Alleged USS Cole plotter arraigned at Guantanamo

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A Saudi man considered among the most senior figures in al-Qaeda emerged Wednesday from nine years of secret confinement to face charges of orchestrating the deadly 2000 attack on the USS Cole, in the start of a new round of Guantanamo war-crimes tribunals under a president who vowed to halt them.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 46, did not enter a plea as he was arraigned, and the court dealt with a number of procedural issues. Nashiri, who had been subjected to harsh interrogation techniques that his lawyers say amounted to torture, appeared engaged and occasionally smiled as he responded to questions from the judge.

The charges against him include murder in violation of the law of war in the suicide bombing of the Cole in Yemen, an attack that killed 17 U.S. crew members. Authorities say he took orders directly from Osama bin Laden and also set up the 2002 bombing of the French supertanker MV Limburg, which killed one crewman, and a failed 2000 attack on another American warship, the USS The Sullivans.

He was allowed to remain unshackled and said he wanted to keep all the members of his appointed legal team.

"At this moment, these lawyers are doing the right job," he told the judge.

It was a low-key start to a highly anticipated proceeding, the start of a capital case against a prisoner who was held in a series of clandestine CIA prisons where he was subjected to waterboarding, mock executions, and other harsh interrogation methods.

President Obama took office pledging to close the Guantanamo detention center. But he was rebuffed by Congress, which has refused to authorize moving prisoners from the American base in Cuba, and forced Obama to resume the war-crimes prosecutions begun under his predecessor.

Three Guantanamo cases have been resolved through plea bargains under Obama, but Nashiri is the first initiated under this administration, and it is considered a prelude to the prosecution of the five Guantanamo prisoners who are accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks.

Nashiri's trial will take place under a military commission system that has been revised but is still subject to criticism from defense lawyers and human-rights groups, who have complained about repeated changes in procedures and rules that favor the prosecution.

Legal experts have also questioned whether Nashiri should be charged with a war crime for the Cole bombing, which occurred before the 9/11 attacks and the U.S. declaration of war on al-Qaeda.

Critics such as retired Air Force Col. Morris Davis, who resigned as chief prosecutor for the trials in October 2007 after alleging political interference by superiors, said the case against Nashiri and other prisoners should be moved to U.S. federal court to avoid having the convictions perceived as illegitimate.

Nashiri was captured in 2002 in Dubai and held by the CIA in secret prisons before being sent to Guantanamo in September 2006.

A half-dozen relatives of sailors killed in the Cole bombing traveled to Guantanamo to observe his arraignment. One of them, John Clodfelter, said the prisoner seemed "cocky," and he bristled at the suggestion that Nashiri deserved consideration because of how he was treated in custody.

Clodfelter, who lost his son Kenneth, said, "I think he deserves to get the death penalty, if not worse."

The judge set a tentative trial for November 2012, but that is likely to be postponed for months if not years, delayed in part by efforts by Nashiri's lawyers to challenge any statements he made as being the product of torture.