Guantanamo Bay

The military commission at Guantanamo Bay today denied defense requests for television coverage of the upcoming 9/11-related trials, further hampering the media's efforts to cover the high-profile court proceedings.

A military judge avoided ruling on whether members of the news media and the public will have access to the testimony about the prison treatment of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the USS Cole bombing in 2000 which killed 17 Americans. Instead, at Wednesday's pretrial hearing in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the judge ordered the prison camp to unshackle al-Nashiri when he met with his lawyers, making the accused terrorist's testimony unnecessary.

In an effort to address calls for transparency as the trials of accused terrorists again start to move forward at Guantanamo Bay, the Department of Defense has released an updated version of its military commission regulation with new commitments to speed up and open up the way court filings are made available to the public.

In an effort to address calls for transparency in the trials of accused terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, the Department of Defense launched a new website that aims to provide the public up-to-date information concerning the military proceedings.

The Department of Defense and the CIA do not have to disclose information pertaining to 14 "high value" detainees held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base under federal Freedom of Information Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled Tuesday in ACLU v. Department of Defense.

The Department of Defense last week released expanded reporters’ ground rules for military trials at Guantanamo Bay. The changes came after members of the media complained about the trials’ lack of transparency.

A United States military judge has sealed the plea agreement in the first conviction at Guantanamo Bay under the Obama administration.

Judge and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Nancy J. Paul sealed the plea agreement at the request of the government and with the consent of the defense attorneys in the case of Ibrahim al-Qosi, a native Sudanese and former cook for al-Qaida. Last month, al-Qosi pled guilty to conspiracy and material support for terrorism. He has been detained at Guantanamo for over eight years.

The Department of Justice has asked the D.C. federal appeals court to redact a transcript of an oral argument in a Guantanamo Bay case that occurred in a public courtroom, the Blog of LegalTimes reports.