Guantanamo bans Big Macs
MIAMI— A Sudanese captive and his lawyers baked a Guantanamo guilty plea over chocolate chip cookies. Attorneys for a sickly Syrian hunger striker got him to sip juice while working on federal court strategy. Omar Khadr passed his adolescence behind the razor wire chowing down on pizza and McDonald’s with his lawyers.
Now, a new rule at the U.S. navy base in Cuba forbids food at legal conferences for the first time in a decade to the con- sternation of lawyers who say breaking bread has been crucial to co-existence between American attorneys and their captive Guantanamo clients after years in legal limbo.
“It’s actually quite tragic for the clients. Sometimes the food we bring is the only thing from the outside world they’ve seen in months, and they really look forward to it,” said attorney Alka Pradhan, who has brought to meetings, after military inspection, everything from Egg McMuffins and traditional Middle East sweets to fresh fruit and granola bars.
One of Khadr’s former military lawyers estimates he spent $5,000 out of his pocket bringing meals from base restaurants — McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, the Irish Pub — to meetings with Khadr.
Navy Capt. Tom Gresback, the prison spokesman, said the new rule was “in the best interest of health, sanitation, safety and force protection.”
He cited no specific episode that ended the policy beyond “ongoing patterns of possible improper sanitation and health practices.”
Pradhan, of the London-based legal defence firm Reprieve, called the new rule “petty and nasty.”
She said it suddenly deprives the prisoners of “a little slice of the outside world for a couple of hours” without wondering whether a guard had spit or mixed pork (prohibited in Islam) into the food as they shared a meal with a lawyer, “someone who’s not needlessly hostile to them.”