Equal opportunity complaint contests order barring female guards from escorting Gitmo detainee
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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.