A Sudanese captive and his lawyers baked a Guantanamo guilty plea over chocolate chip cookies. Attorneys for a sickly Syrian hunger striker got him to sip juice while working on federal court strategy. Child soldier Omar Khadr passed through his adolescence behind the razor wire in Cuba chowing down on pizza and McDonald’s with his lawyers.
Now, a new rule going into effect Wednesday at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba forbids food at legal conferences for the first time in a decade — the prison says for health and safety reasons — to the consternation of lawyers who say breaking bread has been crucial to coexistence between American attorneys and their captive Guantanamo clients after years in legal limbo.
“It’s actually quite tragic for the clients. Sometimes the food we bring is the only thing from the outside world they’ve seen in months, and they really look forward to it,” said attorney Alka Pradhan, who has brought to meetings, after military inspection, everything from Egg McMuffins and traditional Middle East sweets to fresh fruit and granola bars.
—Defense attorneys also have routinely brought black seed, a home remedy for digestive issues, to meetings with Younis Chekkouri, a Moroccan who has been approved for release for at least five years.
—Lawyers for long-term hunger striker Abu Wa’el Dhiab, now in Uruguay, said they brought fruit juice to meetings that he would sometimes sip for strength at the height of his hunger strike.