Guantanamo genital searches to continue
A federal appeals court on Wednesday suspended a lower court's decision last week barring Guantanamo guards from conducting the "religiously and culturally abhorrent" procedure of searching prisoners' genitals when they leave their cells to meet with attorneys and return to the prison camp.
The move comes just as a congressional committee is gearing up to hold its first significant hearing since 2009 to shutter the detention facility where 166 men have been detained since 2002 and as a mass hunger strike, now in its fifth month, appears to be winding down as some of the prisoners have been returned to communal living. Over the past week, 28 prisoners quit the hunger strike, according to the military, however, 46 are still being force-fed.
In court documents filed late Tuesday evening in US District Court for the District of Columbia, the Justice Department said prisoners may commit suicide and guards may be seriously hurt if the military was forced to stop searching prisoners' genitals. The government sought temporary relief from the three-judge appeals court panel hours after it sought to freeze the lower court's decision.
The government submitted a dramatic sworn declaration from Marine Gen. John Kelly, the commander of United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which has oversight of the joint task force that operates Guantanamo to make its case. Kelly spoke of the "irreparable harm" that would result if the prohibition on genital searches were to stand. Kelly included two photographs in his declaration of items characterized as "contraband" allegedly confiscated from prisoners in April and late last month, including a ballpoint pen "metal shanks" and "12 MP3 players with audio recording capabilities."
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