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There have been mixed reports of the limits on Guantanamo detainees' mail privileges.
There have been mixed reports of the limits on Guantanamo detainees' mail privileges.
On July 23, 2002 Master Sergeant Debra A. Tart gave an interview to the American Forces Press Service about the detainees' mail privileges. [1] The report asserts that the detainees were all offered an opportunity to send a postcard to their family, shortly after their arrival, telling their family where they were. Many of the detainees' families have reported they did not learn the detainee was in Guantanamo until 2006, when the Department of Defense was forced to publish a list of all the detainees held in Guantanamo.
Tart told the American Forces Press Service that the 564 detainees had sent out 1,600 pieces of mail, through her office, during the camp's first six months, and had received 300 replies. [1] She added that some detainees had sent out mail with the visitors from the International Committee of the Red Cross on their quarterly inspections.
In response to a habeas corpus petition, on March 25, 2005, First Lieutenant Wade M. Brown submitted an affidavit describing how the detainees' email was processed. [2]
Detainees cannot lose mail privileges for any reason, including as part of disciplinary action or interrogation.
Brown described two of the three routes through which detainees were permitted to receive mail: [2]
| US Postal Service |
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| ICRC |
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| habeas correspondence | Brown stated that there was a third mechanism for detainees to send and receive correspondence with their habeas attorneys. But he did not describe this mechanism. |
Some Guantanamo detaineess, such as Abdul Razzaq Hekmati, testified that during their stay in Guantanamo they had not received a single response to any of the letters they sent out.
Lawyers for Mani Al Utaybi described trying to have their first letter delivered to him, to inform him that his relative had secured their help on his behalf, for over a year prior to his suicide on June 10, 2006—but camp authorities had refused to deliver their mail. [3]
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During an interview on Chicago Public Radio's This American Life , Joe Margulies reported: [4]
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Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald , quoted Kristin Wilhelm, one of the detainees' attorneys, about the censorship of hand-drawn greeting cards her client had prepared for her and her colleagues. [5] Recent rule changes allowed detainees to be issued crayons, and allowed to make drawings. Her client, Yemeni Suleiman al Nahdi, drew greeting cards for her and her colleagues—which military censors would not allow through. According to Wilhelm:
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On November 1, 2011, the Washington Post reported on the attempts of nine of detainees' military defense attorney to challenge the reading of their lawyers representing detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, say authorities at the military base have begun reading privileged attorney-client communication — in a sharp break with past practice. [6] The Washington Post called this "a sharp break with past practice". According to the United Press International an unnamed military official attributed the change in policy to the recent appointment of the new camp commandant Rear Admiral David B. Woods. [7] UPI reported that up until October camp officials would open the privileged mail in front of the detainee, to confirm that the envelope did not contain contraband items, and then would give it to the detainee, without reading it.
Khalid Sheik Mohammed's attorney was one of the lawyers who wrote a letter to William K. Lietzau, deputy assistant secretary of defense for rule of law and detainee policy. [6] They argued that the rules for military commissions specifically protect attorney-client mail. The Washington Post published a passage from the letter.
Violations of the attorney-client privilege are acutely egregious in the context of death penalty litigation where the Supreme Court has long held that heightened due process applies. It is important to note that the legal materials discussed are not classified.
In response, the Chief Defense Counsel (United States) ordered the attorneys under his supervision to stop sending privileged communications to Guantanamo prisoners. [8] Approximately two years after the policy change, in November 2013, the Guantanamo military commission issued an order setting up a "privilege team" to act as an intermediary. [9]
In late 2006, Captain Patrick M. McCarthy, Joint Task Force Guantanamo's Staff Judge Advocate submitted an affidavit about further restrictions the Department of Defense wanted to place on mail between Guantanamo habeas counsels and their clients. [10] He asserted that attorneys for the prisoners had provided a copy of a book on Abu Ghraib, a speech given at an Amnesty International conference about the war on terror, and other materials, and that such materials threatened prison security.
Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi is a Sudanese militant and paymaster for al-Qaeda. Qosi was held from January 2002 in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 54.
Abdul Zahir is a citizen of Afghanistan, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He was the tenth captive, and the first Afghan, to face charges before the first Presidentially authorized Guantanamo military commissions. After the US Supreme Court ruled that the President lacked the constitutional authority to set up military commissions, the United States Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006. He was not charged under that system.
Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, also known as Allal Ab Aljallil Abd al Rahman, was a Yemeni citizen imprisoned at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from January 2002 until his death in custody there, ruled a suicide.
Saeed Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah Sarem Jarabh is a citizen of Yemen who was held in extrajudicial detention for over fourteen years in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba. Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts estimate he was born in 1976 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari is a Kuwaiti citizen who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba, from 2002 to 2016. He has never been charged with war crimes.
Sulaiman Awath Sulaiman Bin Ageel Al Nahdi is a citizen of Yemen, who held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba, from May 5, 2002, until November 16, 2015. Al Nahdi's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 511. The Department of Defense reports that al Nahdi was born on December 1, 1974, in Mukalla, Yemen.
The United States Department of Defense (DOD) had stopped reporting Guantanamo suicide attempts in 2002. In mid-2002 the DoD changed the way they classified suicide attempts, and enumerated them under other acts of "self-injurious behavior".
Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi (1976 – June 10, 2006) was a citizen of Saudi Arabia, who was arrested in 2001 in Pakistan and held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba from early 2002. Al-Utaybi died in custody on June 10, 2006. The Department of Defense reported his death and those of two other detainees the same day as suicides.
Ibrahim Othman Ibrahim Idris was a citizen of Sudan, formerly held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His detainee ID number was 036.
Adil Hadi al Jazairi Bin Hamlili is a citizen of Algeria who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. The US Department of Defense reports that Bin Hamlili was born on 26 June 1976, in Oram (Oran) [sic] Algeria. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 1452.
David H. Remes is an American lawyer.
Inayatullah, born Hajji Nassim (1974–2011) was a citizen of Afghanistan who was arrested in 2007 and transferred that year to be held as an enemy combatant in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 10028. Nassim was held in Guantanamo for 3 years, 8 months, and 22 days until his death in an apparent suicide. The US claims he admitted being an al Qaeda leader, but Nassim denied this in numerous interrogation sessions. The US military claims he was headquartered in Zahedan, Iran. Nassim was the 19th captive to have been transferred to Guantanamo since September 6, 2006.
Abdul Rahman Shalabi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 42.
George Brent Mickum IV is an American lawyer and currently the General Counsel of ERP Compliant Fuels, LLC. Mickum represented three British residents, Bisher Al Rawi, Jamil El Banna, and Martin Mubanga in El Banna v. Bush. The three were captured in Africa, held first in CIA custody, then transported to the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.
Muhammed Murdi Issa Al Zahrani is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba from August 5, 2002, until November 22, 2014. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 713. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate he was born in 1969, in Taif, Saudi Arabia.
Al Halmandy v. Bush, No. 1:05-cv-02385, is a writ of habeas corpus filed on behalf of 63 Guantanamo detainees, on December 13, 2005. It was one of over 200 habeas corpus petitions filed on behalf of detainees held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.
El Mashad v. Bush is a writ of habeas corpus filed on behalf of several Guantanamo detainees, including Sherif el-Mashad, Adel Fattouh Aly Ahmed Algazzar and Alladeen.
Al Joudi v. Bush (Civil Action No. 05-cv-301) is a United States District Court for the District of Columbia case. On February 9, 2005, a Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus was filed on behalf of four Guantanamo detainees: Majid Abdulla Al Joudi, Yousif Mohammad Mubarak Al-Shehri, Abdulla Mohammad Al Ghanmi and Abdul-Hakim Abdul-Rahman Al-Moosa, before US District Court Judge Gladys Kessler. It was one of over 200 habeas corpus petitions filed in the US District Court on behalf of detainees held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, seeking release. On March 26, 2008, Judge Gladys Kessler dismissed the petition as moot.
Camp Seven is the most secure camp known within the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.
Rear Admiral David B. Woods is an officer in the United States Navy. When Woods was a junior officer he served as a fighter pilot. When he became more senior he specialized in signals intelligence.
Lawyers representing detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, say authorities at the military base have begun reading privileged attorney-client communication — in a sharp break with past practice.
Previously, military personnel opened the mail in the presence of detainees to ensure there was no contraband and then handed it to them without reading the contents.