Former CIA officer to testify on Guantanamo case

Officials have kept KSM and four others in secret CIA prisons for three years before being sent to Guantanamo six years ago. Defense lawyers now want a former CIA official who supervised possible torture techniques to testify.

Attorneys want Jose Rodriguez, former director of the CIA's National Clandestine Service to testify that the US government is hiding evidence that the five men were tortured.

Defense attorneys in the case involving Khalid Sheikh Mohammed say Rodriguez may be the key in proving that illegal techniques may have been used to force confessions. One of the methods is water boarding--a simulated drowning technique.

Rodriguez supervised the implementation of the CIA detention program.

In his book “Hard Measures,” he discussed destroying videotapes showing interrogators using the controversial technique of water boarding that President Obama ordered to stop in 2009.

Defense attorneys are appealing to prosecutors to subpoena Rodriguez. Lawyers refused at first but then agreed that his testimony could be relevant. At the same time FBI director Leon Panetta is declining to reveal details on a prison exchange with Taliban militants who have a US soldier.

All five men face charges of conspiring with al Qaeda members and killing 2,976 people. They face execution if convicted.