Judge Bars Government From Listening in to Guantanamo Meetings

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A federal judge ruled Wednesday that terror suspects held in Cuba must be allowed to meet with lawyers, and that the government cannot monitor their conversations.

In a strongly worded rebuke of the Bush administration, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected the administration's argument that the detainees were not entitled to lawyers. The Supreme Court ruled in June that the then-600 foreign-born men held in the Navy-run prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could challenge their captivity in American courts. Kollar-Kotelly said that would be impossible without legal help.

"They have been detained virtually incommunicado for nearly three years without being charged with any crime. To say that (detainees') ability to investigate the circumstances surrounding their capture and detention is 'seriously impaired' is an understatement," she wrote.

She also said it was impossible for the men "to grapple with the complexities of a foreign legal system and present their claims to this court" without attorneys, access to a law library and fluency in English. The Justice Department had no immediate response to the decision.


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