Detainee may testify at pre-trial hearing in NY

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge has ordered the only Guantanamo Bay detainee to be brought to civilian courts to appear before him Thursday after he repeatedly skipped appearances because he doesn’t want to be strip searched.

Judge Lewis Kaplan said he wants to hear for himself from Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani before he decides a request by his lawyers to force the Bureau of Prisons to change its strip search procedures for him.

The lawyers say nudity causes Ghailani to endure vivid memories of the interrogation process he endured in a secret CIA-run interrogation camp abroad after his July 2004 arrest.

Ghailani is charged in the August 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. The bombings killed 225 people, including a dozen Americans.