A coalition of human-rights and civil-liberties groups -- including Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, American Civil Liberties Union, and even the National Institute of Military Justice -- have written a letter to the Department of Defense protesting the expulsion of journalists Steven Edwards, Paul Koring, Michelle Shephard, and Carol Rosenberg from Guantanamo Bay for their decision to publish the name of an interrogator who was a witness during the military-commissions hearings for Omar Khadr.
Although the name of the interrogator was already public knowledge, for the purposes of the hearing, his identity had been under protective order. The judge, while chastising reporters for publishing the name, did not rule that they had violated that order in identifying the interrogator.
This is the key excerpt:
Whatever confidence the public in the United States and around the world may maintain in these proceedings can only be eroded by a move that is perceived as being motivated by a clampdown on informed media reporting rather than the protection of classified or confidential information.
Spencer Ackerman has the full letter. Personally, I've thought for a while now that the act that would most "legitimize" the commissions would be to broadcast them on television or over the Web. For some reason, the administration doesn't think that's a good idea.
-- A. Serwer
