More than 1,000 journalists have visited Guantanamo Bay since the US military began locking up suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban militants there four years ago. But press access is severely restricted: Journalists can't talk to detainees, must be accompanied by a military escort and have their photos censored.
Now, the Pentagon has shut down access entirely -- at least for the time being -- expelling reporters this week and triggering an outcry from human rights groups, attorneys and media organizations even as the prison comes under renewed criticism for the suicides of three detainees last weekend.
"Now is the time when the media is most needed," said Clive Stafford Smith, an attorney who has filed legal challenges on behalf of about 40 detainees. "The fact that right now, the most important time in the history of Guantanamo, they are being banned is un-American."
Pentagon defense
Pentagon officials defend the temporary ban on media, saying guards and base officials are preoccupied with investigating the deaths and maintaining security as detainees become more defiant. A clash with guards in May left six detainees injured. Another 10 prisoners were on hunger strike on Thursday, including six being force-fed with nasal tubes.
US officials say the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which sits on cactus-studded hills in southeastern Cuba overlooking the Caribbean and mangrove forests, has been unusually open to journalists -- despite news media complaints that access while on the prison is severely curtailed and requests for interviews often vanish in the military bureaucracy.
"It's the most transparent detention facility in the history of warfare," insisted Navy Lieutenant Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, echoing comments by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
But the Pentagon rejected all requests by news organizations this week to cover the investigation and aftermath of the suicides, the first detainee deaths since the detention center opened.
About 10 news organizations were to cover a military tribunal this week for one of the 10 detainees charged with crimes, but the hearing was postponed and hours before they were to depart for Guantanamo the Pentagon canceled the authorizations that reporters need to visit.
Reporters cover the hearings from the courtroom -- where they are barred from speaking with participants, even during breaks. Or they can view the proceedings on a large-screen TV near a press center where military censors peer at their photographs and video and decide what is out of bounds.
Expulsions
On Wednesday, the Pentagon expelled two journalists -- from the Los Angeles Times and the Miami Herald -- who arrived at Guantanamo on a charter flight on Sunday and two others from the Charlotte Observer, who were at the base for coverage of a commander from North Carolina.
The Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders said on Thursday that the expulsions damage the credibility of the US government.
"We ... call on the US government to take the necessary steps to guarantee the media free access to the naval base at Guantanamo," the group said.
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