Detainee interview sites won’t be razed
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NEW YORK - A prosecutor agreed yesterday that the government will not dismantle overseas locations where a former Guantanamo detainee claims he was interrogated by the CIA before he was brought to the United States for trial on terrorism charges.
The prosecutor, David Raskin, told US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan that the United States would preserve the locations for now, even though it does not plan to use at trial any statements Ahmed Ghailani made while he was in the custody of any other government agencies.
Kaplan set a Sept. 13, 2010, date for Ghailani’s trial on charges that he participated in the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of two US embassies in Africa that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.
Authorities allege he was a bomb maker, document forger, and aide to Osama bin Laden when he aided the attacks at embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.
Ghailani was brought to the United States last month. The government has not decided whether to seek the death penalty if it wins a conviction.
The Tanzanian, captured in Pakistan in 2004, was held at secret overseas sites by the United States before he was moved to the naval prison in Cuba in 2006. He is the first Guantanamo detainee to be brought to a US civilian court for trial.
In court papers Tuesday, Ghailani’s lawyers asked the government to preserve secret locations, known as “black sites,’’ so they can inspect them as they gather evidence for his trial.
“It appears undeniable that the defendant was subjected to harsh conditions and harsh interrogation techniques while detained in CIA ‘black sites,’ ’’ the lawyers wrote.
