Special Counsel Urges 9/11 Judge to Drop FBI Probe Inquiry

By Terri Moon Cronk

American Forces Press Service

FORT MEADE, Md., June 16, 2014 – In military commission proceedings for five suspects in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the lead attorney of the special review team said today the commission should end its inquiry to determine whether FBI investigations into defense teams created a conflict of interest.

The proceedings are taking place at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and are being made available to reporters at the video teleconference center here.

This week’s hearing centers on the commission gathering facts on contact that FBI agents reportedly made with several members of the defense teams so presiding judge Army Col. James Pohl can determine if the interviews pose a conflict of interest in the case.

U.S. Attorney Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez, lead attorney for the special review team, told Pohl the commission has enough facts now to make the ruling. He added that the defense counsels also should agree conflicts do not exist.

“They’re inviting error,” he said of lead counsels of each of the five defense teams, who called on Pohl for an investigation into the FBI interviews. “I urge the commission that this inquiry should end, … because there is no conflict of interest.”

In the commission’s case against Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the admitted mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and four other defendants, all are charged for their alleged roles in the attacks with eight offenses: conspiracy, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, murder in violation of the law of war, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, hijacking or hazarding a vessel or aircraft, and terrorism, according to the Military Commissions website.