An MRI scanner is being shipped to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay this month to be used in the trial of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000.
The scanner will be used to determine if al-Nashiri has experienced significant brain damage, which would spare him from capital punishment, according to a September 27 memorandum to al-Nashiri's lawyer, Richard Kammen, signed by Chief of Staff Gary Brown of the Office of Military Commissions.
Kammen has claimed that al-Nashiri experienced brain damage as a result of being tortured. He was captured in 2002 and was held for four years in secret prisons operated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
The MRI scanner is expected to be available on the island for approximately four months per an order by the military judge overseeing the case. It will then be returned to the U.S., according to the memo.
