Brawl risen up due to legal mail at Guantanamo

The person in command security counsel for the Guantanamo Bay war crimes court said Wednesday that he has initiated attorneys not to pursue the new rule having an authority to a legal mail from a security assessment, increasing a disagreement through the prisoner's commander.

The dispute started as protests were seized in Washington, London and inside the penitentiary, marking the 10th anniversary of the arrival of the first prisoners.

Marine Col. Jeffrey Colwell said he put on matter the instructions to more than 100 military force and civilian lawyers who were implicated with the tribunal in reaction to the order issued last month by Rear Adm. David Woods, prison commander at Guantanamo.

"It is impermissible for them to agree to the procedure that the government has set for the delivery and review of legal mail," Colwell said. Allowing someone to see legal mail violates attorney- client privilege and codes of professional conduct, he added.

The order by Woods obliged that legal mail be evaluated by a panel members of Defense Department officials and law enforcement employees to ensure that prisoners were accused with war crimes that could be a security threat.

Army Lt. Col Todd Breasseale, spokesman for the tribunals said that the ruling was prepared in a way that it can balance the need for security for the prisoner's right for a fair trial. He added that inspections would not consist of an evaluation of the "substantive content" of the legal mail.

Defense lawyers have filed a lawsuit to the new rule and will also ask a military judge to topple at a hearing for the upcoming week for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashri, who is altered in the 2000 attack on the USS Cole which was later praised by the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Col. Colwell joins an honorable line of Guantanamo military lawyers who have opposed superiors' attempts, in the ostensible name of security, to undermine long-standing rules necessary for a fair trial," as told by Zachary Katznelson, senior staff attorney of the ACLU National Security Project.

The new rule will be relevant only to more or less 30 prisoners at the U.S. base in Cuba who will be accused of war crimes. — BERTO