January 31, 2007

New Orleans Plan Sees 10 - Year, $14 Bln Rebuilding

Reuters, January 31, 2007

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - New Orleans' latest plan to recover from Hurricane Katrina calls for a 10-year rebuilding program costing $14 billion that will leave some neighborhoods still sparsely populated.

The proposal, compiled by planning experts and residents, calls for $1.2 billion in incentives for elevating homes either by raising the ground level or by putting them on stilts, $831 million to repair or rebuild schools and $650 million to rehabilitate low-income housing.

Billions more would go to rebuild sewer and drainage systems and invest in the local economy, devastated when 80 percent of the city was flooded by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The new proposal doesn't advocate converting flood-prone neighborhoods into parks as did previous recovery plans that failed to gain popular support.

The plan says all city neighborhoods could be rebuilt but encourages residents to locate in ``clusters'' of homes to make delivery of city services easier.

Troy Henry, a consultant who managed the plan's development, said many of the city's residents are more open to rebuilding in a different part of the city than they were shortly after Katrina struck in August 2005.

"No one wants to live amidst the blight forever,'' Henry told Reuters.

Only about half of New Orleans' 455,000 pre-Katrina residents have returned. Many neighborhoods remain sparsely populated, with potholed streets and debris-littered yards. The city's tourism and convention business has yet to recover.

Before becoming a blueprint for rebuilding, the plan must win the approval of the city's Planning Commission, City Council and Mayor Ray Nagin, who has said he would be inclined to approve it.

State Senator Introduces Bill for the Third Time to Require Voters to Prove Citizenship

Deseret News, January 31, 2007

By DEBORAH BULKELEY

Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi, is again seeking to require voters to prove their citizenship and residency in order to register to vote.
While the text of SB225 has yet to be made public, Madsen said it would require voters to show proof of citizenship while registering or the first time they vote. Those voters who are already registered would be grandfathered in.

Madsen is sponsoring the bill for the third time. He said he's hoping to solve concerns raised in the past about the potential disenfranchisement of Native American voters who may not have identification readily available, though he declined to discuss details.

"I don't want to disenfranchise people who are citizens," Madsen said. "In order to have confidence in the system ... it's worth a little bit of effort on everyone's part."

The legislation was prompted by "potential threats" Madsen said include possible organized efforts to register illegal immigrants to vote or people registering to vote in more than one state.
The bill was first introduced in 2005, after an audit revealed that 383 people believed to be illegal immigrants had registered to vote, and 14 had cast ballots in an election.

However, in the past, elections officials have raised concerns about the identification requirements, saying that they could hamper voter registration drives and that it could increase the workload for county clerks.

"I'm not sure what they're trying to solve," said Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swenson. "It just creates a bit of a hardship for everyone. ... If someone poses as someone else, we should punish that person."

Madsen acknowledged his bill may again spark some controversy, but said it's meant to make sure there is confidence in the system, "so when people feel they've cast their vote, it is not nullified by those who shouldn't be voting."

A list of valid documents proving citizenship in last year's bill may be expanded, he said. That list includes: a copy of a Utah driver license issued after July 1, 2005, a birth certificate, a U.S. passport, U.S. naturalization documents or other documents established as proof of citizenship, a Bureau of Indian Affairs card or a tribal treaty card.

Judge Shelves Gitmo Detainee Cases

Associated Press, January 31, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sixteen lawsuits by Guantanamo Bay detainees were put on hold Wednesday by a federal judge who said he may no longer have jurisdiction to hear their cases.

U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton in Washington said the Military Commissions Act, signed into law in October, has left him unable to consider whether the detainees can challenge being held at the Navy facility in Cuba.

An appeals court in Washington is considering whether civilian jurists can rule on those cases. Until that issue is resolved, Walton said, ''it is this court's view that it lacks the authority to take any action in these cases.''

Walton's six-page order denying the motions challenging detention of the 16 men left open the possibility of refiling the requests if the appeals court decides civilian courts can review detainee cases.

If the appeals panel ''concludes that this court retains some degree of jurisdiction over any or all of the above-captioned cases, the matters will be automatically reopened as appropriate,'' he wrote.

The Justice Department welcomed the ruling, said spokesman Erik Ablin. He called the military tribunals, which can be appealed, ''more process than the United States has ever provided to enemy combatants in our past conflicts.''

The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents the detainees, said Walton's decision will delay justice for an estimated 200 people imprisoned at Guantanamo.

February 1, 2007

D.A. Won't Seek Death in Katrina Case

Associated Press, February 1, 2007

By MARY FOSTER

Four police officers charged with murder in shootings amid the chaos after Hurricane Katrina will not face the death penalty if convicted, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Assistant District Attorney Dustin Davis said that the officers will still be tried on first-degree murder and attempted murder charges, but that prosecutors would seek life in prison without parole rather than execution if the four were convicted. He declined to explain the decision.

Sgts. Kenneth Bowen and Robert Gisevius Jr., Officer Anthony Villavaso II, and former officer Robert Faulcon Jr. are charged in the Sept. 4, 2005, shootings on the Danziger Bridge in the upheaval that followed Katrina. Killed were Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old mentally retarded man, and James Brissette, 19; four other people were wounded.

Madison's sister Lorna Humphries said family members "completely support the district attorney's office in their decision."

Lawyer Franz Zibilich, who represents Faulcon, also backed the decision. "It would have defied all precedent had they sought the death penalty for a police officer who was in his line of duty," he said.

A New Orleans jury last handed down a death penalty in 1997.

Two other officers — Robert Barrios and Mike Hunter Jr. — were charged with attempted first-degree murder, and Officer Ignatius Hills was charged with attempted second-degree murder.

The six current officers returned to low-profile jobs on Monday. They may not wear uniforms, make arrests or carry weapons, and they're closely monitored, police said. They also continue to wear ankle bracelets that track their whereabouts.

Madison's brother, Romell Madison, on Wednesday called for Mayor Ray Nagin to overturn the police superintendent's decision to let the officers return to work, calling it "a slap in the face of justice."

Another Madison brother, Lance Madison, was also on the bridge. He was cleared of attempted murder charges after spending over a month in jail.

"My brother Lance has still not been able to return to work," said Humphries, who owns an engineering consulting firm. "It's been hard on him. First he watched his brother gunned down then he was arrested. He's been out of work 17 months now, but the police are back. Is that fair?"

February 3, 2007

Life Harsher in New Guantanamo Unit

Associated Press, February 3, 20o7

By BEN FOX

Abdul Helil Mamut's good behavior earned him a spot in a medium-security compound at the Guantanamo Bay prison, where he slept in a barracks, shared leisurely meals with other prisoners and could spend more than half the day in an outdoor recreation area.

But in December, the detainee was among dozens transferred from Camp 4 to the maximum-security Camp 6, the newest section of Guantanamo Bay's military prison.

Now Mamut, an ethnic Uighur from China captured in Pakistan, spends all but two hours a day isolated in his cell. He eats and prays by himself. His only recreation comes in a concrete courtyard surrounded by high walls, separated from other prisoners by a chain-link fence.

The U.S. government says the unit provides detainees with more private and comfortable quarters.

But Mamut and other Uighur prisoners complain their days are now filled with "infinite tedium and loneliness," said Sabin Willett, an attorney for the men, in an affidavit filed in a Washington court.

"All expressed a desperate desire for sunlight, fresh air and someone to speak to," Willett wrote after a January visit to the prison, located on the U.S. military base in southeastern Cuba, where the U.S. holds nearly 400 men suspected of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

Wells Dixon, who also represents Uighurs held at Guantanamo, predicted the lack of human interaction in Camp 6 will cause detainees to lose their grip on reality.

"It will very soon become an insane asylum," he told The Associated Press in a phone interview after he returned from the base in January.

The military, however, says Camp 6 has improved the lives of detainees

A guard at Camp 6, an Army sergeant whose name cannot be disclosed under military rules, insisted that the prisoners prefer the new air-conditioned cells and the privacy.

"It's kind of like having their own apartment," he said.

Camp 6 houses about 160 men — more than a third of the total at Guantanamo — and is similar to the highest-security U.S. prisons, even though no one at the prison has been convicted.

When the first detainees arrived in the new unit in December, they found on their bunks two pieces of baklava — a sweet pastry common in the Middle East — to welcome them to their new quarters, according to one prison official.

Originally, Camp 6 was going to be more like Camp 4, with detainees allowed to congregate in a common area and share meals. But the commander of the detention center, Navy Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris, said that plan changed after 10 detainees attacked guards in Camp 4 last May and three prisoners committed suicide in June in Camp 1.

"Our understanding of the detainees improved and evolved," Harris said.

In Camp 6, guards handcuff detainees through a slot in the steel door before escorting them to the recreation area.

"They never touch another living thing," Willett said. "They never see, smell, or touch plants, soil, the sea or any creature, except insects."

Willett said he does not know why Mamut, who is about 30, or the other Uighurs were moved out of Camp 4. The military will not discuss individual detainees or decisions about their custody — but officials say tight security is warranted in all cases.

"I firmly believe that the detainee population that we have right now is literally still at war with us," said Army Col. Wade Dennis, the detention center warden. "We have to be constantly vigilant."

Willett believes Mamut does not deserve to be in a high-security section, saying he is among the more than 100 detainees slated for release or transfer from Guantanamo.

Uighurs have been accused by China of leading a violent Islamic separatist movement in the western province of Xinjiang, though their supporters say Beijing uses claims of terrorism as an excuse to crack down on peaceful pro-independence sentiment.

Under U.S. law, they cannot be deported to China because of concern they could face political persecution. Five Uighurs were sent to Albania last year, but other countries have been unwilling to accept the 17 or so remaining in Guantanamo.

Camp 6 was built for $37 million by KBR, a subsidiary of Houston-based Halliburton Co. The military has transferred prisoners there from other parts of the detention center, including from Camps 1, 2 and 3, where detainees were held in steel mesh cells that allowed them to easily communicate with each other but also left guards vulnerable to being spat upon or splashed with other bodily fluids.

Another unit, Camp 5, is reserved for the least compliant and "high value" detainees, who are also kept in individual, solid-wall cells and also allowed outside for only 2 hours a day of recreation in an enclosed area.

Camp 4, where detainees could spend 12-14 hours a day outside and could congregate freely, now holds about 35 prisoners, down from about 180 at the time of the attack on guards in May. Harris said it will never return to its previous size.

February 6, 2007

Health Problems Continue For Residents In Gulf Coast Area Of Mississippi Since Hurricane Katrina, Study Finds

Medical News Today, February 6, 2007

Adults in the Gulf Coast area of Mississippi have experienced increased rates of chronic diseases such as hypertension since Hurricane Katrina, and children in the area have experienced increased rates of mental health problems, according to study recently released by the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and the Children's Health Fund, the New York Times reports. For the study, researchers conducted interviews with families in the Gulf Coast area of Mississippi who live in private trailer parks, in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer parks or in trailers on their own properties one year after the hurricane, which occurred in August 2005. The study found that the rate of hypertension diagnoses among adults increased by more than one-third since the hurricane. In addition, the study found that diagnoses of depression and anxiety among children increased by 400% since the hurricane. According to the Times, the study "showed no improvement since a survey in Louisiana six months earlier." Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Mailman School of Public Health and co-founder of the Children's Health Fund, said that a lack of leadership and inconsistent private donations have led to an unequal distribution of help for Gulf Coast residents since the hurricane. He said, "It's not a lack of money. It's a lack of distribution of the resources. We have a completely dysfunctional distribution system and a great deal of bureaucracy." Redlener added, "For all the practical purposes, these FEMA trailer parks are in fact internal refugee camps. Families are mired in these horrendous conditions with no sense of when this is going to be over, either in the minds of the families or in the officials responsible for them" (Dewan, New York Times, 2/2).

German-born Turk Sues Pentagon After Years in Guantanamo

Agence France-Presse, February 6, 2007

A German-born Turk held for four years in the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay is taking the Pentagon to court to seek the release of secret documents about his case, his lawyer told a German newspaper.

Murat Kurnaz, 24, is demanding that the Pentagon release secret military documents about his detention, Baher Azmy told Wednesday's edition of the Tagesspiegel daily.

Azmy said the documents could prove "embarrassing" for the US administration.

Kurnaz was freed in August last year because of a lack of proof that he had terrorist links.

He claims he was routinely abused in the detention centre in Cuba.

"The documents could prove that the US government was convinced in 2002 already that my client is innocent," Azmy said.

Kurnaz's case has proved a political headache for German authorities because he claims that in 2002 Berlin turned down an offer by Washington to release him after US investigators found that he posed no danger.

This has put pressure on German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier who attended a meeting of the intelligence services in September 2002 at which Kurnaz's fate was discussed.

Steinmeier, who is due to testify before a parliamentary committee probing the case next month, has said his main priority was to protect German citizens in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

A European parliamentary commission last month found that Germany had indeed turned down an offer to bring Kurnaz home, but the government has rejected the conclusion as "far-fetched and unproven."

Kurnaz's case carries echoes of that of Khaled el-Masri, a Lebanese-born German who is pursuing a 75,000-dollar (57,800-euro) compensation claim against the CIA in US courts.

He claims that he was abducted by US agents in Macedonia in 2003 and then flown to a prison in Afghanistan where he was drugged and tortured.

In a landmark ruling, a German court last week ordered the arrest of 13 people thought to be CIA agents involved in the case.

February 8, 2007

New Guantanamo Tribunal Rules Under Fire

Associated Press, February 8, 2007

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Tight deadlines, rules allowing hearsay evidence and limited access to Guantanamo Bay will hamper efforts to defend three prisoners facing military trials at the Navy base in southeast Cuba, their attorneys say.

The new rules, set forth in a Pentagon manual, are based on a law passed last year by Congress that restored President Bush’s plans for special military commissions to try some of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. The new law was enacted after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that earlier planned military trials violated U.S. and international law.

“After all the work that was put into evaluating and raising possible challenges to the old structure, we now have this new 238-page manual dropped in our lap a week and a half ago,” said Marine Corps Maj. Michael Mori, the lawyer for David Hicks, an Australian accused of fighting for the Taliban.

The lead prosecutor for the tribunals, Air Force Col. Morris Davis, said the military provided defense attorneys with most of the evidence more than a year ago.

“If they spent more time on preparation and less time on pontification, they might be ready for trial,” Davis said.

Hicks is expected to be formally charged by the military by the end of next week, along with Omar Khadr, a Canadian accused of killing a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan, and Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni accused of supporting al-Qaida operatives.

Authorities drafted charges — including murder, conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism — against the three on Feb. 2.

Once formal charges are filed, a timetable requires preliminary hearings within 30 days and the start of a jury trial within 120 days at Guantanamo Bay, where nearly 400 men are held on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

The defense attorneys, in separate interviews Tuesday with The Associated Press, said the new tribunal rules have put them at a disadvantage even before the trials begin.

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, Hamdan’s Pentagon-appointed lawyer, said he has not yet been allowed to interview any of about 70 government agents who contributed statements expected to be used as evidence against his client, a former driver for Osama bin Laden. Hamdan denies any role in terrorism.

Under the new rules, prosecutors will be allowed to use hearsay. That means that a written account of what a detainee said while being interrogated can be used as evidence, but the interrogator himself doesn’t have to appear at the trial, Swift said. The Pentagon manual says witnesses such as military personnel or CIA officers may not be available to testify.

“You can’t cross-examine a piece of paper,” Swift said.

Davis said any hearsay evidence in the three cases would be corroborated by witnesses, photographs or other tangible evidence.

The manual prohibits the use of statements obtained through torture and “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” but allows some evidence obtained through coercion before Dec. 30, 2005, and deemed reliable by a judge.

Swift said the tight deadline for trials aims to deny defense attorneys opportunities to question thoroughly the reliability of evidence.

“Of course they want to rush through because hearsay is admissible, and they don’t want anybody to be investigated,” Swift said. “Also, because statements can be obtained by coercion, they don’t want to say how they got them.”

The defense attorneys said one of their greatest obstacles is their inability to speak with clients unless they travel to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Marine Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, an attorney for 20-year-old Khadr, said his client refused to leave his cell last week, and they were unable to meet during his visit to Guantanamo. He said Khadr is not told when he visits and likely chose not to move because it is one of his only ways of resisting his jailers.

“Everything about Guantanamo is an obstruction. It’s practically impossible to represent somebody down there,” said Vokey, adding that he has not been able to show Khadr any evidence because guards have refused to let him bring it into their meetings.

Katrina Victims Sue U.S. Over Failed Floodwalls

Reuters, February 8, 2007

By RUSSEL McCULLEY

Victims of some of the worst flooding after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans sued the federal government on Thursday charging negligence in the construction and maintenance of floodwalls on the 17th Street Canal.

The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status and unspecified damages, says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a permit in 1984 allowing the canal to be dredged to improve drainage in low-lying areas despite warnings it would make floodwalls along the canal less stable.

Floodwalls along the 17th Street Canal collapsed shortly after Katrina struck the city August 29, 2005, inundating several square miles (kilometers) of the city with roof-deep water. The adjacent Lakeview neighborhood was one of the hardest hit.

According to the lawsuit filed in federal court in New Orleans, the collapsed floodwalls contributed to 80 percent of the flooding of New Orleans and caused at least 588 of the nearly 1,300 deaths attributed to the storm.

A representative for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could not immediately be reached for comment.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval in New Orleans, ruled that the agency could be sued for damages in another case involving the failure of levees on the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet canal.

The Corps had argued that federal law granted the agency immunity from legal action arising from the failure of federally authorized flood control projects.

Democrats Weigh Plan to Clear Out Gitmo

Associated Press, February 8, 2007

By DAVID ESPO

Key House Democrats said Thursday they are considering a plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by the end of 2008, with the exception of several dozen detainees in the war on terror who would be kept at the facility and tried there.

Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record), D-Pa., said he hopes to include the provision in legislation this spring that Democrats also intend to use to try to prevent further increases in troop strength in the war in Iraq.

Without public notice, Murtha dispatched Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., to the detention center at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay on a one-day trip late last month to recommend ways for closing it. Both men said the prison has become counterproductive as the United States tries to win converts overseas in the war on terror.

"Without closing it, this just plays into the propaganda of the enemy," Moran said in an interview.

The prison was opened on Jan 11, 2002, and none of the more than 700 prisoners who have entered the facility — suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban — has ever been tried.

Moran said there currently are 393 detainees at the prison, and added he had told Murtha about 80 of are likely to face trial, including 14 whom he described as high value targets.

The Virginia lawmaker said 87 other detainees can probably be released without trial and should go either to their country of origin, or if that isn't possible, to Afghanistan, where they were captured.

Moran said he had recommended requiring the administration to review the cases of the remaining detainees promptly and decide which of them should be held for trial and which should be released.

The facility at Guantanamo Bay has been the subject of extensive political and legal debate, and drawn protests by human rights activists since it was opened. The European Union has urged closing the facility.

The Pentagon recently released new rules to govern trials at the prison, based on a law passed by Congress last year that permits the administration to go ahead with special military commissioners to hear the cases.

Authorities recently drafted charges against three detainees, and they are expected to be formally filed soon. Once that occurs, regulations require preliminary hearings within 30 days and the start of a jury trial within 120 days at Guantanamo Bay.

Moran estimated that it could take five years for all the trials to take place.

He said the rest of the prison population should be out at least by the end of next year. "That is our intent. We feel this is one of the reasons we've lost so much credibility" in the war on terror, he said.

Murtha is chairman of a House subcommittee with jurisdiction over spending on military matters. Moran is a member of the panel.

February 12, 2007

Sudan Blocks UN Human Rights Mission Over Envoy

Reuters, February 12, 2007

By OPHEERA McDOOM

Sudan will not allow a UN human rights team to visit unless they replace a member of the delegation who Khartoum says is biased, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday.

A six-member UN rights team was due to arrive this week in Sudan to investigate alleged abuses in Darfur. But the government has said they will not get visas.

"We have ... issues about one specific person in the delegation," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali el-Sadig said.

"Before coming to Sudan this person made comments which were totally not objective and so this person is unacceptable to us and must be changed before this delegation will be allowed to enter Sudan."

Another source in the Foreign Ministry said Sudan objected to the presence of Guyanese Bertrand Ramcharan, the former UN deputy high commissioner for human rights.

"He made comments referring to genocide and saying the government needed to do more right after he was appointed," the source told Reuters.

Sima Samar, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Sudan, visited Darfur last August. The Geneva-based UN rights council has been criticized for its ineffectiveness on Darfur.

Washington calls the four years of rape, murder and pillage in Darfur genocide, a term Khartoum rejects and European governments have been reluctant to use.

A U.N.-appointed commission of inquiry found no genocide, but said heinous war crimes no less serious than genocide had taken place in Darfur. It also said individuals may have acted with genocidal intent.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is due to present its first case on Darfur this month. Experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes.

The dispute underlines the tense relations between Sudan and the United Nations as UN envoy for Darfur Jan Eliasson and his African Union counterpart, Salim Ahmed Salim, began their first joint visit to Sudan to reinvigorate the stalled peace process.

Last year Sudan expelled the top-ranking UN official in Sudan, Jan Pronk, and has hindered visits by top UN officials, most notably former humanitarian chief Jan Egeland.

Eliasson said the matter of visas for the UN rights delegation was still under discussion. "We ... hope that we will find a solution very soon," he said.

UN spokeswoman Marie Heuze said in Geneva she had no immediate comment on Khartoum's move to block the mission.

REBEL CONFERENCE

Salim and Eliasson will head to Darfur this week to talk with rebel factions to begin the long road toward reconvening peace talks to end the violence.

In May 2006 only one of three rebel factions signed an AU-mediated deal, after many rounds of exhausting talks.

Since then, Darfur's divided rebels have been an obstacle to peace talks. Commanders in the field have been trying for months to convene a conference to unite their ranks.

But the AU said the government bombed rebel positions, thwarting any hope of a meeting. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir confirmed the bombing, which he said responded to rebel attacks.

European foreign ministers expressed concern over the bombing on Monday, issuing a statement in Brussels denouncing bombing in North Darfur by the Sudanese Air Force which disrupted a planned rebel commanders' meeting.

Salim said after meeting Sudan's foreign minister in Khartoum he expected the government to support the conference.

European foreign ministers also expressed concern that the Darfur conflict was spreading across the border to Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR).

Sudan's state news agency said Bashir and the presidents of Chad and CAR would hold a mini-summit this week at a Franco-African summit in Cannes, France, to try to strengthen strained relations between the three neighbors.

February 15, 2007

Australia Denied on Psychiatrist Request

Associated Press, February 15, 2007

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Australia was refused permission to send an independent psychiatrist to Guantanamo Bay to assess the lone Australian prisoner at the U.S. detention camp in Cuba, a senior Foreign Department official said Thursday.

Rod Smith told a Senate committee inquiry that Australia's embassy in Washington wrote to the Pentagon on Dec. 5 to request an independent psychiatric assessment of David Hicks on behalf of his lawyers and family. Failing that, Australia wanted an assessment by Guantanamo medical staff.

Hicks, a former kangaroo skinner who converted to Islam and is accused of fighting for the Taliban, has been held at Guantanamo for five years and his attorneys and family say he may have developed mental illness during his extended incarceration.

He was captured in Afghanistan by the Northern Alliance during the U.S.-led invasion in December 2001.

The office of the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense said in a Jan. 26 letter that the department generally does not allow independent health professionals to meet with detainees.

A Guantanamo Bay psychiatrist who conducted an assessment of Hicks two weeks ago concluded that the 31-year-old did not display symptoms of anxiety or depression and that ''his general health was pretty good,'' Smith said.

Hicks is one of three high-profile prisoners at Guantanamo who were selected this month to become the first suspects to be tried by military commissions for alleged terrorist crimes.

He will be charged with attempted murder in violation of the law of war and providing material support for terrorism. The charges must still be approved by the U.S. Department of Defense legal adviser and another official who oversees the tribunals.