FORT MEADE, Md. – At least one female guard at Guantanamo Bay is challenging a military judge's order that only male guards be given jobs requiring them to touch a detainee while escorting him to hearings and meetings with his lawyers.
The judge, Navy Capt. J. Kirk Waits, mentioned the equal opportunity complaint during a pretrial hearing Monday for Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi (ahbd-al-HAH'-dee al-ih-RAH'-kee) at the U.S. base in Cuba. The Associated Press watched a closed-circuit video feed of the hearing at Fort Meade, near Baltimore.
Waits says he heard about the complaint Friday but hasn't seen it.
He issued the interim order in November. Oral arguments are scheduled later this week.
Al-Hadi is from Afghanistan. He contends his Muslim faith prohibits physical contact with females unless he's related or married to them.
