A week of exhaustive questioning in the U.S.S. Cole bombing case ended on Friday with just the first three of 20 U.S. military officers chosen for a jury in the first death penalty trial by military commission.
Col. Matthew Fitzgerald, the military judge, excused three other officers from service on the case, requiring the mobilization of more military officers from domestic and overseas bases to Guantánamo Bay before Thanksgiving vacation.
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi, is accused of helping to orchestrate the suicide bombing of the Cole off the coast of Yemen on Oct. 12, 2000. Seventeen U.S. sailors were killed and dozens more were injured in the Al Qaeda attack, which was seen as a harbinger of the hijackings of Sept. 11, 2001.
Mr. Nashiri, 61, was captured in 2002 but not charged until 2011. An earlier judge threw out confessions Mr. Nashiri made to federal agents as derived from torture, including waterboarding, during his first years in U.S. custody.
The judge announced this week that the court would be selecting 20 panel members — 12 jurors, six alternates and two extra officers — so defense and prosecution teams could each excuse one member without offering a reason. To meet that goal, he ordered the military to send 18 more U.S. officers to the base for the week of Nov. 16.
Those chosen this past week were:
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A colonel with the Air Force who has served as a fighter pilot. He told the court that he was retiring next year. Mr. Nashiri’s lawyers have questioned whether recent remarks by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lamenting the delay in executing some Guantánamo prisoners will influence military jurors who want career advancement.
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An Air Force major who works on a platform of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The officer said he studied political science and prelaw in college and wanted to serve on the panel. “No matter what happens, this is a first,” he said. “This is a historical event.”
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An Army major who was among 10 of 18 officers in this week’s pool who said he believed that, after 20 years at Guantánamo, Mr. Nashiri must be guilty of something. The major said he did not oppose the death-penalty but would also not want to give a life sentence to someone who hoped to become a martyr. During intense questioning, he agreed with a prosecutor that he had a duty to follow the instructions of the judge and decide the case based on the evidence and the law.
None of their names were released by order of the judge, “in the interest of justice and to ensure their safety and privacy.”
“Military members selected to serve on commission panels also continue to perform their assigned military duties, including serving in areas that place them under threat of harm,” Colonel Fitzgerald wrote in his order.
Questioning by defense and prosecution lawyers focused on the pool members’ attitudes toward capital punishment and their knowledge of the case.
The judge said he would decide on Monday whether he would accept the first U.S. Navy officer, a former helicopter pilot, on the panel.
The lieutenant commander was in middle school when the Cole was bombed and then went on to graduate from the Naval Academy. He told the court he learned about Mr. Nashiri’s offer to plead guilty in the case to avert the trial from a newspaper article. The deputy defense secretary rejected the deal.
Cmdr. Clayton Trivett Jr., the lead prosecutor, said the officer was qualified to serve on the panel because, among other things, he agreed to decide the case exclusively based on evidence and the judge’s instructions. Casey Secor, a defense lawyer, argued the officer should be excused. Disclosure of the failed deal at trial could lead to a mistrial, he said. Also, the officer was among those who raised his hand when the group was asked who thought that Mr. Nashiri must be guilty of something because he had been held for 20 years at Guantánamo.
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