100 | Towards the Closure of Guantanamo 242. Information contraband is not the only restriction on the communications between detainees and their defense teams. Logistics constitute another important restriction. Military defense lawyers are reportedly not allowed to talk to their clients over the telephone; being therefore required to travel to Guantanamo Bay in person in order to speak to them. This in turn is very time consuming; flights to the naval base are typically weekly, either Monday to Friday or Tuesday to Thursday. Therefore, consulting with the client about any matter normally takes military defense counsel from two to five days of work. The right to speak with their clients over the telephone is being litigated by military defense counsel. This restriction reportedly does not extend to habeas attorneys. 287 243. According to information provided by defense counsel, in 2012 there were two incidents that have undermined confidence in the military commissions. 288 On January 28, 2012, during a pretrial hearing, the sound system in the courtroom was suddenly cut. The judge later revealed that a government official from an agency that was not disclosed was following the proceedings from outside the courtroom, and intervened to prevent the release of information. The presiding judge was supposedly the sole authority with the ability to censor the proceedings. After determining that the information was not classified, the judge released a transcript of the censored remarks and ordered the agency to disconnect the equipment. Further, around the same time, during a meeting with a detainee, military defense counsel found that a smoke detector in a meeting room in the complex known as Echo 2 was hiding a microphone. The officer in charge of prison security reportedly assured the defense counsel that private meetings between prisoners and their lawyers or representatives of the ICRC were not monitored and that the hidden microphone was disabled. 289 Further, in February 2013, Guantanamo guards reportedly seized confidential legal documents from certain prisoners’ cells while they were at the courtroom attending a pre-trial hearing. 290 244. In response to the mass hunger strike that took place in 2013, the military reinstituted an invasive search protocol for detainees before and after they met with counsel, which was considered by the detainees to be a form of religious discrimination and humiliation. 291 On July 11, 2013, a federal district judge ruled that restrictions on Guantanamo detainees’ access to counsel violated the detainees’ right to habeas proceedings in federal court. The decision struck down the search 287 288 289 290 291 IAHCR, Expert Meeting on the situation of detainees held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Washington DC, October 3, 2013. For more information on these and other incidents, see Seton Hall University School of Law, Center for Policy & Research, Spying on Attorneys at Gtmo: Guantanamo Bay Military Commissions and the Destruction of the Attorney-Client Relationship. Available at: http://law.shu.edu/ProgramsCenters/PublicIntGovServ/policyresearch/upload/Spying_on_Attorneys_at_GTM O.pdf AP, Hidden mike revealed at Guantanamo meeting room, February 12, 2013. Available at: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/secrecy-fears-prompt-sound-changes-guantanamo Reuters, Guards seized Guantanamo defendants’ legal documents, February 14, 2013. Available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/14/us-usa-guantanamo-idUSBRE91D1LP20130214 IAHCR, Expert Meeting on the situation of detainees held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Washington DC, October 3, 2013. Organization of American States | OAS