NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Guards rifled through defendants’ cells and seized their confidential legal documents while the accused were in the courtroom listening to assurances that no one reads their private attorney-client mail, defense lawyers charged on Thursday.

The accusations were made during a pretrial hearing at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base for five prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 hijacked plane attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – The warden of the Guantanamo prison camp testified on Wednesday that he had forbidden military guards from listening to attorney-client conversations but did not know that the rooms where the meetings took place had been bugged by intelligence agents.

Army Colonel John Bogdan has been the commander of the joint detention group at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Navy base since June 2012. He testified in a hearing to determine whether the government had been monitoring defense attorneys’ private conversations with five prisoners charged with plotting the September 11 hijacked plane attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – U.S. intelligence agents receive a raw feed of everything picked up by the microphones in the Guantanamo courtroom where five prisoners face capital charges of plotting the September 11 attacks, a court technician testified on Tuesday.

But courtroom technology director, Maurice Elkins, said he did not know whether those agents had the technology necessary to isolate individual voices and background conversations, whether they had the ability to record what they heard, or even who they are.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A pretrial hearing for five prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 attacks was halted on Monday so technicians could tinker with courtroom microphones to prevent eavesdropping on confidential attorney-client conversations.

The war crimes court at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base convened for a little over an hour and then recessed until Tuesday to address defense lawyers’ concerns that the courtroom microphones are sensitive enough to pick up conversations among themselves and with their clients.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A simulated wave of Caribbean migrants sailed to the Guantanamo naval base this week for a training drill designed to prepare U.S. troops and security agencies who might someday have to handle the real thing.

The exercise is held every two years to prepare for a potential mass migration brought on by political upheaval or natural disaster in the region.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – CIA records documenting the waterboarding and interrogation of an alleged al Qaeda chieftain must be shown to the doctors who will decide whether he is mentally competent for trial on charges of conspiring to bomb a U.S. warship, a judge ordered.

The order, dated Thursday, ensures that the mental competency board will consider allegations that Saudi defendant Abd al Rahim al Nashiri was tortured during the four years he spent in secret CIA prisons, among other criteria.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A military judge on Monday suggested ripping out the defense table microphones to ease concerns that intelligence agents could be eavesdropping on confidential attorney-client conversations in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal.

The judge also ordered that doctors examine Saudi defendant Abd al Rahim al Nashiri to determine whether his treatment in CIA custody had left him mentally competent to stand trial on charges of orchestrating a deadly attack on a U.S. warship.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A military judge on Monday suggested ripping out the defense table microphones to ease concerns that intelligence agents could be eavesdropping on confidential attorney-client conversations in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal.

The judge also ordered that doctors examine Saudi defendant Abd al Rahim al Nashiri to determine whether his treatment in CIA custody had left him mentally competent to stand trial on charges of orchestrating a deadly attack on a U.S. warship.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Pretrial hearings for a Guantanamo prisoner accused of orchestrating a deadly attack on a U.S. warship were brought to a temporary standstill on Monday as defense lawyers raised concerns that intelligence agents were eavesdropping on confidential attorney-client conversations.

Lawyers representing Saudi captive Abd al Rahim al Nashiri said they had a duty to ensure those conversations are private and wanted to consult their bosses and bar associations about whether it would be an ethical violation for them to proceed without knowing who might be listening.

NAVAL BASE, CUBA (Reuters) – The U.S. failure to shut down the detention camp at Guantanamo has Captain John Nettleton in a predicament.

As commander of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in eastern Cuba, he is in charge of making sure the prisoners and the troops and contractors who work at the camp have proper facilities. The problem is that he has no idea how long they will be staying.