US concerned evidence obtained from CIA interrogations will be inadmissible at war-crimes tribunals.

[babylonsister]

FBI working to bolster Al Qaeda cases

The U.S. is concerned that evidence obtained from CIA interrogations will be inadmissible at war-crimes tribunals.
By Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 21, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is quietly reconstructing the cases against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and 14 other accused Al Qaeda leaders being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, spurred in part by U.S. concerns that years of CIA interrogation have yielded evidence that is inadmissible or too controversial to present at their upcoming war crimes tribunals, government officials familiar with the probes said.

The process is an embarrassment for the Bush administration, which for years held the men incommunicado overseas and allowed the CIA to use coercive means to extract information from them that would not be admissible in a U.S. court of law -- and might not be allowed in their military commissions, some former officials and legal experts said. Even if the information from the CIA interrogations is allowed, they said, it would probably risk focusing the trials on the actions of the agency and not the accused.

The FBI investigations, involving as many as 300 agents and analysts in a "Guantanamo task force," have been underway for as long as two years. They were requested by the Defense Department shortly after legal rulings indicated that Mohammed -- the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- and the other Al Qaeda suspects probably would win some form of trial in which evidence would have to be presented, according to senior federal law enforcement officials.

The task force has reviewed intelligence, interviewed the 15 accused Al Qaeda leaders and traveled to several nations to talk to witnesses and gather evidence for use in the tribunals, the federal law enforcement officials said. Like most others interviewed for this article, they spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the investigations, which are being coordinated with the Pentagon.

A Pakistan-based U.S. official who has participated in the hunt for Al Qaeda leaders since 2001 said he was interviewed by FBI agents four months ago in Washington. They were "very aggressively pursuing KSM and all of the things he's been involved in," he said, referring to the accused terrorist by his initials.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-terror21oct21,1,806298.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=2&cset=true

[intaglio]

1. I think the evidence will be admitted

At the war crimes trials of B*sh and Cheney

[NNN0LHI]

2. Speaking of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed what did Bush have done with his children?

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/09/1047144871928.html

We have your sons: CIA

March 10 2003
By Olga Craig
Kuwait

Two young sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks, are being used by the CIA to force their father to talk.

Yousef al-Khalid, 9, and his brother, Abed al-Khalid, 7, were taken into custody in Pakistan in September when intelligence officers raided a flat in Karachi where their father had been hiding.

Mohammed fled just hours before the raid but his sons and another senior al-Qaeda member were found cowering behind a wardrobe in the apartment.

The boys have been held by the Pakistani authorities but this weekend they were flown to America where they will be questioned about their father. CIA interrogators confirmed that the boys were staying at a secret address where they were being encouraged to talk about their father's activities. "We are handling them with kid gloves," said one official. "After all, they are only little children, but we need to know as much about their father's recent activities as possible. We have child psychologists on hand at all times and they are given the best of care."

[tekisui]

4. Kiddie-Torture.

They isolated them in dark rooms and simulated bugs crawling all over them. Really sick things to do to children.

[me b zola]

10. What does international law/geneva conventions

...say about holding and/or questioning children? This can't be legal.

"We have child psychologists on hand at all times and they are given the best of care." Sounds a lot like what they say about adults being held at GITMO. The psychologists are not there to protect the children, but rather are there to "interrogate" them. This is some mighty sick stuff.

[annabanana]

3. This should be interesting.

I read somewhere over the past week that some in the administration are eager to conduct some "high profile" cases to showcase how "tough on terrorism" they are before the election.

Sounds like some sure-fire, back-fire potential here.

[babylonsister]

5. Here's a thread about that, though I though mixing politics and the

military was never done. Weren't we told that? Didn't Petraeus indicate that? Guess he was just joshing.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2097841&mesg_id=2097841

[tekisui]

6. One of the reasons so few in Guantanamo have been tried

is because they know that the evidence won't hold up. They messed up, big time, and have no idea how to proceed. The Pentagon is pushing for the high-profile convictions. What a mess.

[mmonk]

7. We must not allow Stalinist style show trials by this government.

The fight for a democratic republic with principles and the rule of law must prevail. I encourage all to not allow them to get away with this terminology.

[L. Coyote]

12. TOO LATE! Siegelman was led off in shackles and sits in a Federal gulag now.

[Solly Mack]

8. snort

as if that would make it right...

as if that would make the trials any more legit

sheesh


but but..the FBI made it right and proper and we kept the high ground...bullshit

[spanone]

9. so now they're whining that their tortured admissions might not be accepted

fucking idiots

[L. Coyote]

11. It WILL BE admissable in the trials of the torturers