Six Jurors Selected for First Death Penalty Tribunal at Guantanamo Bay in USS Cole Bombing Case
Six U.S. military officers have been selected as jurors for the first death penalty tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, concerning the USS Cole bombing case. The selection process, which concluded its second week, included two women from the Army Reserve. One, a major and former helicopter pilot, was in middle school during the 9/11 attacks, while the other, a captain, was even younger. Neither had a specific memory of the October 12, 2000, USS Cole attack in Aden, Yemen, which killed seventeen sailors and wounded dozens. The defendant, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, has been in U.S. custody since 2002 and was held in CIA prisons for the first four years, where he was tortured. Defense lawyers have indicated they will argue for no prison sentence if al-Nashiri is convicted and have sought permission to inform the jury that he would not necessarily go free even if found not guilty, a request the judge has yet to rule on.
