The agency name that dare not be spoken

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

The name of the Central Intelligence Agency cannot be spoken in the war crimes trial here.

No records of the agency's interrogations of Salim Ahmed Hamdan can be subpoenaed, and no agent can be called to testify about what he or she learned from Osama bin Laden's former driver.

When defense attorney Harry H. Schneider Jr. attempted to demonstrate how many interrogations Hamdan had undergone in the months after his November 2001 arrest -- at least 40 -- he couldn't list the CIA along with more than a dozen other agencies including the Secret Service and what was then known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The prohibition against naming the CIA came in a "protective order" issued by the court at the government's request. The tribunal's deputy chief prosecutor, Army Col. Bruce A. Pagel, couldn't say which agency sought the shield or what arguments were made to justify it.

"It's a bit absurd to go through an entire trial pretending that the CIA doesn't exist," said Matt Pollard, a legal advisor for Amnesty International here to monitor the proceedings.

"The CIA plays a role with the detainees at Guantanamo Bay that has never been fully acknowledged, and the bottom line is that national security should never be claimed against any evidence of torture or human-rights violations."

Not loving it

Former FBI Al Qaeda expert Ali Soufan brought Hamdan Filet-O-Fish sandwiches from McDonald's to get on the prisoner's good side.

Fellow agent George M. Crouch Jr. discovered that Hamdan had an affinity for Mickey D fries and was more forthcoming when his junk-food jones was satisfied.

But the 38-year-old Yemeni soon learned what regular visitors to the Golden Arches have known for decades: You've got to get 'em while they're hot.

Crouch told the court how he tried to bring in an order from the McDonald's on the Navy base, which is no more than a 10-minute drive from the interrogation site. But on that July day in 2002, he was blocked from entering for more than an hour by military guards.

"Mr. Hamdan even appreciated that McDonald's fries are not good cold," Crouch told the court, eliciting laughter from the judge and jurors.

Brief briefings

To have an impressive backdrop for the government's daily spin on the tribunal proceedings, a Pentagon engineering unit built and furnished a press briefing room inside the abandoned hangar that houses journalists covering the Hamdan trial.