Detainee Wants to Be Relocated For Surgery

A detainee facing a heart operation at the Guantanamo Bay military base after suffering chest pains is fighting the U.S. Navy's plans to perform the procedure at the installation in Cuba.

Instead, attorneys for Saifullah Paracha said, the military should transfer him to either the United States or Pakistan for the cardiac catheterization.

Paracha's motion for an emergency restraining order to block the operation is set to be heard tomorrow in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Government attorneys urged the court on Friday to deny the motion, noting that a similar medical procedure was successfully performed at Guantanamo's hospital in 2003.

"All necessary medical equipment and highly trained and experienced medical personnel will be in place to perform the procedure on petitioner at the Naval Hospital at Guantanamo," U.S. Assistant Attorney General Peter D. Keisler said in court documents filed Friday.

Paracha, 59, a Pakistani real estate developer who holds U.S. residency, has had two heart attacks. Doctors at Guantanamo scheduled the cardiac catheterization for around Nov. 21.

"This is not the first time this procedure has been provided to a detainee in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba," said Capt. Ronald Sollack, a Navy Medical Corps doctor who commands Guantanamo Naval Hospital. He cited a heart catheterization in 2003 during which an artery stent was required. "Both the catheterization and the stent placement were performed successfully," he said.

In a cardiac catheterization, a thin plastic tube is inserted into an artery or vein and pushed into the chambers of the heart.

Paracha has been declared an "enemy combatant" by U.S. officials, who allege he acted as a financier for al-Qaeda and participated in a plot to smuggle weapons into the United States.

He is the father of Uzair Paracha, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison this year for providing material support to terrorists. The Parachas are central figures in the case of Majid Khan, who is one of the "high-value" terrorism suspects recently transferred from CIA secret prisons to Guantanamo Bay.

Last November, Saifullah Paracha's attorney went to federal court to demand that the military deliver a Bible and copies of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and "Julius Caesar" that he had mailed to his client. Earlier this year, Paracha sued the U.S. government, saying it denied detainees access to Muslim chaplains.