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FBI breached lawyer-client privacy in terrorism case
Lawyers for alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his four codefendants alleged Monday that two FBI agents recently approached a court-appointed member of the defense team in an effort to seek confidential information regarding their cases.
The allegations were raised at the start of a week of pretrial hearings at the prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Army Col. James L. Pohl, the military judge in the proceeding, had planned to consider whether one of the defendants, Ramzi Binalshibh, was competent to stand trial after he had repeatedly disrupted court proceedings.
Instead, defense lawyers called for an immediate investigation into their allegations of FBI interference, which they said supported previous claims that the government had spied on the defense. In the past, they complained that the government listened to private attorney-client comments in the courtroom and recorded other conversations in the prison visiting room. In those instances, changes were made to prevent government monitoring.
The new allegations appear more serious because defense lawyers are contending that two FBI agents on April 6 approached a civilian paralegal who had been appointed to work with Binalshibh’s defense team. The paralegal, who has top security clearance, was acting as a deputy defense security official to review defense court filings before they are released publicly to ensure they do not contain information that would compromise U.S. national security.
The paralegal, who is privy to defense strategies, was reportedly asked to provide the FBI with confidential information regarding defense cases. Defense lawyers called it a clear breach of lawyer-client privacy.
The lead prosecutor, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, said he learned of the allegations Sunday night and suggested the motion was a defense tactic to delay the competency hearing and postpone any future trial — likely to be the first and only courtroom case in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
The FBI declined to comment.
Source: http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/fbi-breached-lawyer-client-privacy-terrorism-case/
