U.S. listened in on attorney calls with American citizen prisoner in Iraq

By JOSH GERSTEIN 06/01/2018 09:57 PM EDT

The Defense Department recorded at least 18 phone calls intended to allow confidential communication between an American citizen being held prisoner by U.S. forces in Iraq and the prisoner’s attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union, according to a court filing late Friday.

In at least two instances, a civilian Defense Department employee listened to the attorney-client calls, government lawyers disclosed.

The surveillance may have run afoul of a federal judge’s order issued in December calling for the Pentagon to give the ACLU “immediate and unmonitored access” to the prisoner by phone or videoconference.

Justice Department attorneys described the monitoring as “an inadvertent breach … of attorney-client communications.”

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/01/aclu-iraq-prisoner-defense-department-recorded-calls-618626