US rescinds rule requiring judges to move to Guantanamo

A new rule that required military judges presiding over the war crimes tribunals at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to relocate to the remote installation has been rescinded, ABC News quoted the Pentagon as saying on Friday.
The Department of Defense official who imposed the new rule reversed it two days after it prompted one judge, Army Col. James Pohl, to suspend the Sept. 11 terrorism case.
Lawyers for the five prisoners charged in the Sept. 11 attack filed a motion to dismiss the charges because the rule change amounted to improper interference, or what is known as unlawful command influence under military law. The defense for the prisoner charged in the USS Cole bombing filed a similar motion and argued it before a judge at the base this week.
Pohl ruled Wednesday that the rule change created the appearance of unlawful influence and ordered an abatement of proceedings unless it was rescinded.