*Ø* Blogmanac | Human Rights Groups Shut Out of Military Commissions

Human Rights Watch:

Washington, February 24 -- "The Pentagon has refused to allow three leading human rights groups to attend and observe military commission trials of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

"In a letter sent last week to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Amnesty International, Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) and Human Rights Watch protested their exclusion from the proceedings and urged the U.S. government to rethink its position ...

"'The Defense Department wants to control who can talk to the journalists covering the trials,' said Wendy Patten, U.S. advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. 'The Pentagon has imposed a gag rule on defense lawyers, who can only speak to the press with the military’s permission. Now it wants to shut out experienced trial observers who could provide the public with independent analysis.'”

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