Classified in Gitmo Trials: Detainees’ Every Word
A shadow of a soldier next to a placard on the fence line of the 'Camp Five' detention facility of the Joint Detention Group at the US Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Jan. 19, 2012. (Jim Watson, AFP, Getty Images)
Can the government declare anything a Guantanamo detainee does or says automatically classified?
Thats the question posed by two challenges to a government order declaring any and all statements by the five detainees allegedly behind the 9/11 attacks presumptively classified. That includes their own accounts of their treatment, and even torture, at the hands of the U.S. government.
The government made that argument this spring at the start of the military commission trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others. The government says the defendants accounts, if made public without review by a government authority, could reveal details of the CIAs detention and interrogation efforts.
Of course, much information about the programsincluding torture of detaineeshas long been public. The CIAs so-called black-site prisons were acknowledged nearly six years ago by then-President Bush. More details about the program were released by President Obama in 2009.
The presumptive classification order extends to both detainees testimony and their discussions with their lawyers. In other words, anything said by a detainee, whether in court or to their counsel, will first need censors stamp of approval before it can become public.
The American Civil Liberties Union, news outlets, and one of the 9/11 defendants lawyers have all challenged aspects of the order. A Gitmo commission judge may consider their arguments at hearings next month.
Heres exactly what the government says is still classified, from the order it proposed to the military commission in April:
By extension, the government argues, anything said by the accused must be presumed classified, because they were exposed to classified information during their detention:
The governments order mandates that the court proceedings, which are transmitted via closed circuit TV to media and other observers in viewing rooms in the U.S., get a forty-second delay to allow for the blotting out of any sensitive information revealed by the defendants. If something censored in the broadcast is later deemed unclassified, it is restored on the court transcript. This is how the arraignment in this case proceeded back in May. At one point, censors blocked a defense lawyers comment that one of the defendants was tortured, only to have it later reinstated for the record.
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Classified in Gitmo Trials: Detainees’ Every Word