Judge won’t remove himself from Cole bombing case

Judge won’t remove himself from Cole bombing case

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — The military judge presiding over the war crimes trial of a Guantanamo Bay prisoner charged in the 2000 attack on the USS Cole has rejected a motion by defense attorneys that he remove himself from the case.

Lawyers for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri don’t believe Army Col. James Pohl can be impartial because they said he has a financial incentive to side with the Pentagon, which pays his salary. But Pohl said today at a hearing that the defense offered scant evidence to support its argument.

Al-Nashiri, a Saudi national, is charged with orchestrating the attack, which killed 17 sailors. Al-Nashiri has been held at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba, since 2006 after being held by the CIA in a series of secret prisons.