Two marines ordered not to discuss detainee abuse case

The US Marine Corps has threatened to punish two members of the military legal team representing a terrorism suspect being held at Guantánamo Bay if they continue to speak publicly about reported prisoner abuse, a civilian lawyer from the defense team said. The action directed at Lt. Col. Colby Vokey and Sgt. Heather Cerveny follows their report that Guantánamo guards bragged about beating detainees, said Muneer Ahmad, an American University law professor who assists in the defense of Canadian suspect Omar Khadr. The order has heightened fears among the military defense lawyers for Guantánamo prisoners that their careers will suffer for exposing flaws and injustices in the system, Ahmad said. Cerveny, 23, visited Guantánamo last month and has said she spent an hour with the guards at the military club. She said: "It was a general consensus that I [detected] that as a group this is something they did. That this was OK at Guantánamo, that this is how the detainees get treated." "In one fell swoop, the government is gagging a defense lawyer and threatening retaliation against a whistle-blower," Ahmad said. "It really points out what is wrong with the detainee legislation that Bush is scheduled to sign on [Oct. 17]: It permits the abuse of detainees to continue, immunizes the wrongdoers and precludes the detainees from ever challenging it in court." The Marine Corps said the gag order had been issued to ensure the legal team's actions were in compliance with professional standards. "The Chief Defense Counsel of the Marine Corps, as Lt. Col. Vokey's direct supervisor, has directed him not to communicate with the media on this case pending her review of the facts," said 1st Lt. Blanca E. Binstock of the Marine public affairs office. Ahmad said Vokey was also barred from talking to the media about anything related to the military tribunals set up to try detainees. He said he didn't know how the order was issued and that Vokey previously had the military's authorization to speak with the media. "I think he is very concerned about his ability to perform his job as a lawyer," Ahmad said. "It's really quite troubling... at this point I'm not sure what our next steps will be." Defense lawyers for Guantánamo prisoners say the personal stakes are high and point to the Navy's failure to promote Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift after he successfully challenged the legitimacy of the Pentagon's war-crimes commissions. Two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled the commissions unconstitutional and lacking in due process, Swift was passed over for advancement and will be forced by the Navy's up-or-out policy to retire by summer. There are now 454 detainees at Guantánamo Bay, which began receiving prisoners, most of them captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in January 2002. Only 10 of the detainees have been charged with crimes. For the 10 charged thus far, at least three other military defense lawyers have also been passed over for promotion in what some consider a subtle reprimand of their vigorous defense of their clients. "We've all known that representing folks in these kind of circumstances would have consequences, but to actually see Charlie passed over after he takes his case to the Supreme Court and wins–that certainly put it in the forefront for me," said Army Maj. Tom Fleener, who represents Ali Hamza Bahlul of Yemen. "If I was active duty, where my livelihood depended on what my military superiors said of me, I would feel tremendous pressure," he said. Fleener says the mood in Guantánamo defense circles has deteriorated since the government's response to the high court ruling on June 29 that President Bush overstepped his powers when he created the military war crimes commissions. Those commissions would have allowed Pentagon prosecutors to use hearsay evidence and testimony obtained through torture, and barred defendants from seeing evidence against them that prosecutors deemed classified. Congress last month passed legislation creating a new military commissions process almost identical to the one rejected by the Supreme Court, with the added restriction that Guantánamo detainees have no right to submit writs of habeas corpus to US civil courts to challenge their detention.