as their lawyers seek permission to collect evidence that some were tortured.

Among the legal issues to be raised before a military judge at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is whether the defense will gain access to documents indicating that defendants were tortured while in U.S. custody. In October, during the first round of pretrial hearings, Mohammed used the proceedings to accuse the U.S. government of killing millions of people and employing torture “under the name of national security.”

James Connell, an attorney for Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, a defendant who is a nephew of Mohammed accused of helping finance the hijackers, said at a press conference in Cuba yesterday the men may be able to exclude some government evidence at trial if they can show it was derived from torture. The men, who face a possible death sentence if found guilty, may also use evidence of torture to seek reduced sentences.

This week’s proceedings are “the first step toward finding what happened in the torture of these men,” Connell said.

Mohammed was silent this morning as his lead attorney, David Nevin, requested permission for another lawyer, Gary Sowards, to join his defense team. That led the judge to ask whether he could appoint an additional lawyer without Mohammed’s express consent.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-01-28/sept-11-defense-seeks-torture-evidence-at-cuba-hearing.html

[PDJane]

1. Evidence obtained by torture should be thrown out.

The only thing torture does is make sure that the testimony is not true. The whole damn thing should be thrown out; if you have to resort to torture, the chances are really good that it was false flag to begin with.