Guantanamo gets a new resident
The Pentagon announces, Muhammad Rahim, described as 'a close associate of Osama bin Laden,' has been transferred to the Cuban base from secret custody abroad.
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- A high-value terror suspect accused of aiding Osama bin Laden's escape from Afghanistan six years ago has been transferred here from secret CIA custody abroad, the Pentagon announced today.
Meanwhile, in another case, the Army judge presiding over the war-crimes trial of Canadian Omar Khadr ordered prosecutors to provide the defense with documents, interrogation notes and make available witnesses behind its case. Khadr is charged with killing a U.S. Army special forces soldier during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan.
The high-value suspect who was transferred here was identified as Muhammad Rahim, an Afghan. Rahim likely was taken to a new prison built late last year for the other 15 senior Al Qaeda figures detained here, a high-security facility known as the "Platinum" camp.
Six of the prisoners there, including reputed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, were charged with murder and terrorism last month and set for trials that could result in the death penalty.
"Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani was a close associate of Osama bin Laden and had ties to Al Qaeda organizations throughout the Middle East. He became one of bin Laden's most trusted facilitators and procurement specialists prior to his detention," the Pentagon said in a statement announcing the prisoner's transfer from CIA custody.
The Afghan's confinement here now brings to about 280 the number of terror suspects being jailed in a network of prisons and detention camps at Guantanamo.
In the Pentagon's brief announcement of the newest prisoner at Guantanamo, it said only that he had helped Bin Laden escape to the remote Tora Bora mountain area on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan when U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan in October 2001.
Nearly 800 captured terror suspects have been brought to Guantanamo since it opened as an offshore detention facility in January 2002.
In the Khadr case, Col. Peter Brownback issued a series of rulings a day after hearing defense appeals for more thorough disclosure from the prosecution. The judge decided that an Army commander must be made available for a defense interview no later than April 4.
Prosecutors in the case against Khadr, 21, had refused to allow the commander, identified only as Lt. Col. W, to speak with the defense. Justice Department attorney John Murphy contended that the contact would be "inappropriate."
