Abridged video transcript:
So it was a very interesting morning in the court. First, I'll tell you that I have to keep this short because I need to rush back to get back in time for the afternoon witness, who is going to be Abu Zubaydah, who's considered one of the highest valued detainees in Guantanamo. He's not been seen by the public since 2002, since his capture, and he's also in Camp 7 along with the other high-value detainees.
This morning, the allegations that another witness, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, has been experiencing a kind of harassment in his prison cell [were discussed]. He says he's being subjected to vibrations and sounds that are reminiscent of what he was exposed to with the CIA, the kind of loud noises they would use in the process of trying to break these men. Abu Zubaydah is being called because the defense attorneys are saying that he will support that, that he has been experiencing the same thing.
We had also a very interesting morning today with another witness also from Camp 7, and he was testifying about the same thing. This was Hassan Guleed, also from Camp 7, but he's a Somali, he was speaking English. Mr. Guleed described some of the conditions in Camp 7, and said he was experiencing some of the same things: vibrations that he said were coming through the ground in his cell, allegedly during or around bedtime -- sleeping time is I think what he said -- that's keeping him up and causing him sleep deprivation. He went so far as to call it "mental torture" that's happening in Camp 7. He said this has been going on for years, he stopped complaining about it a couple of years ago because when he complained things got worse. But he said that he talked to both Ramzi bin al-Shibh, as well as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- apparently they're in a cell close-by, he talked about talking with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, which is pretty interesting to hear -- and Mohammed apparently is experiencing these noises outside.
[Guleed] was subjected to a pretty intense, I might even say aggressive, cross examination by prosecutor Ed Ryan. Ed Ryan was the same prosecutor who delivered a very powerful argument on Tuesday, if you've been reading my pieces, that was in favor of allowing 9/11 victim testimony this October....Again, [Mr. Ryan] was aggressive, almost even hostile; he was kind of jumping on his phrases a little bit, and the judge had to tell him to let the witness finish his answer. Cleary some aggravation there, he clearly thought that Mr. Guleed was lying -- by the end of his testimony, he was saying to him directly that, "You are lying." [Ryan] implied through his questions that they had information suggesting that Ramzi bin al-Shibh was actually not totally right in the head, and that other people in the prison were not happy with him screaming the things he was screaming.
But Hassan Guleed denied all this. He was maybe keeping the line along with his "brothers" as he calls them...apparently in Camp 7 they all refer to each other as "Brother." But in spite of prosecutor Ryan's intensity, he couldn't get much out of this guy, who denied everything -- he denied he even had ever been to a Jihadi training camp.
One of the issues with Abu Zubaydah is being a high-value detainee. He was not Al Qaeda, as they originally were talking about, but he is considered a very dangerous individual nonetheless. So, the process of bringing him from the prison to the court involves a lot of extra security, a lot more security than you'd have for a typical witness, and on top of the security that already exists.
Watch the full video to hear Arun answer questions from viewers, and tune in tomorrow to hear more about the trial.
