FBI infiltrates defense team, causes new delay in 9/11 trial
FBI attempts to infiltrate one of the defense teams in a Guantánamo Bay trial related to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has led to the second straight cancellation of pretrial hearings at the controversial island prison, putting the case on pause until at least August of this year. The issue has brought the legal system there, which is a mix of civilian and military courts, to a standstill. As a result, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other four accused 9/11 plotters haven't been in court since February.
The issue of intrusion by federal agents took center stage in April of 2014, when an FBI employee approached and attempted to recruit as an informant a member of the legal team of Ramzi bin al-Shibh, one of the five co-defendants in the death-penalty case. After the surreptitious questioning came to light, the military judge ordered an investigation into whether any or all of the defense teams had been compromised, and if a conflict of interest had been created as a result of the FBI's meddling.
Now, more than a decade after the defendants were captured, a trial is nowhere in sight. By way of contrast, a civilian court recently tried, convicted, and sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two Boston Marathon bombers, within two years of the attack.
Barack Obama’s administration initially planned to try the 9/11 case in a civilian court in New York City, but balked under political pressure from Senate Republicans and New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, and returned the proceedings to Guantánamo Bay. That decision has resulted in a seemingly endless parade of complications and delays.
http://america.aljazeera.com/blogs/scrutineer/2015/6/5/fbi-infiltrates-defense-team-causes-new-delay-in-911-trial.html
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