Judge Delays USS Cole Trial to Oct. 19 as Classified Evidence Misses June 1 Deadline
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · May 12
Judge Delays USS Cole Trial to Oct. 19 as Classified Evidence Misses June 1 Deadline
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · May 12
Oct. 19 is the new start date for jury selection in the USS Cole bombing case after the military judge scrapped a planned June 1 opening at Guantánamo Bay.
Classified evidence could not be processed in time, Col. Matthew Fitzgerald said, forcing another postponement in what is set to be Guantánamo’s first death-penalty terrorism trial.
Abd-al Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi accused of orchestrating the 2000 attack off Aden, Yemen, faces charges tied to a bombing that killed 17 U.S. sailors and wounded dozens.
The case has repeatedly stalled—about 10 trial dates have been set and abandoned since charges were filed in 2011—and has been complicated by litigation over the CIA’s torture of Nashiri during roughly 1,390 days in secret custody.
More than 26 years after the attack, the long-delayed prosecution remains a test of whether the Guantánamo military commission system can deliver a capital verdict.
With evidence tainted by years of torture, can the U.S. ever deliver justice for the USS Cole victims?
President Trump now blames Iran for the Cole bombing. Does this unravel the 26-year-old case against an Al-Qaeda operative?