The Department of Defense wants military lawyers representing Guantánamo detainees to abide by strict rules before representing their clients at military tribunals. But the head of the military lawyers is protesting the move, saying the conditions amount to gag orders on what attorneys can say to their clients and to the media.

 

Chief Defense Counsel Marine Colonel Jeffrey Colwell wrote to his superiors that the collection of rules “unreasonably and unlawfully interferes with the attorney-client relationship” between detainees and defense lawyers. Colwell called one requirement that lawyers inform the military beforehand what language they will speak with their clients “absurd.”

 

Furthermore, a military attorney would be required to get the CIA’s permission before even asking their client about any confessions that the spy agency claims were made to it while the captive was confined at secret interrogation sites.

 

Defense attorneys are also forbidden from giving mail or reading material to their clients without first having it cleared by a “privilege team.” In one case, early on, a Pentagon lawyer gave Omar Khadr, the youngest prisoner at Guantánamo, a copy of Lord of the Rings…only to have it confiscated by guards.

 

The Defense Department has given Colwell and other military lawyers until Monday to sign the new rules.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

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