‘High-value’ suspects can seek lawyers

WASHINGTON – Fourteen “high-value” terrorism suspects who were transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from secret CIA prisons last year have been formally offered the right to request lawyers, a move that could allow them to join other detainees in challenging their status as enemy combatants in a U.S. appellate court.

The move, confirmed by Defense Department officials, would allow the suspects their first contact with anyone other than their captors and representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross since they were taken into custody.

The prisoners, who include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, have not had access to attorneys during their year at Guantanamo Bay or while they were held, for varying lengths of time, at the secret CIA sites abroad. They were entitled to military “personal representatives” to assist them during the administrative process that determines whether they are enemy combatants.

U.S. officials also have argued in court papers against granting lawyers access to the high-value detainees without special security rules, fearing that attorney-client conversations could reveal classified elements of the CIA’s secret detention program and its controversial interrogation tactics.

Defense officials gave the detainees “Legal Representation Request” forms during the last week of August and first week of September, and sources familiar with the process said at least four detainees have requested lawyers so far.

The form allows the detainees to say whether they “wish to have a civilian lawyer represent me and assist me with filing a petition to challenge the CSRT (Combatant Status Review Tribunal) determination that I am an Enemy Combatant.” The Detainee Treatment Act, enacted in late 2005, gives Guantanamo Bay captives the right to challenge their enemy combatant designations in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Defense and intelligence officials said the decision to allow legal representation did not represent a shift in policy.

“It was the intent and the plan all along that they would have a right to counsel,” said a senior intelligence official who insisted on anonymity because many details of the detention program remain classified. The official said the same concerns for protecting sensitive government information apply equally to the 14 men and the approximately 325 other detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

But lawyers and advocacy groups pressing for legal rights for the detainees contend that there has been a change in tone since last fall, when Justice Department lawyers argued that detainees might reveal details about their captivity that may “reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage” to national security, according to a court filing last Oct. 26.