"Omar Khadr's Lawyers in U.S. Threatened Over Release of Court Documents"

TORONTO - A U.S. military commission court is threatening to strip the security clearance from Omar Khadr's Pentagon-appointed lawyers as part of what they call an unconstitutional attempt to keep the public in the dark about the Canadian's fight for exoneration. At issue, according to submissions made Friday, is a demand by a senior court official that all appeal documents be kept secret until they can be vetted for national security concerns. Documents already filed with the Court of Military Commission Review include, for example, the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner's reasons for having his conviction for five war crimes quashed. The court has yet to release the brief, filed last November, although The Canadian Press obtained a copy at the time and reported on its contents. The matter came to a head earlier this month when Clerk of Court, Mark Harvey, essentially accused the lawyers of giving a defence filing and government response to the U.S.-based blog Lawfare in apparent violation of security procedures he had implemented.