Today's wrap-up of the 2nd day of the 56th 9/11 pretrial hearings at Guantanamo:
Khallad bin Atash and Ammar al Baluchi have waived right to attend this morning. They attended this afternoon.
Mustafa al Hawsawi was present — his counsel were not. Judge Schrama has invited them to attend if they wish. Learned counsel Walter Ruiz is still recovering from pneumonia.
Transcripts from yesterday's session were provided to the parties late last night.
Mohammad was also present.
Former FBI Special Agent continued his testimony, providing details of his work history and experience on 9/11 and the months that followed.
Matthew Engle objected to the narrative testimony about Gaudin’s assistance on 9/11 as it is not relevant to the 2007 LHM interviews.
Pros Trivett cited MCRE 607, expanding to how 9/11 affected Gaundin’s health. Schrama sustained.
In late 2006, high level members of the FBI’s counterterrorism division requested Gaudin help the High Value Detainee Prosecution Task Force (HVDPTF). He obliged and request Rob McFadden of NCIS to join him.
Gaudin testimony continued this morning focused on the LHM interviews — the Jan 2007 ‘clean team’ interviews in Guantanamo Bay following years of CIA incommunicado detention at CIA black sites.
Gaudin testified the full LHM summary was over 60 pages of written text. Reports of allegations of abuse were deliberately written separately and contemporaneously. Gaudin referenced two such reports specifically.
He also spoke to the admonishment, not Miranda warning, he gave bin Atash prior to the interviews. Gaudin wanted bin Atash to be clear his circumstances had changed and he would not be returning to the custody of the agency that had previously held him.
Gaudin testified bin Atash was in charge of the interview — he at times put limits on what he would talk about and sometimes returned to a topic after thinking about it.
Gaudin said bin Atash told him his first year of detention was rough but the last location prior to his transfer to GTMO was better with lots of access to ‘comfort’ items, even more than he had at GTMO.
Gaudin explained bin Atash’s one leg was shackled during the interrogation. His prosthetic leg, bin Atash placed on the table. The interrogation took place in Echo II, a former black site where defendants still meet with their legal teams.
Gaudin said bin Atash spoke about Owhali and said Gaudin should have been sent to speak to him rather than ‘the other guys’ who expected him to ‘know everything’.
Bin Atash told Gaudin, according to Gaudin, that he knew about the photos of the Malaysia meeting with hijackers Hazmi and Midhar and the conflict between the FBI and CIA surrounding them.
Bin Atash spoke about his role in the ‘boats operation’ (USS Cole) and ‘planes operation’ (WTC attack) during the Jan 2007 interrogations. He commented he wished to be a martyr in the ‘boats’ operation and was given $200k USD by Al Qaida for the mission.
Bin Atash was in Afghanistan when the USS Cole attack occurred.
Gaudin testified bin Atash told him the 1999 attempt to get a visa for the US, Washington state specifically, was part of the earliest ‘planes’ operation. His visa was denied but he had desired to be a hijacker’s.
Gaudin said bin Atash also worked on a separate ‘planes’ operation in SE Asia by conducting surveillance of security measures on US flagged planes. He also researched flight time tables.
Gaudin testified that bin Atash compared 9/11 to when the US bombed Hiroshima in WWII, finding irony in the atomic bomb project was named the Manhattan Project.
Gaudin said the Jan 2007 interrogations with bin Atash ended with a hug but also bin Atash told Gaudin he would have to kill or capture him if they were on the outside.
About seven months later, Gaudin received a letter written by bin Atash for Owhali. It read partially like a situation report of captured and killed, but also reflected on a battle they had both been in.
He also expressed he was impressed by Gaudin’s knowledge of Owhali’s case.
Gaudin et al returned to interview bin Atash in Oct 2007 and reports the defendant was happy to see them.
Gaudin covered more of what he learned in his Oct 2007 interviews of bin Atash based in large part on additional evidence he had collected since the Jan interviews.
Bin Atash identified many photographs of witnesses and suspects collected in raids in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
We also learned bin Atash ate some pocket litter containing phone numbers at his arrest, like a seasoned spy.
Gaudin testified that bin Atash told him that during his SE Asia recon mission, he learned security were much more concerned with what his prosthetic may be hiding than his toiletry bag.
He spoke of briefing UBL and Abu Hafs of what he learned during the recon mission, and also wrote a report about the meticulous security inspection. Gaudin tracked down the report which bin Atash had forgotten about, Gaudin says.
UBL forbid bin Atash from traveling following the SE Asia mission, Gaudin testified, adding bin Atash was not happy about it and he still hoped to be a part of the SE Asia planes operations.
MilComs in recess until 0900 tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in.
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