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GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, CUBA - Guards seized a copy of the "Lord of the Rings" screenplay and a box of legal papers from a young Canadian facing trial at Guantanamo, prompting harsh words between his military defense lawyer and a spokesman for the detention operation.
The exchange, which took place over Wednesday and Thursday, came as 21-year-old Canadian captive Omar Khadr faced another pretrial hearing in the U.S. war court that has charged him with murdering a U.S. soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002.
Khadr's hearing at the remote U.S. naval base in southeastern Cuba was postponed from Thursday to Friday by mutual consent of the prosecution and defense, a spokesman for the Pentagon office overseeing the trials said.
Khadr's military lawyer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, told journalists that guards had seized a box of legal documents lawyers had given Khadr to review, returning only the empty box.
"He can't even look at materials he needs to look at in order to help us defend him," Kuebler complained, adding that rules for what prisoners facing trial can keep in their cells were constantly changing.
The spokesman for the joint task force that runs the detention center rolled his eyes as Kuebler spoke and later disparaged his comments.
Guards are required to search detainees' possessions for contraband and seized the box of documents because it contained items Khadr was not permitted to have, including the "Lord of the Rings" script, pictures and Internet news articles, the spokesman, Lt. Col. Ed Bush said.
"Materials considered to be related to detainee Khadr's case have been returned with a stamp that will avoid any future confusion about the nature of the materials," Bush said in a statement.
He said the screenplay had been returned to Kuebler "as a violation of the prohibition against providing detainees materials that are not directly related to his representation of his client."
Kuebler said he had given Khadr the screenplay to help build rapport with him, noting that interrogators were permitted to give prisoners food and other gifts to develop their relationship and promote trust and information-sharing.
The exchange highlighted tensions between military defense lawyers, who have been among the loudest critics of the Guantanamo court, and authorities at the detention camp in southeastern Cuba.
The lawyers have complained that prison rules impede their efforts to put on an effective defense, while some in the detention operation have accused the lawyers of lying about conditions in order to gain sympathy for their clients. --REUTERS
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