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U.S.
offers Lindh lawyers al Qaeda interviews ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Lawyers for John Walker Lindh should be given 13 summaries of interviews with al Qaeda and Taliban detainees, but the material should not be made public, prosecutors said Tuesday. The summaries are unclassified but must be closely guarded to prevent terrorists from learning about the government’s anti-terror investigation, prosecutors in the case of the American-born Taliban militiaman said. In a written motion, they asked U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III for an order preventing public dissemination of the reports, which prosecutors want to provide with sensitive information deleted. The interviews were conducted with suspected operatives captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan and detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Lindh is charged with conspiring to murder U.S. nationals; providing support and services to foreign terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda; and using firearms and destructive devices during crimes of violence. Three of the 10 charges carry maximum life sentences; the other seven have prison terms of up to 90 years. “The identities of the detainees, as well as the questions asked and techniques employed in the interviews, are highly sensitive and confidential,” the government motion said. Detainees may reveal information leading to identification and apprehension of terror suspects and prevention of terrorism, the filing added. A similar order to protect sensitive unclassified material was issued in the 1999 trial of defendants in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. In February, a judge hearing the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, charged as an accomplice in the Sept. 11 attacks, issued a similar order. The government’s proposal would allow Lindh’s lawyers to share the reports with experts holding security clearances but could not be shown to potential witnesses without the court’s permission. The information deleted includes names of interviewing agents, file numbers, references to fellow detainees and names of individuals with no involvement in the Lindh case. Also left out were accounts of photo identification sessions not involving Lindh. Meanwhile, a filing by Moussaoui’s lawyer showed that the French citizen is reading his lawyer’s legal briefs carefully. Defense attorney Frank Dunham Jr. told U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema he was withdrawing an allegation that a jail deputy insisted on reading Moussaoui’s legal papers. The allegation was not in a draft memorandum provided to Moussaoui for review, but was in papers filed with the court. The mistake “was called to counsel’s attention by Mr. Moussaoui when he saw a copy of what had actually been filed,” Dunham said. |
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