WASHINGTON (CN) - The Pentagon does not have to share videos of 45 forced cell extractions and one forced haircut that occurred at Guantanamo Bay, a federal judge ruled. The International Counsel Bureau (ICB) and the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop had partnered up in 2008 to demand records on four Kuwaiti men being held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. The Pentagon tried to withhold video recordings that show Guantanamo guards forcing prisoners out of their cells, but U.S. District Judge John Bates rejected that maneuver earlier this year. Bates also forced the department to search its database using additional spellings of the name Abu Khallaad. The judge later found that the Pentagon had rightfully withheld audio recordings, and he decided last week that the additional records search passed scrutiny. Bates made the determination after examining three of videos of forced cell extractions in camera, and granted the Pentagon's motion for summary judment. "The department ... also states that some detainees, as an act of resistance, choose to be forcibly extracted from their cells rather than comply with the detention facility's rules," Bates wrote. "If the videos were made public, it would encourage more detainees to engage in disruptive behavior that would likely result in forced cell extractions, hereby increasing the likelihood of injury to both detainees and military personnel." According to the ruling, the 45 videos of cell extractions, the single video of a haircut performed on a restrained prisoner and the spelling of Khallaad's name were the final issues of the case.
↧