Gitmo Detainees to be Allowed Phone Calls

By Jeralyn, Section Terror Detainees
Posted on Tue Mar 11, 2008 at 11:43:00 PM EST
Tags: Guantanamo, Detainees (all tags)

Share This: Digg!

The Defense Department is instituting a new policy for the Guantanamo detainees. They will be allowed to phone home -- once every six months for an hour.

The Bush Administration thinks this demonstrates "commitment to maintaining the health and well-being of Guantanamo detainees." More likely, it is intended to boost the image of the gulag before the Supreme Court decides the next case on the detainees' rights.

Reactions from some of their defense lawyers: [More...]

Marc Falkoff, a Northern Illinois University law professor who represents 17 detainees, said one of his Yemeni clients has a 6-year-old daughter with whom he has never spoken.

"To be honest, I don't know whether speaking with her will lift him from his depression or simply shatter him," said Falkoff, who added that the man has grown so hopeless he has asked his lawyers to stop meeting with him.

Another says: "I will believe it when I see it."

No start date has been set for the calls, nor has the Penatagon said which detainees will be able to have the phone calls.

Nor has the Administration explained why it no longer deems the calls to be a security threat. Perhaps because those being detained aren't security risks?

In any event, it's clear the detainees are getting more frustrated as their plight seems increasingly hopeless. The frustration undoubtedly makes them harder to manage.

Another recently instituted change to counter the frustration: offering the detainees "humanities courses."

< Final MS Recap | Spitzer Lawyers Want No Charges, Not Plea Bargain >

Legal

Nothing on this site should be construed as legal advice. TalkLeft does not give legal advice.

TalkLeft is not responsible for and often disagrees with material posted in the comments section. Read at your own risk.

Gitmo Detainees to be Allowed Phone Calls | 8 comments (8 topical)

Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

Maybe one of them will call Osama (5.00 / 1) (#4)
by Dadler on Tue Mar 11, 2008 at 11:46:26 PM EST

I can hear the idea flashing through that empty chasm between Dubya's ears. Love to be the officer who has to listen in on these calls. Broken and tortured people crying to their hysterical loved ones, that kind of eavesdropping is homeland security in action.

Just get rid of the place now, give them all a fair trial. Give us back, if not a now impossible moral high ground, then a now flourishing low ground, where we hope to have merely our nostrils above the humanity water line.

: I was gonna say.... (5.00 / 1) (#9)
by kdog on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 03:12:03 PM EST

shouldn't that read our prisoners will be allowed 3-way phone calls between themselves, a loved one, and a govt. agent.

Huh? (1.00 / 0) (#6)
by jimakaPPJ on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 09:19:09 AM EST

then a now flourishing low ground, where we hope to have merely our nostrils above the humanity water line.

Hey dadler! Long time no read.... Hope you be well..

As for the content.... Don't quit your day job.

"I will believe it when I see it." (none / 0) (#1)
by squeaky on Tue Mar 11, 2008 at 11:24:08 PM EST

Or... (none / 0) (#2)
by Oje on Tue Mar 11, 2008 at 11:38:25 PM EST

Bush ran out of terruh for teh fear, so he wants to create a new list of international numbers to mine the NSA database....

this assumes (none / 0) (#3)
by cpinva on Tue Mar 11, 2008 at 11:40:07 PM EST

they have anyone left who remembers them at home.

how in the hell did we allow this concentration camp to come into existence?

: As Colonel Potter said (1.00 / 0) (#5)
by jimakaPPJ on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 09:17:08 AM EST

concentration camp
"horse hockey."

: You (none / 0) (#8)
by Wile ECoyote on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 10:44:15 AM EST

really want to compare Gitmo to Buchenwald? Please convince me in your reply that they are comparable.