Military judge allows total blackout of 9/11 plotters’ torture testimony

Military judge allows total blackout of 9/11 plotters’ torture testimony

By Stephen C. Webster
Wednesday, December 12, 2012 14:43 EST



A military judge presiding over the trials of the accused 9/11
plotters decided last week that any and all testimony relating to their
treatment by U.S. personnel shall be censored, according to a ruling
released Wednesday.

In a statement sent to reporters, the American Civil Liberties Union
made it clear that they are deeply troubled by the judge’s ruling.

“The government wanted to ensure that the American public would never
hear the defendants’ accounts of illegal CIA torture, rendition and
detention, and the military judge has gone along with that shameful
plan,” ACLU attorney Hina Shamsi said in an advisory.

The ACLU will give supporting arguments next week on its
motion to lift censorship of the plotters’ testimony. The civil
liberties group is also pushing to block a 40-second delay on an audio
feed from the courtroom. They are joined in the complaint by a
consortium of media organizations seeking public access to the trial.

“For now, the most important terrorism trial of our time will be
organized around judicially approved censorship of the defendants’ own
thoughts, experiences and memories of CIA torture,” Shamsi added. “The
decision undermines the government’s claim that the military commission
system is transparent and deals a grave blow to its legitimacy.

Source:-
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/12/military-judge-allows-total-blackout-of-911-plotters-torture-testimony/