2/9 Session #2: The Translator, Part Two

Our session is once more called to order.  The defense and accused are here, but now the Special Review Team is not---its place having been taken by the ordinary prosecution team.  (The two groups, you'll recall, maintain strict independence from one another, given the conflict allegations arising from the FBI's approach to a member of the Binalshibh defense team.) On to business: Judge Pohl asks about the United States’ view of the translator issue; the Chief Prosecutor, Mark Martins, says he is now aware of it and has conferred with the defense about the recognition this morning, by Binalshibh and others, of a courtroom translator who allegedly also worked at a CIA blacksite. Martins says he is keen to do some due diligence, and therefore proposes that his side quickly submit briefing on the issue. The translator in question is no longer in the courtroom, Martins adds; it may also be necessary at some point to enter into a closed setting to discuss any classified details. One of Khalid Shiekh Mohammed’s lawyers, David Nevin, requests a delay in the proceedings, pending further investigation; he would also like the translator to be ordered to remain on the island, and to be made available to the defense. How long does Nevin need?  The military judge observes that the ordinary commissions filing calendar, after all, is three weeks’ long. Martins rises and says he envisions a much shorter timeline: His crew can get the matter briefed quite quickly, maybe today, he says. The idea of prosecution briefing later this afternoon or evening, with a reconvening on Wednesday after defense investigation and an attempt to interview the translator, appeals to the military judge. And it appeals to Nevin and Martins, too, evidently. It appeals somewhat less to one of Walid Bin Attash’s lawyers, Cheryl Bormann---who observes that, to the extent the United States is once more seeking to infiltrate defense teams improperly, the proper government party to do any investigation is the Special Review Team, and not Martins and company.  That's a consequential, looming issue, in her view.  For his part, the Chief Prosecutor says he is aware of his obligations, and will act accordingly; we don't learn any more about who will do the factfinding on the government's side, so far as the translator is concerned. Before recess, the military judge advises each accused of their right to attend pre-trial sessions, their related ability to voluntarily and knowingly waive that right, and the risks that go along with such waivers. Do each of the accused understand such things?  When asked by the court, all five of the 9/11 accused answer “yes.” And that brings pre-trial court argument in the 9/11 case to a close---at least until 0900 on Wednesday.