GUANTANAMO NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Defense attorneys for the five detainees charged in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks spoke with press here this afternoon after a judge ordered the government to disable an unknown government entity's ability to cut off the courtroom feed.
I've got some of their comments -- including one Metallica reference -- in my updated story.
Head prosecutor Gen. Mark Martins also issued a statement that spoke about the defense attorneys' concerns that all of their communications with their clients were being monitored in he courtroom. Martins said that wasn't anything they needed to worry about:
Court reporters, who are trained and certified in that vocation and who swear an oath to perform their neutral duties faithfully, transcribe commission proceedings they hear from audio-feeds projected to their headphones by microphones from counsels' desks and the judge's bench. These microphones can be turned on and off by the individual counsel, depending on whether they wish to be heard by the court reporters. The prosecution never listens to any confidential communications between the accused and their counsel. To do so would be a blatant violation of our professional responsibilities and our oaths to serve justice and would also implicate the court reporters in a breach of their oaths and neutral responsibilities. And let me be clear that there has never been any substantive or credible allegation that the prosecution listens to such conversations.
We've now finished with court proceedings for the week without having addressed the issue of whether the CIA has to preserve the secret locations where it held the defendants as evidence in the trial. I'll have more from my Guantanamo trip soon.