The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to impose tighter restrictions on the hundreds of lawyers who represent detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and the request has become a central issue in a new legal battle over the administration's detention policies. Saying that visits by civilian lawyers and attorney-client mail have caused "intractable problems and threats to security at Guantánamo," a Justice Department filing proposes new limits on the lawyers' contact with their clients and access to evidence in their cases that would replace more expansive rules that have governed them since they began visiting Guantánamo detainees in large numbers in 2004. The filing says the lawyers have caused unrest among the detainees and have improperly served as a conduit to the news media, assertions that have drawn angry responses from some of the lawyers. The dispute is the latest and perhaps the most significant clash over the role of lawyers for the detainees. "There is no right on the part of counsel to access to detained aliens on a secure military base in a foreign country," the Justice Department filing argued.Under the proposal, filed this month in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the government would limit lawyers to three visits with an existing client at Guantánamo; there is now no limit. It would permit only a single visit with a detainee to have him authorize a lawyer to handle his case. And it would permit a team of intelligence officers and military lawyers not involved in a detainee's case to read mail sent to him by his lawyer.The proposal would also reverse existing rules to permit government officials, on their own, to deny the lawyers access to secret evidence used by military panels to determine that their clients were enemy combatants. Many of the lawyers say the restrictions would make it impossible to represent their clients, or even to convince wary detainees -- in a single visit -- that they were really lawyers, rather than interrogators.
The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to impose tighter restrictions on the hundreds of lawyers who represent detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and the request has become a central issue in a new legal battle over the administration's detention policies.
Saying that visits by civilian lawyers and attorney-client mail have caused "intractable problems and threats to security at Guantánamo," a Justice Department filing proposes new limits on the lawyers' contact with their clients and access to evidence in their cases that would replace more expansive rules that have governed them since they began visiting Guantánamo detainees in large numbers in 2004.
The filing says the lawyers have caused unrest among the detainees and have improperly served as a conduit to the news media, assertions that have drawn angry responses from some of the lawyers.
The dispute is the latest and perhaps the most significant clash over the role of lawyers for the detainees. "There is no right on the part of counsel to access to detained aliens on a secure military base in a foreign country," the Justice Department filing argued.
Under the proposal, filed this month in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the government would limit lawyers to three visits with an existing client at Guantánamo; there is now no limit. It would permit only a single visit with a detainee to have him authorize a lawyer to handle his case. And it would permit a team of intelligence officers and military lawyers not involved in a detainee's case to read mail sent to him by his lawyer.
The proposal would also reverse existing rules to permit government officials, on their own, to deny the lawyers access to secret evidence used by military panels to determine that their clients were enemy combatants.
Many of the lawyers say the restrictions would make it impossible to represent their clients, or even to convince wary detainees -- in a single visit -- that they were really lawyers, rather than interrogators.
And so many people thought he'd be out by now.
Gonzo is a style of reportage, filmmaking, or any form of multimedia production in which the reporter, filmmaker or author is intrinsically enmeshed with the subject action (rather than being a passive observer). The style was popularized by Hunter S. Thompson Origin The term "Gonzo" is often misattributed to Hunter S. Thompson, but was in fact first used by Boston Globe reporter Bill Cardoso, who, after reading Thompson's The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved, proclaimed "That is pure Gonzo!" (According to Cardoso, 'Gonzo' is South Boston Irish slang describing the last man standing after a drinking marathon.[1] However, this usage is more likely inspired by the 1960 hit song Gonzo by New Orleans R&B keyboardist James Booker.)
Gonzo is a style of reportage, filmmaking, or any form of multimedia production in which the reporter, filmmaker or author is intrinsically enmeshed with the subject action (rather than being a passive observer). The style was popularized by Hunter S. Thompson
Origin The term "Gonzo" is often misattributed to Hunter S. Thompson, but was in fact first used by Boston Globe reporter Bill Cardoso, who, after reading Thompson's The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved, proclaimed "That is pure Gonzo!" (According to Cardoso, 'Gonzo' is South Boston Irish slang describing the last man standing after a drinking marathon.[1] However, this usage is more likely inspired by the 1960 hit song Gonzo by New Orleans R&B keyboardist James Booker.)
