Documents seized; detainees' defense suffers

GUANTÁNAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — His ankles chained to the floor of the hearing room, a Saudi detainee hoped to convince three U.S. military officers that he is not a danger to the United States, has no intelligence value and should be released from the Guantánamo Bay prison.

But in his one shot this year at getting out of here, the detainee could not produce letters from his family that he wanted to submit as evidence. They were seized by the military, along with thousands of other documents from detainees, as it investigates whether the suicides of three prisoners in June were assisted or encouraged.

While the letters on their own may not have convinced the panel that the detainee should be released, the hearing shows that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service's (NCIS) confiscation of more than 1,100 pounds of documents is hampering detainees' ability to confront accusations against them.

Correspondence between attorneys and their clients was among the documents seized. Lawyers for detainees say the military is violating attorney-client privilege and exacerbating the isolation of detainees by taking family pictures and other personal items.

A federal judge last week ordered an independent "filter team" to review the paperwork for evidence of complicity in the suicides. Irrelevant and protected documents must be returned to detainees, the judge ruled.

Patricia A. Bronte, a defense attorney, said detainees will now have a harder time trying to clear themselves.

"I believe that their ability to present evidence in their defense, already severely circumscribed, will be further harmed," Bronte said. "It was a minor miracle for the detainee to even obtain some letters in support of his claim of innocence. For the NCIS to then confiscate the evidence from him ... just illustrates the unfairness of the whole proceeding."

Most detainees have been skipping the annual hearings, officials said, reflecting skepticism that the encounters will result in their release. About 460 detainees are currently at Guantánamo, including some held for more than four years. Only 10 have been charged with crimes, but about 315 others have been released or transferred to detention in their home countries, military officials said.

At his appearance last week before the Administrative Review Board, the 22-year-old Saudi detainee acknowledged he had gone to Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to fight for the Taliban. But he insisted he never wanted to kill Americans.