Gitmo Prisoners Use Lawyer-Client Privilege to Plot
Charles Johnson
Sat Jul 8, 2006 at 8:18 am PDT • Views: 272
The three terrorists who recently committed suicide at Guantanamo Bay apparently used confidential lawyer-client communications to organize their plot: Signs of Detainees’ Planning Alleged.
Three suicides at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may have been part of a broader plot by detainees who were using confidential lawyer-client papers and envelopes to pass handwritten notes their guards could not intercept, according to documents that government lawyers filed yesterday in federal court.
Detainees could apparently hide documents in their cells — including instructions on how to tie knots and a classified U.S. military memo regarding cell locations of detainees and camp operational matters at Guantanamo — by keeping the materials in envelopes labeled as lawyer-client communications. Notes that investigators found after the suicides on June 10 were apparently written on the back of notepaper stamped “Attorney Client Privilege,” which allowed detainees to communicate secretly without interference, according to government officials.
The alleged discoveries have led military commanders to suspend allowing detainees to have paper provided by defense lawyers. Government lawyers have also asked a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to allow them to assemble “filter teams” to scour more than 1,100 pounds of documents seized by investigators, some of which are protected by lawyer-client privilege and would usually be off-limits to authorities.
Imagine the prisoners’ delight when they discovered that a few words stamped on an envelope would prevent the infidels from reading its contents.
Frank says: