An attempt to get the Sept. 11 terror case moving again quickly came to an abrupt end Monday as at least two of five defendants identified a new courtroom interpreter from their time in secret CIA custody before they were taken to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for a long-stalled military trial.
A hearing in the high-security courtroom had just begun when defendant Ramzi Binalshibh told the judge that he recognized the male interpreter sitting next to him at the defense table from his time in the so-called “black sites” overseas, where prisoners were subjected to treatment widely regarded as torture.
