(AP) Another military judge has stepped down from the Sept. 11 war crimes tribunal at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a further blow to an already long-stalled case.
Marine Col. Stephen F. Keane said in an order issued Friday that he must recuse himself from the case because of his past work for the government and personal connections to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He was appointed last month.
Keane is the fifth judge to preside over the trial by military commission for five men held at Guantanamo who are charged with planning and assisting the hijacking plot that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
