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Hidden mic revealed in Gitmo room
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- A senior official for the Guantanamo Bay prison said under questioning Tuesday that the government had placed a hidden microphone inside a meeting room but that he was assured it was not used to monitor the private conversations that prisoners have with their lawyers and the Red Cross.
Navy Capt. Thomas Welsh, the senior legal adviser to the commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison, conceded the microphone appeared to be intended to resemble a smoke detector in the ceiling of a meeting room for men labeled "high-value" detainees by the Pentagon and held in a special top security camp at the U.S. base in Cuba.
"I agree with your point that it was not recognizable, it was not readily identifiable," Welsh said under questioning by David Nevin, a lawyer for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has portrayed himself as the mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The admission came during a pretrial hearing. Lawyers for the five men charged with planning and aiding the attacks have asked the judge to immediately halt proceedings over fears that authorities have been monitoring conversations in violation of attorney-client privilege.
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