Defense lawyers for accused U.S. embassy bomber Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani lost their bid Friday to force government production of three documents they hoped would help their claim that Mr. Ghailani was denied a speedy trial for reasons other than national security. Southern District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled that the defense team had failed to overcome the attorney-client privilege because it had not shown the prosecution had put the documents “in issue.”
Mr. Ghailani, who was indicted along with Osama bin Laden for the al-Qaida conspiracy that included the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, was captured in 2004. He was detained and interrogated by the CIA and then sent to Guantánamo in 2006, where he was facing trial by military commission until the Obama administration elected to send him to Manhattan for a federal trial in 2009. A high-ranking intelligence officer had submitted a declaration saying Mr. Ghailani’s initial detention and interrogation were justified by the need to obtain intelligence. A second declaration was submitted by the lead prosecutor at Guantánamo to show Mr. Ghailani was not brought to New York for trial because other proceedings were pending. In his ruling Friday, Judge Kaplan said, “Neither of these witnesses has contended that he or she relied upon any of the documents in question.” United States v. Ghailani, 98-cr-1023, appears on page 44 of the print edition of today’s Law Journal. – Mark Hamblett
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