Military Probe: Were Secrets Disclosed To Expelled Reporters at Gitmo?

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002689011

Military officials at Guantanamo Bay have launched an investigation to find out if officers at the prison there revealed "classified or sensitive material" to reporters, according to the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer.

The Observer, as E&P explored in several stories on Wednesday, is one of three newspapers whose journalists were expelled from the prison base Wednesday after spending five days at the site covering the aftermath of three prisoner suicides. The Observer's reporter Michael Gordon and photographer Todd Sumlin were directed to leave, along with Carol Rosenberg of The Miami Herald and Carol Williams of the Los Angeles Times.

In a story in today's paper, the Observer reported that the "investigation was ordered the same day that an Observer story from Guantanamo ... caused controversy within the Defense Department. The story reported on the details of an officers' staff meeting at the prison in the wake of three detainee suicides."

The paper noted that Gordon had been "allowed to listen in and report on that meeting Monday by the detention center commander, Army Col. Mike Bumgarner." It said that the story was published Tuesday and quoted Bumgarner saying the prisoners had lost trust in the officers. "There is not a trustworthy son of a ----- in the entire bunch," Bumgarner said in the story.

[Rose Siding]

1. Here's the bit from the Observer about the staff mtg

but it has Monday's date-

snip>
But inside the detention facility, military leaders started clamping down on discipline and security in what they say is an effort to stop another round of suicide attempts already being planned.

"Right now, we are at ground zero," an emotional prison commander, Col. Mike Bumgarner, told his officers at his morning staff meeting.

"The trust level is gone. They have shown time and time again that we can't trust them any farther than we can throw them. There is not a trustworthy son of a ... in the entire bunch."

With that, Bumgarner ordered his staff to assess and curtail existing policies on detainee clothing, meals, recreation time, prison lighting and discipline. He ordered more frequent patrols in the cellblocks. He said existing rules on detainee behavior must be enforced quickly and fully.

"If a brother covers up a window with a sheet or blanket, you give him an order and then you go get him," Bumgarner said.

Later in the day, the colonel said the tougher restrictions would stay in place for the foreseeable future.

"Once I get a better read of things"

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/world/14803975.htm

It does sound like he has a little cabin fever.

[blm]

2. There is actually a controversy going on now about this - The Pentagon

really jumped on these guys because the reporter sat in on a meeting of all the officers. They are furious and worried if any "secrets" were divulged.

This is ongoing, and if I get any more inside info, I will share.