British spies in U.S. terror trial must be faceless in sketches: judge

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By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - Five British MI-5 officers expected to testify anonymously in wigs and makeup in the U.S. trial of an accused al Qaeda operative may be portrayed in courtroom sketches with only "blank faces" and "generic hair," a federal judge said on Monday. U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie in Brooklyn, New York, ordered media sketch artists at the trial of Pakistani-born Abid Naseer to refrain from detailed portrayals of the officers with Britain's domestic counterintelligence agency, calling them "committed, lifelong operatives." "The situation is grave," Dearie said in a court hearing. Dearie had previously at prosecutors' urging approved a variety of steps aimed at protecting the officers' identities, including identifying them only through numbers and the use of wigs and "light" make-up.

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