CIA ‘black sites’ photos complicate Guantanamo trials
Discovery of 14,000 photos likely to delay hearings for 9/11 attack suspects
Military prosecutors earlier this year learned about a massive cache of CIA photographs of its former overseas “black sites” while reviewing material collected for the Senate investigation of the agency’s interrogation program, according to U.S. officials.
The existence of the ap- proximately 14,000 photographs will probably cause yet another delay in the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as attorneys for the defendants demand that all of the images be turned over and the government wades through the material to decide what it thinks is relevant to the proceedings.
Defense attorneys said they have not yet been informed about the photographs and said it is unacceptable that they should come to light only now, more than three years after the arraignment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other defendants ac- cused of planing the 9/11 attacks.
The death penalty cases against the five men began in 2008 under the Bush administration and were abandoned by the Obama administration for a planned trial in federal court in New York. That effort collapsed, and the prosecution was returned to the military in 2011.
Also on trial at Guantanamo is Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi of Yemeni descent who also was held by the CIA. He could receive the death penalty for his alleged role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.
“If the government does provide these photos to the defense — which is still an ‘if’ at this point — it would be better late than never,” said Air Force Capt. Michael Schwartz, a military attorney for Waleed bin Attash, one of the five defendants in the 9/11 military commission. “Receiving important discovery like this so far into the case is going to further delay this trial.”
The electronic images depict external and internal shots of facilities where the CIA held al-Qaida suspects after 9/11, but they do not show detainee interrogations, including the tor- ture of some suspects who were subjected to waterboarding and other brutal techniques.
They do include images of naked detainees during transport, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The pictures also show CIA personnel and members of foreign intelligence services, as well as psychologists Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, among the architects of the interrogation program.
The government will probably resist any attempt to turn over photos of CIA officers and other personnel, arguing that it could endanger their personal security, while the defense will want to identify potential witnesses.
Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, the chief military prosecutor, declined to comment on the photos, but he said in February that his team was scouring the full, classified 6,700page Senate report.
Lt. Col. Myles Caggins, Defense Department spokesman for Military Commissions, said in an email: “The prosecution is making progress in reviewing the full report in order to comply with discovery obligations required by law.”