US Secretly Recorded Detainee’s Guantanamo Conversations
The U.S. government secretly recorded conversations of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani as he spoke to a fellow detainee at Guantanamo Bay.
The recordings have not been mentioned to jurors in Ghailani’s civilian terrorism trial in Manhattan, the New York Times reports. They were cited in a report by a psychiatrist who found Ghailani competent to stand trial.
The existence of detainee tapes could present a legal issue in future cases if the government seeks to use them as evidence, the Times says. It’s not known, however, whether other detainees’ conversations were recorded.
Ghailani is the first Guantanamo detainee to face trial in the United States. His case has already presented another important evidence issue. The federal judge overseeing the trial refused to allow testimony from a prosecution witness whose name Ghailani revealed while he was being interrogated in a secret CIA prison overseas.
