Terrorism Trials: Military Commissions

Military commission judge Col. James Pohl ruled Friday that “the Government will not be permitted [to] introduce any FBI Clean Team Statement from any of the Accused for any purpose” during the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammad and his co-defendants Walid bin Attash, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, Ramzi Binalshibh and Ammar al-Baluchi (aka Ali Abdul Aziz Ali). Each of the defendants stands accused of various offenses related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. From 2002 to 2006, each was interrogated and allegedly tortured by U.S. government personnel at undisclosed locations overseas.

When you take an 18-month break, it’s unsurprising that you’ll return home to some cobwebs that will need to be swept away. The second of three days of motion hearings in the Nashiri military commission continues where the first left off: with another round of housecleaning focused on establishing the itinerary for the remaining two days.

Unless you're someone who keeps a copy of Hart & Wechsler on your desk, you probably don't care that much about Tuesday's divided ruling by the D.C. Circuit in In re Al-Nashiri (which, for ease of reference, we should call "Al-Nashiri II," to distinguish it from the D.C. Circuit's February ruling on different matters in "Al-Nashiri I").

Anyone following the Guantánamo military commissions would do well to read Bob Loeb and Helen Klein's trenchant take on last Friday's D.C. Circuit decision in In re Khadr, in which the Court of Appeals declined to issue a writ of mandamus even while agreeing that there may be a serious question "whether the civilians who serve as judges on the U.S.