Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys said in court filings on Jan. 31 that evidence extracted by torture is not admissible in military tribunals, reversing a posture that had worried civil libertarians and human rights activists. The DOJ revealed its stance on torture-derived evidence in filings related to the matter of Abd Al-Rahim Hussein Al-Nashiri, the alleged terrorist mastermind of the 2000 U.S.S. Cole bombing that killed 17 U.S. Navy sailors and injured 37 others. Al-Nashiri has been detained Guantanamo Bay and other military facilities since 2002, while awaiting trial on terrorism charges. Though Al-Nashiri has been in U.S. custody for two decades, his case is still in the discovery process—as are the proceedings of numerous other Guantanamo Bay inmates. The reasons for the delays are complex and unique to each case, but generally boil down to the government not wanting to disclose information about its 9/11-era detention and interrogation programs, which has prevented defense teams from …