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Pretrial hearing set for USS Cole bombing suspect

FORT MEADE, Md. — The Guantanamo Bay prisoner accused of orchestrating the attack on the USS Cole faces a pretrial hearing in his war crimes tribunal.

The four-day hearing for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri begins Monday. Video of the proceeding in Cuba, where al-Nashiri has been held by the U.S. since 2006, is being fed to a viewing room at Fort Meade.

The numerous motions include one by the defense seeking to halt the government from restraining the defendant with belly chains while moving him around the U.S. prison in Cuba.

Defense attorneys say they may seek to postpone the hearing amid questions raised last week about whether a third-party government agency is capable of eavesdropping on conversations between the defendant and his lawyers.

The 2000 bombing of the Navy destroyer in Yemen killed 17 crew members and wounded 37.

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