Lawyers for 3 Gitmo detainees Slam Rules

[cal04]

Tight deadlines, rules allowing hearsay evidence and limited access to Guantanamo Bay will hamper efforts to defend three detainees facing military trials at the Navy base in southeast Cuba, their attorneys say.

The new rules, set forth in a Pentagon manual, are based on a law passed last year by Congress that restored President Bush's plans for special military commissions to try some of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. The new law was enacted after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that earlier planned military trials violated U.S. and international law.

``After all the work that was put into evaluating and raising possible challenges to the old structure, we now have this new 238-page manual dropped in our lap a week and a half ago,'' said Marine Corps Maj. Michael Mori, the lawyer for David Hicks, an Australian accused of fighting for the Taliban.

(snip)
``Everything about Guantanamo is an obstruction. It's practically impossible to represent somebody down there,'' said Vokey, adding that he has not been able to show Khadr any evidence because guards have refused to let him bring it into their meetings.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6402749,00.html