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New Guantanamo policy: Genital "pat down"Guantanamo official confirms new policy requiring prisoners to a search a previous policy

shunned.

Jason Leopold Last Modified: 15 May 2013 09:07

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba A new policy has been implemented at Guantanamo that calls for pr isoners to

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This April 16, 2013 video frame grab reviewed by the US military, shows live streaming video of detainees' cells -

some empty , while other f rames show detainees pacing or sleeping, in Camp 6 at Guantanamo Bay Prison [AP]

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submit to a pat down of their genitals and buttocks when they leave the detention camps to meet with their

lawyers, an official here confirmed Tuesday.

Navy Captain. Robert Durand, a Guantanamo spokesman, told Al Jazeera the new procedures were

introduced about two weeks ago in an effort to stave off the alleged flow of contraband into the detention

camps. Its one of several new strict protocols that went into effect at the detention facility since February.

David Remes, a Washington, DC-based human rights attorney who represents more than a dozen Yemeni

prisoners, said the new policy amounts to religious humiliation and is a clear-cut attempt to break the

nearly four-month-old hunger strike involving at least 100 prisoners.

This is a disgusting tactic, but at the same time it shows the military's complete frustration in the face of themen's determination, Remes said. Its previous efforts have failed. In fact, the more pressure the military

has applied and the more punishments it's inflicted, the more determined the men have become.

Cultural sensitivies

Durand said the policy was enacted in the aftermath ofan April 13 pre-dawn raid on the communal Camp 6,

in which hunger-striking prisoners were isolated in what appears to have been an attempt to bring an end to

the protest. He denied the policy was connected to the hunger strike.

During a search of the prisoners cells following the raid, Durand said the Guantanamo guard force found

everything from iPods, improvised weapons, mp3 players, medicationsall sorts of things a detainee

shouldnt have.

Its not a strip search, its not a cavity search, its not a search where nudity is involved, Durand told Al

Jazeera. Its quick. We call it a full frisk pat down. It is done quickly, professionally, just to see if anyone is

secreting anything on their body. It does include the buttocks and groin area. But it is not any different than

what we submit to at the airport when were selected for a secondary pat down screening.

Durand said the search is not limited to when prisoners meet with their attorneys but is conducted whenever

a prisoner leaves the camp to go to another facility, such as the hospital or the behavioral health unit.

Still, the policy appears to completely detract from long-standing operating procedures (SOPs) that

prohibited the touching of prisoners genitals due to cultural sensitivities.

Indeed, according to a 2009 Defense Department task force review of the conditions at Guantanamo, Due

to cultural sensitivities, modified frisk searching procedures are in place that respect the detainees groin

area, and guards are not allowed to conduct frisk searches of this area. Guards are limited to grasping the

waistband ofdetainees trousers, and shaking the pants.

Moreover, the voluminous report produced following the Defense Departments task force review says the

commander ofthe Joint Detention Group recognizes that the SOP does not permit searching of the Koran

or detainee groin areas, which is contrary to standard security procedures in most detention facility

operations, and that it carries a level of risk. However, he has accepted that risk out of an elevated respect

for religious concerns of the detainees.

The inspection of prisoners Korans is one of the primary causes, along with indefinite detention, that

sparked the hunger strike. According to statements prisoners gave to their lawyers, Koran searches were

abandoned entirely in 2006 and reintroduced in early February.

Durand said the task forces report as careful to note that the observations and recommendations w ere

prescriptive in nature and it did not state you must do it this way.

Refusing to be searched

But the impact ofthe new policy has been that prisoners have now refused to meet with their attorneys,

according to Remes and about a dozen other Guantanamo lawyers, because they do not want to be

subjected to the search.

Durand confirmed that prisoners who fail to submit to the search will forfeit that opportunity to go to their

attorney phone call. He said several prisoners have cited the new policy as the reason they refuse to meet

with their attorneys.

But he emphasized that the body search was not designed to be an impediment to attorney meetings or

making phone calls or detainees seeking medical treatment or any appointment outside of the building.

It just represents a scene where contraband is more likely to be introduced and is the most likely avenue to

transport contraband in and out ofthe camp, Durand said. If you exempt one area of the body from searchthats where things will get hidden.

Clive Stafford Smith, the director of the UK-based human rights group Reprieve, which represents the last

British resident at Guantanamo, Shaker Aamer, raised concerns about the new search policy in a letter he

sent to British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Any pretext given for these new rules is ust that: a pretext. The prisoners do not need to be sexually

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assaulted in order to be taken to a telephone to talk to their lawyer," Smith wrote, adding that two of his

clients would not meet with him to discuss their cases because of the search.

Follow Jason Leopold on Twit ter:@JasonLeopold

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5 comments

What's this?

The wrong kind of C aucasian

First, they announced that

the terrrorists were 'Russian'. This left most

people confused.Then, they specified

Hunger Stri kes p ut Guantanamo inspotlight

We need to shut the place

down. Read them their rights, and stick them

in the judicial system--flawed though it is, it

Supreme emergency at Guantanamo Bay

At a London School of Economics

conference, in a video link up with Muammar

Gaddafi, the author addressed him as "

Chagas: A si lent k i ller

Poor people, in a

society run for profit, will always be left

behind. Whether concerning diseases

Leave a message...

BestBest CommunityCommunity ShareShare

Richard Brandlon What's left of the Bill of Rights is slowly trickling down the tubes ofexpediency. Genital pat-

downs? What's next? I recall hearing about American patriots who said, "Give me liberty or giveme death." Now, Patrick Henry might be quoted as saying, "Take whatever you want, but keep

me safe!!!"

3

N.W.A. those imperialists are very calculating when it comes to doing evil. make them not want to meet

their lawyer, now the lawyer doesnt know as much about the forced feedings, and cant go on

the news and keep these guys looking as bad.

Susan_B_Karimchise Oh the poor prisoners!!

In their country of origin this would never happen to a prisoner??

JamesKalima So that makes it right? No most Muslims are not going to touch another Muslims genital

parts, but American might drive some pleasure out of it. I don't no!

Katya How are searches normally handled in prisons or police custody in Muslim countries? Do they

not do genital patdowns? What about Muslim converts in the US prison system?

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