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Miami • The military judge presiding over the Sept. 11 war crimes proceedings at Guantanamo Bay said in a ruling this week that he will eventually lift his order prohibiting female guards from having physical contact with the five defendants while transporting them around the U.S. base in Cuba.
But Army Col. James Pohl also said he would keep the ban in place for six more months, according to the order, which was disclosed to The Associated Press on Friday. That is because of what he calls "inappropriate" public criticism of his ban by Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during an October appearance before Congress.
Pohl said in his 39-page ruling that the "disparaging" comments by Carter and Dunford could be viewed as creating the appearance that they were trying to influence the death penalty military commission for the five men accused of planning and aiding the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
Carter called the ban on women "counter to the way we treat service members" in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Lawyers for the prisoners said that contact with women unrelated to the defendants offends their strict Muslim beliefs. The judge acknowledged those beliefs, but said the military had a superseding interest in being able to run gender-neutral guard operations and to ensure adequate staffing at the prison.
Lawyers for the defendants argued that the use of female guards to move them is traumatic for men subjected to extreme treatment, at times of a sexual nature, that amounted to torture while in CIA custody.