New legal rules for detainees

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon revised rules yesterday for civilian lawyers who want to help defend terrorism suspects before military tribunals and said two more suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been given military lawyers.

The Bush administration has been planning for military tribunals for more than two years, but has announced no date for the first one. The tribunals could try alleged Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters captured after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The revised legal rules address criticism from outside lawyers and civil libertarians that the Pentagon tribunal process was unfair and could violate the privacy of lawyers and their clients.

The revisions guarantee that a defense lawyer will know ahead of time if the government plans to listen in on attorney-client conversations, and allows the lawyer to tell his or her client that their conversations may not be private.

They also assure that the government will never eavesdrop on conversations defense lawyers may have among themselves.

Any eavesdropping must be approved high up the Pentagon chain of command and only if it is likely to help gather information about terrorist activities or prevent new attacks, a directive signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said.

Anything a suspect says to his lawyer could not be used against him at trial, and military prosecutors will not know what, if anything, defense intelligence officials may have learned from the conversations.

The revised rules also clarify that civilian defense lawyers can get help from other outsiders who are not on a Pentagon-approved list of tribunal lawyers, such as legal researchers in the lawyer's home office.

"They've explained what they mean, and it is somewhat liberalized," said Eugene R. Fidell, a specialist in military law and defense lawyer for Captain James Yee, a former Muslim chaplain at the Guantanamo camp who is accused of mishandling classified information.

The new rules do not change the requirement that a lawyer get permission before talking publicly about the case, Fidell said.

"That's what's called censorship; you can talk about this but not that," he said.

Other defense lawyers said they are less concerned about a gag rule since a military defense lawyer assigned to a tribunal called a news conference last month to denounce the tribunal process as unfair.

The Pentagon also said yesterday that it will not bill civilian lawyers for the cost of running background checks for security clearances required to defend tribunal suspects.

The two suspects given military lawyers yesterday, Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul, of Yemen, and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, of Sudan, have not been charged with any crime. No trial dates were set.

The prisoners are the third and fourth to receive lawyers. Already, Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen and David Hicks of Australia have been assigned representation.

All are among the six previously identified by President Bush as possible candidates for trial by a special military tribunal.

About 650 suspected members of Al Qaeda or the Taliban are being held at the high-security prison at Guantanamo Bay. Human rights groups and some foreign governments have criticized their treatment and the lack of trials or access to lawyers.

The United States says the prisoners are "enemy combatants," not prisoners of war, and says military tribunals are allowed under international law.