9/11 Defense Counsel on "Issues of Abuse"; KSM Files Torture Claim With UN Special Rapporteur

James Connell III, a lawyer for 9/11 accused Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, has released this statement regarding residual issues related to torture and coercion.  In particular, he says that he and other lawyers expect to raise, at one or more motions hearings at Guantanamo, matters related to "presumptive classification," whereby (among other things) detainees cannot publicly testify about their experiences during interrogation by intelligence personnel.   (In filings related to a proposed protective order, prosecutors have claimed that, because of such interrogation, all statements by the accused are "presumptively classified until a classification review can be completed.") 

At the same time, lawyers for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed also announced that, on the day of the case's May 4 arraignment, they had filed a "letter of allegation" against the United States and any other complicit nations with the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Torture.  Their letter also notes prosecutors' request to presumptively classify detainee statements.  More provocatively, KSM's attorneys anticipate that, if a U.N. investigation were to begin, the U.S. government would deny U.N. officials confidential access to Mohammed, "in violation of the Convention Against Torture."