Guantanamo/Detainees
Families of 9-11 Victims Can See Broadcast Trial of Accused Mastermind
Posted Apr 18, 2008, 09:43 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks will be able to watch the Guantanamo trial of accused mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The chief prosecutor, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, told Reuters that the trials will be broadcast on closed-circuit TV at military bases in New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Massachusetts.
The story says the military appears to be borrowing a page from the playbook of the civilian trial of al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. His trial was broadcast by closed-circuit feeds to courthouses in Boston, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Mohammed’s lawyer, Navy Capt. Prescott Prince, said he worries that broadcast of the trial will set a bad precedent. "I can just imagine American soldiers and sailors and airmen being subjected to similar show trials worldwide," he told Reuters.