Lawyers for Guantanamo inmates oppose new rules

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Lawyers representing some of the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay have condemned efforts by the Bush administration to make it more difficult for them to visit their clients. The lawyers say restrictions already in place make their jobs all but impossible.

The United States Justice Department has requested that a federal court impose tighter restrictions on the lawyers, claiming their visits with prisoners have "caused intractable problems and threats to security at Guantanamo".

In a brief to the court, the department claims information is passed from prisoners to their lawyers and then given to the media.

Lawyers representing some of the 385 prisoners at the US naval base on Cuba said yesterday what was really driving the request was the US government's desire to diminish further the scrutiny that Guantanamo receives.

Clive Stafford Smith, the legal director of the UK-based group Reprieve, which represents several dozen prisoners, said: "They say the lawyers have caused unrest, they say we have caused hunger strikes. This is monumental crap ... It's being done to stop any journalists finding out what they did to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2488812.ece