Guantanamo captives' mail privileges

There have been mixed reports of the limits on Guantanamo captives' mail privileges.

Lieutenant Wade Brown's affidavit

In response to a habeas corpus petition, on March 25 2005, First Lieutenant Wade M. Brown submitted an affidavit describing how the captives' email was processed.cite news
url=http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Mar2006/d20060329Barhoumivol6.pdf#77
title=Declaration of 1LT Wade M. Brown
pages=pages 77-78
publisher=Joint Task Force Guantanamo
author=Wade M. Brown
date=March 25 2005
accessdate=2008-06-12
quote=]
*Brown reported he had been first the assistant officer in charge, and then the officer in charge, of a staff of sixteen staff who processed the captives' mail.
*Brown reported that in the preceding six months his office had processed 14,000 pieces of mail -- over two, per captive, per month.
*According to Brown: quotation|Detainees cannot lose mail privileges for any reason, including as part of disciplinary action or interrogation.

Brown described two of the three routes through which captives were permitted to receive mail:

New rules

Captain Patrick M. McCarthy, Joint Task Force Guantanamo's Staff Judge Advocate submitted an affidavit about further restrictions the Department of Defense wanted to place on mail between Guantanamo habeas counsels and their clients.cite news
url=http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35710
title=RIGHTS-US: Near-Total Isolation Sought for Guantanamo
publisher=InterPress Service
author=William Fisher
date=2006-12-05
accessdate=2008-09-09
quote= [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ipsnews.net%2Fnews.asp%3Fidnews%3D35710&date=2008-09-09 mirror] ] McCarthy asserted that attorneys for the prisoners had provided a copy of a book on Abu Ghraib, a speech given at an Amnesty International conference about the war on terror, and other materials, and that such materials threatened prison security.

ee also

* Guantanamo captives' phone calls

References