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Army bans 4 reporters from Guantanamo
WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- Four news reporters were banned from court proceedings at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after they published the name of a former Army interrogator, officials said.
"They all had copies of these ground rules, they were well-known, they were established," Defense Department spokesman Col. Dave Lapan told CNN Friday. "The judge had reminded them in court two days ago that the protective order, protecting the names, the identities of the witnesses, applied to them. Yet they published anyway."
Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald, and Canadian reporters Paul Koring of the Toronto Globe and Mail, Toronto Star reporter Michelle Shephard and Steven Edwards of Canwest News Service were covering proceedings for Canadian detainee Omar Khadr, 23, who has said he was tortured by his interrogators at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
While the four reporters were banned from covering the proceeding, their news organizations can still send representatives and file appeals with the Pentagon.
Former Army Sgt. Joshua Claus, a witness at a hearing, had spoken in an on-the-record interview to the Toronto Star in 2008 about interrogating Khadr, The Miami Herald reported.
Lapan said the fact that the individual's name was out in the past did not change an order protecting his identity at the Guantanamo hearing.
WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- Four news reporters were banned from court proceedings at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after they published the name of a former Army interrogator, officials said.
"They all had copies of these ground rules, they were well-known, they were established," Defense Department spokesman Col. Dave Lapan told CNN Friday. "The judge had reminded them in court two days ago that the protective order, protecting the names, the identities of the witnesses, applied to them. Yet they published anyway."
Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald, and Canadian reporters Paul Koring of the Toronto Globe and Mail, Toronto Star reporter Michelle Shephard and Steven Edwards of Canwest News Service were covering proceedings for Canadian detainee Omar Khadr, 23, who has said he was tortured by his interrogators at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
While the four reporters were banned from covering the proceeding, their news organizations can still send representatives and file appeals with the Pentagon.
Former Army Sgt. Joshua Claus, a witness at a hearing, had spoken in an on-the-record interview to the Toronto Star in 2008 about interrogating Khadr, The Miami Herald reported.
Lapan said the fact that the individual's name was out in the past did not change an order protecting his identity at the Guantanamo hearing.
