LITTLE ROCK — A federal judge has ordered the government to allow attorneys for a detainee challenging his confinement at Guantanamo Bay to submit questions about his case to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina was made public Thursday in a federal lawsuit brought by the detainee, Abdul Raheem Ghulam Rabbani, a Pakistani who has been held at the U.S. military facility in Cuba since 2004. The government alleges that Rabbani was an al-Qaida member.
But Rabbani's attorneys say he was a menial household laborer for Mohammed and made $40 a week. Because the government produced no records of Mohammed talking about Rabbani, the attorneys asked Urbina to allow them to question the al-Qaida operative about their client's work. Mohammed is also being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Under the ruling, Rabbani's attorneys may submit a narrow set of written questions through the government to Mohammed about Rabbani's employment. The Justice Department will be permitted to redact any answers that touch on national security.
"Testimony from KSM regarding the functions that [Rabbani] fulfilled under his employ could prove to be materially exculpatory," Urbina wrote, referring to Mohammed by his initials.
Agnieszka Fryszman, an attorney for Rabbani, said the ruling is "a good one for the truth and the court system."
"It's responsible and narrow and will enable Mr. Rabbani to present accurate evidence about whether or not he was a household menial laborer who has been wrongly held," she said.
Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman, said officials were reviewing the order but declined to comment further.
The government "vehemently" fought the detainee's request to question Mohammed, Urbina wrote.
Justice Department attorneys argued that allowing such questioning might expose sensitive secrets. The government argued that Mohammed was detained as part of a CIA program to interrogate terrorist leaders and said the program was vital to national security.
Urbina said that the government raised valid concerns but that he must balance Rabbani's right to contest his confinement against national security interests.
In the ruling, Urbina also ordered the government to provide Rabbani's attorneys with information concerning the circumstances of his interrogations over the years.
Rabbani has said he confessed to being an al-Qaida member and knowing Osama bin Laden only because he was beaten, deprived of food and exposed to extreme temperatures.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 08/23/2009