Press Release

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Seton Hall Law School Issues Report Detailing Government Spying Capacity on GTMO Lawyers and Clients

Attorney-Client Meeting Rooms Implanted with Cameras that can Read ‘Tiny Writing’ and Microphones Disguised as Smoke Detectors that can Hear ‘Whispers’

Seton Hall University School of Law’s Center for Policy & Research has issued a report: “Spying on Attorneys at GTMO: Guantanamo Bay Military Commissions and the Destruction of the Attorney-Client Relationship.” The report details the surveillance and recording technology in designated attorney-client meeting rooms at Guantanamo Bay— capacities that are inexplicable unless being utilized to eavesdrop on confidential communications. The report also details the often contradictory if not false government statements regarding attorney-client privacy and the utilization (or even the existence) of the hyper-sensitive monitoring equipment installed in the supposedly private rooms.

The issue of government surveillance encroaching upon attorney-client privacy is expected to come to a head in the upcoming Military Commission Hearings in Guantanamo Bay.

Law Professor Mark Denbeaux, Director of the Seton Hall Law School’s Center for Policy and Research, commented,

“If the government has spied on attorney client communications discussing trial strategy the legitimacy of the military commissions is again in grave jeopardy. It is now clear that the government has secretly implanted surveillance equipment in the meeting rooms that has spying capacities that are inexplicable unless being utilized to eavesdrop on confidential attorney client communications. The court must determine the extent to which such communications have been penetrated; if the government spying allows the government to know an attorney’s defense before trial, the proceeding ceases to be a trial and is reduced to a farce.”

The Seton Hall Law Report concludes that lawyers at Guantanamo Bay can no longer assure their clients that the government is not listening to their conversations or reading or recording the attorneys’ written notes. The report further notes that:

  1. Listening devices in the attorney-client meeting rooms are disguised as smoke detectors.
  2. The listening devices are so hypersensitive that they can detect even whispers between attorneys and their clients.
  3. Cameras in the attorney-client meeting rooms are so powerful that they can read attorneys’ handwritten notes and other confidential documents.
  4. The cameras can be operated secretly from a location outside of the room.
  5. The attorney-client meeting rooms turn out to have been the former CIA interrogation facility.
  6. Importantly, the CIA recording equipment was upgraded after the CIA left.

“With cameras and microphones so powerful they can read ‘tiny writing’ and hear ‘whispers,’ the government assurance of a right to counsel seems more like a trap than a right,” said report co-author and Seton Hall Law student Adam Kirchner.

Seton Hall University School of Law, New Jersey's only private law school, and a leading law school in the New York metropolitan area, is dedicated to preparing students for the practice of law through excellence in scholarship and teaching, with a strong focus on clinical education. "Spying on Attorneys at GTMO: Guantánamo Bay Military Commissions and the Destruction of the Attorney-Client Relationship," is the Seton Hall Law Center for Policy & Research's twenty-second Guantánamo Report. Center reports have been introduced into the Congressional Record by the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, and as part of a Resolution by the European Parliament. The Guantánamo reports have also been cited by media throughout the world. The report may be found at http://law.shu.edu/gtmospying.