Military Officials Cancel Guantanamo Visits by Lawyers and Journalists

Lawyers who represent detainees held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been barred from visiting their clients at the base this week, apparently the result of an ongoing investigation into three suicides there on Saturday, according to officials with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents hundreds of the detainees.

The cancellation of the regular visits was an unusual move for base officials and came at nearly the same time that the Pentagon decided to suspend the trips of three journalists who were at the base reporting for the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald and the Charlotte Observer.

Barbara Olshansky, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights, said yesterday that she was suspicious of the sudden ban on visits and plans to file a motion in federal court in Washington today seeking immediate access to clients. In a teleconference with a magistrate judge in Washington yesterday, government officials said they were using all available guards at the prison to facilitate a Naval Criminal Investigative Service probe into the three suicides and could not supervise visits by lawyers, Olshansky said.

She said government lawyers indicated the base would reopen to lawyers on Monday, and Pentagon officials said planned visits by journalists likely would resume next week.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/14/AR2006061402175.html