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For reporters covering the war crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, the ground rules are pretty draconian: As a condition of attending, they have to sign agreements not to disclose anything the court deems secret; media officers review all photos and videos shot on the island; and there sure as hell ain't no Tweeting from the super-secure courtroom.
Now the military has taken another great step toward enhancing the credibility of the proceedings by booting four reporters for violating a judge's secrecy order. Their violation? Publishing the name of a former military interrogator who was a witness at the hearing. The Pentagon has now barred Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg, Toronto Star reporter Michelle Shephard, Globe and Mail reporter Paul Koring and CanWest news service reporter Steven Edwards from covering future military commissions at Gitmo.
And here's the kicker: The identity of the interrogator had been widely reported before the trial. The name of the individual -- known as "Interrogator No. 1" in the courtroom at Gitmo -- had been published during a 2005 court-martial in which he pleaded guilty to prisoner abuse in Afghanistan. And he had also allowed the use of his name in an interview with Shepard (!) in 2008.
Jeff Stein at Spy Talk has the reaction from several of the news organizations hit by the ban. "Absurd," said Michael Cooke, editor of the Toronto Star. Mindy Marques, managing editor at Miami Herald, told Stein the paper would appeal.
But the most heartfelt account of all of this comes from our pal Spencer Ackerman, who's been filing a fantastic series of dispatches from Gitmo. All four of those reporters, he notes, "are invaluable resources about this place and this trial — Michelle literally wrote the book on Omar Khadr — to their readers and their colleagues."
Ackerman summed up the mood in the press center. "We’re all in the press center working," he said. "We’ve already become darkly humorous, even, because that’s how reporters are. All of us in the press room are working on filing our stories for our next editions. As am I. Just under a somber cloud."
A quick footnote on how arbitrary the press rules at Guantanamo Bay can be: On a stopover at Gitmo on my way to Haiti earlier this year, I was told that photos of the control tower -- pictured here -- were off limits. The image posted here, however, is from the Pentagon's official website.
Another footnote: This isn't Carol Rosenberg's first run-in with touchy military minders. Last year, a Navy commander complained to the Herald that she had, uh, diminished his manhood.
[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]
