FT. MEADE, Md. (CN) - Lawyers for accused Sept. 11, 2001, plotters will avoid Defense Department servers to protect their communications, an Air Force colonel said, reinforcing her earlier order as proceedings reconvened before the war court in Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday.
The decision has made the only Starbucks on Cuban soil a frequent destination for attorneys representing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected "mastermind" of the attacks, and his four alleged accomplices, whose pre-trial hearings by military commission are being transmitted from the island via closed-circuit feed to reporters here in Maryland.
Captured between 2002 and 2003, prosecution was not yet on the agenda as the five men were held incommunicado in secret prisons for roughly three years. They were transferred to Guantanamo Bay on Sept. 4, 2006, but they would not be arraigned for roughly another six years.
Prosecutors now aim to bring the cases to trial sometime next year, but defense attorneys recently requested a delay of proceedings until their lawyer-client communications have been secured and protected.
Such issues have already caused this week's round of hearings to drag.
On Monday, Mohammad and co-defendant Ramzi Bin al-Shibh complained that sleep deprivation and lack of access to counsel had prevented them from meaningfully engaging in their defense. Their rambling statements became garbled in translation when processed through the hearing's video feed.
Col. Jame Pohl, the military judge, ejected Bin al-Shibh from the proceedings that day for speaking out of turn, and then called a recess for defense attorney Cheryl Bormann to seek medical attention for an upper respiratory infection.
As the parties reconvened Wednesday, Mohammad and Bin al-Shibh voluntarily chose not to return to the courtroom, and one of their lawyers told the judge that "sounds and vibrations" in their cells had been preventing them from sleeping.
That defense attorney, Navy Cmdr. Kevin Bogucki, said that a psychiatrist determined the men were not delusional, and he wanted the court to probe whether the Joint Task Force Guantanamo defied his order to make any noises stop.
The judge replied that he would entertain such a motion if filed by the attorneys but that he would not allow outbursts from the defendants.
For the rest of the day, the court heard testimony from Air Force Col. Karen Mayberry about the panoply of problems surrounding the computers at the Office of Military Commissions-Defense where she serves as chief defense counsel.
The colonel was questioned first by Bormann, who had mostly recovered from her head cold and returned to the court dressed in a black hijab in deference to the wishes of her clients.
In December 2012, the Pentagon informed her of a new program replicating their files from their office in Virginia to improve access to them in Guantanamo, Mayberry said.
An email about the shift came near Christmas, Mayberry added, when only a "handful of us were in the office," and most of the staff did not learn of any change until noticing quirks on their computers early next year.
All told, defense attorneys estimate that up to 500,000 emails have been "seized." Entire drives would disappear and reappear from servers, and hidden or modified files would appear on defense attorneys' drives, she said.
"There was no rhyme or reason," Mayberry said. "It was universal, across the board."
