The case of the Guantanamo lawyer, the detainees and the illegal pairs
of pants
By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
Published: 14 September 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2961328.ece
For more than five years lawyers representing terror suspects at
Guantanamo Bay have been pressing the American government to disclose
the evidence against their clients.
Well now they have. And it doesn't make pleasant reading.
Commanders at the US naval base in Cuba have written to lawyers for two
of the inmates accusing their clients of wearing contraband underpants
and Speedo swimming trunks which they claim have been illegally smuggled
into the high-security compound.
In a bizarre development that would be laughable if it did not have such
serious implications, the US prison's staff judge advocate has now
launched an official inquiry to discover who is behind the smuggling
operation. The judge has named the prisoners' lawyers as the two prime
suspects.
These allegations are the latest in a series of increasingly desperate
attempts by the Guantanamo authorities to undermine the relationship
between human rights lawyers and their clients. Muslim prisoners have
also been told that their legal representatives are practising Jews or
confirmed homosexuals.
Clive Stafford Smith, legal director of human rights group Reprieve, and
another Reprieve lawyer, are both accused of threatening the personal
safety of the prison guards by smuggling in the unauthorised clothing.
Under US law it is a criminal offence to bring any illicit item into a
prison.
In a letter written last month the judge advocate says: "Your client
Shaker Aamer, detainee ISN 239, was recently discovered to be wearing
Under Armor briefs and a Speedo bathing suit. Neither item was issued to
the detainee by JTF-Guantanamo personnel, nor did they enter the camp
through regular mail."
He adds: "We are investigating this matter to determine the origins of
the above contraband and ensure that parties who may have been involved
understand the seriousness of the transgression."
Mr Stafford Smith has written back dismissing the allegations as
ridiculous, saying that the case smacks of the growing sense of
desperation inside the camp. He says the letter he received is the "most
extraordinary" he has ever received in his career as a human rights lawyer.
Mr Stafford Smith tells the judge: "I hope you understand my frustration
at yet another unfounded accusation against lawyers who are simply
trying to do their job a job that involves legal briefs, not the other
sort."
On the allegation regarding Speedo swimming trunks Mr Stafford Smith
writes: "I cannot imagine who would want to give my client Speedos or
why. Mr Aamer is hardly in a position to go swimming, since the only
available water is the toilet in his cell."
Mr Aamer, 38, was captured in December 2001. The Americans claim he was
fighting with the Taliban. Reprieve maintains that he was sold by
villagers to the Northern Alliance who in turn sold him on to the Americans.
Mr Aamer's family fear he is is slowly dying he has shed half his
17-stone body weight since his imprisonment five and half years ago.
He recently joined a hunger strike in protest at his detention without
trial and was being tube-fed.
In one of his last, heavily censored, letters home Mr Aamer, a Saudi
Arabian passport holder who has been living in Britain since 1996, asks
for the right to die.
In May his wife and four children, who live in South London, feared he
had died when it was reported that an anonymous Saudi national had been
found dead at the base in Cuba.
The second detainee accused of wearing the contraband underwear is a
juvenile named Mohammed El Gharani, a Chad national, who was just 14
years old when he was seized by the Pakistani authorities and sold to
the US military.
Reprieve say there is no evidence that Mohammed ever travelled to
Afghanistan, nor that he intended to do so. Nevertheless, he is now one
of 20 juveniles Reprieve has identified as being held in Guantanamo Bay.
In interviews with his lawyers he claims he has been terribly abused,
including having a cigarette stubbed out on his arm by an interrogator.
He states that much of the abuse stems from his vocal objection to being
called a "nigger" by US military personnel.
There are 355 prisoners, including Mr Aamer and Mohammed El Gharani, who
are still being held at Guantanamo without charge or trial under a
system that has been widely condemned for the treatment of the inmates
and abuse of human rights law.
Last month the UK government asked the Americans to release five of the
remaining British residents, including Mr Aamer. But there has been no
firm sign that the Americans will comply. None of the men have ever been
charged with any crime. This latest allegation, say the lawyers, smacks
of desperation, perhaps signalling the endgame in the five year life of
the unlawful detention camp.