Fearing Tapped Phone Calls, Gitmo Lawyers Seek Confirmation
Several lawyers who represent Guantanamo detainees have changed the way they practice law because of concerns that the government is listening in to all of their phone conversations.
One lawyer got a new phone because of concerns it had been wiretapped, the New York Times reports. Another sometimes asks a colleague to call his corporate clients for him.
The lawyers are seeking confirmation of their suspicions in a lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights. The suit requests surveillance records under the Freedom of Information Act.
Atlanta lawyer John Chandler represents six Guantanamo detainees and has suspicions about government surveillance. “I think they are listening to my telephone calls all the time,” he told the Times.
In a Tuesday filing in Manhattan federal court, Shearman & Sterling partner Thomas Wilner said government officials had secretly told him to be careful about his electronic communications. Now he thinks twice about what he says on the telephone.
Chicago lawyer H. Candace Gorman said in an affidavit that she is not accepting any new clients because she cannot assure them their conversations will be confidential. In one visit to Guantanamo, she said, a military escort “referred in conversation to personal information about my family that I had not disclosed to him.” She wondered how he got the details.
The Justice Department said in a previous court filing that it could not confirm or deny whether the lawyers were being wiretapped.
