Military Judges Defy Congressionally Ordered Access to Guantanamo Proceedings

By Deb Weinstein
From TRUTHOUT

Ever-shifting rules, minders and a cloaked public record are some of the barriers Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg said await those hoping to cover the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Speaking at the National Press Club Tuesday night at an event titled "Banned at Guantanamo: A Freedom of the Press Event," Rosenberg described an ever-tightening ring of access that has become even more onerous as of May, when she and three colleagues were banned from the military base for using publicly available information in their coverage. The reason: the military claims that she and her colleagues should not have identified one of the detainee's interrogators.

As their justification, the military cited the Ground Rules, which govern reporter conduct at the base. Until May 4, according to a letter Rosenberg's attorney David A. Schulz sent to the Department of Defense's general counsel, those Ground Rules "applied only to information obtained at the Naval Base and in Military Commission proceedings.

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