The US military has discovered two prisoners at Guantanamo were sporting contraband underwear -- and is investigating whether attorneys supplied the men with more than legal briefs.
Both prisoners were caught wearing Under Armour briefs and one also had on a Speedo bathing suit, items the military said were not issued by Guantanamo staff or sent through the regular mail, according to a Department of Defense letter obtained on Friday.
Army Lieutenant Colonel Ed Bush, a spokesman at the jail holding some 340 men on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, said more was involved than just an uproar over skivvies.
He said the appearance of contraband raised serious concerns about the potential for smuggling other items that could be used by detainees to harm themselves or staff, without providing details.
Three prisoners who committed suicide in June last year hanged themselves with nooses made from bed sheets. The military has not disclosed the method used by a detainee who killed himself in May.
"There is no room for error when working in a dangerous environment, and constant vigilance is of the utmost importance," Bush said.
The letter, sent last month by the Navy Judge Advocate General to an attorney for one of the prisoners, noted both detainees are represented by the British human rights group Reprieve and suggested their lawyers may have "surreptitiously" provided the unauthorized undergarments.
"We are investigating this matter to determine the origins of the above contraband and ensure that parties who may have been involved understand the seriousness of this transgression," said the letter, which was provided by one of the attorneys, Clive Stafford Smith.
Stafford Smith calls the suggestion that he or the other attorney, Zachary Katznelson, smuggled underwear to prisoners "patently absurd."
"Neither I, nor Mr Katznelson, nor anyone else associated with us has had anything to do with smuggling `unmentionables' in to these men, nor would we ever do so," he wrote in response.
Stafford Smith said lawyers are searched when they enter the detention center and a camera monitors them while they visit clients.
"The idea that we could smuggle in underwear is farfetched," he wrote in his reply to the Judge Advocate General.
One of the detainees -- the one with the Speedo and Under Armour -- is Shaker Aamer, a Saudi nicknamed "the professor" by Guantanamo guards and who is considered a leader among the detainees.
Aamer has been accused by the US of once sharing an apartment with Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and receiving a stipend directly from Osama bin Laden. He denies the allegations and the British government has called for his release.
The other detainee was identified in the letter as Mohammed al-Qareni, accused of being an al-Qaeda fighter in Afghanistan, an allegation he denies.
Stafford Smith previously accused the military of attempting to falsely link him to last year's suicides at Guantanamo, saying at least one of his clients reported being questioned about whether he had any role.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique