U.S. Military Strictly Limits Reporters
U.S. military officials imposed strict reporting limits Tuesday on the first journalists to go to the U.S.-run detention camp for terror suspects since the arrests of a Muslim army chaplain and two interpreters. The reporters were required to sign “ground rules” for coverage that banned questions about the investigations on pain of being removed from the U.S. Navy camp located at Guantanamo Bay, on the eastern tip of Cuba. The arrests involved civilian interpreter Ahmed Mehalba, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Egypt found with classified documents from Guantanamo, and Air Force Airman Ahmad I. al-Halbi, an interpreter accused of espionage for allegedly sending classified information about the camp to an unspecified “enemy.” Another suspect is Army Capt. Yousef Yee, a Muslim chaplain being detained without charge at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. Reporters were presented with a statement to sign as they prepared to board a flight chartered by the military from Jacksonville, Fla., on Tuesday. A new paragraph was added to earlier requirements. Full Story