Guantánamo judge calls recess over possible national security concern

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/2...#storylink=cpy

By CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- The judge in the Sept. 11 conspiracy trial abruptly cleared the court Thursday during questioning of a former prison camps commander about what intelligence groups were at work on this remote base.

At issue in the hearing is who and what organizations influenced Navy Rear Adm. David B. Woods as he restricted attorney-client communications ahead of last May’s arraignment of the five men accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings and 2,976 murders.

Woods had already testified that nobody ever told him that the CIA had input into an order that regulated the work of defense attorneys for the 9/11 accused and other former CIA captives. Cmdr Walter Ruiz, defense lawyer for a Saudi defendant, was asking the admiral what intelligence organizations he knew operated at Guantánamo during Woods’ 10-month tenure, which ended a year ago.

Suddenly, the Department of Justice’s attorney with expertise in classified intelligence interrupted. The lawyer, Joanna Baltes, appeared so alarmed by the line of questioning that she mistakenly referred to Ruiz as “Commander Reyes,” another Navy lawyer from another war court case in which the accused was waterboarded.

Army Col. James Pohl, the judge, had the court feed to a Navy base near San Diego, where Woods was testifying. Ruiz protested interference in his court examination, and advised the judge: “If she wants me to use the term ‘agency who shall remain nameless’ I can do that.”

Baltes took Ruiz aside and told him something. Another prosecutor chimed in, out of earshot of the microphones.

Ruiz, a veteran death-penalty defender, then returned to the podium and announced, twice, “I will not be threatened by the prosecution.”

Later, the chief prosecutor Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins said the remark that Ruiz saw as a threat was:

“You’re playing with fire.”

Martins called the exchange “a moment of heat not uncommon in criminal trial practice.” He did not identify which prosecutor said it, but said it was intended “as a genuine caution — admittedly one delivered emphatically by the member of the prosecution.”

Ruiz also sought to argue that it’s not the prosecution’s job — but that of a specialized court security officer at the judge’s elbow — to police what the public can hear. Both the judge and the security officer have a kill switch that can mute audio to spectators.

Pohl declared the whole matter better discussed in a closed session. It’s called a 505H, and meant for lawyers and the judge to discuss the likelihood of secret evidence coming out in court.

The judge ordered the Army guards to take the accused 9/11 conspirators to their holding cells, and the court be cleared. But not before attorney David Nevin, defending alleged mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, protested closure of the court to his client and the other four men in the death-penalty proceedings.

The recess to discuss classified information lasted about 90 minutes. Ruiz resumed questioning Woods but nothing was said about any secret intelligence agencies.