A U.S. military judge overseeing the death-penalty trial of the accused 9/11 planners has ordered an end to secret government censorship of the proceedings after sound from the courtroom was mysteriously cut during a discussion of CIA prisons. An unidentified government agency has been ordered to dismantle equipment that allowed outside censors to stop the broadcast of sound from the courtroom. The audio had been temporarily cut earlier this week while a defense lawyer made reference to a secret CIA prison where the suspects were held and potentially tortured before being moved to Guantánamo. The censoring was said to be the work of an ”OCA,” or Original Classification Authority, a term that could refer to a number of government agencies. Defense lawyer James Connell said many questions still remain.

James Connell: “Today, the judge ordered that the prosecution must disconnect that censorship authority of the OCA. The extent to which monitoring has taken place and will continue, however, is an open question. An emergency motion was filed today which addresses that issue, after it came up this week, and the judge has said that that will be the first issue to take up on February 11th. I hope that we will take a preliminary baby step toward finding out the truth of what is going on in the military commission, but events so far may say that that hope is unfounded.”