A lawyer for the suspected organizer of a deadly al-Qaida attack on a U.S. warship in the year 2000 wants a military court to determine his competence before trial, arguing that he has a traumatic brain injury “arising from torture in CIA custody.”
A trial is scheduled to start this month for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in the killing of 17 U.S. sailors, who died when an explosives-laden skiff blew up alongside the USS Cole destroyer off the coast of Yemen. He faces a possible death penalty. The proceedings at a U.S. Navy base in Cuba, where he is detained, could last up to five weeks.
