N.Y. terror trial to feature bin Laden evidence

The trial will be closely watched by those debating the feasibility of civilian trials of high-profile Guantanamo detainees arrested around the world. Some were subjected to harsh interrogations at secret CIA-run camps where the gathering of trial evidence yielded to an immediate need to unearth terrorism threats.

The government plans to use bin Laden’s words, including a television interview in which he said US civilians were targets of his holy war against the West, as evidence in Ghailani’s trial.

“To establish that the defendant intended to kill Americans in particular, it is relevant that the leader of the conspiracy was emphatically and repeatedly directing his followers to, in fact, kill Americans,’’ prosecutors wrote in court papers last week.

Ghailani was arrested in Pakistan in 2004 in connection with the Tanzania and Kenya bombings and taken to a secret CIA-run camp overseas. Though much of the litigation about his treatment there has been kept secret, the defense divulged during a pretrial hearing that he was subjected to enhanced interrogation methods for 14 hours over five days.

In 2006, he was transferred to Guantanamo, where he remained until he was brought to New York for trial last year. His lawyers lost efforts to have the indictment against him dismissed on the grounds that he was subjected to a lengthy interrogation and detention.

The judge found that the delays served compelling national security interests.

However, the judge warned prosecutors at a hearing Tuesday that he probably won’t rule before opening statements on whether prosecutors can call as a witness a man who says he sold explosives to Ghailani. Prosecutor Michael Farbiarz said the man might be the government’s most important witness. He might be excluded from the trial because he was discovered as a result of the interrogation of Ghailani.