By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 12, 2007; A15

Majid Khan -- also known as Detainee No. 010020 at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- has been in U.S. custody for more than four years. First, it was in secret prisons run by the CIA, and now, for more than a year, in Cuba, where he has had contact only with his captors and with representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Last month, U.S. officials asked Khan whether he wanted a lawyer to represent him in federal court, part of a process that allows detainees to challenge the military's determination that they are enemy combatants. For Khan, now 27 and one of 14 "high-value" detainees transferred into Guantanamo in September 2006, it is the first time he has had real hope of meeting his attorneys at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Defense Department officials have said that the detainees -- including Khan, who is accused of researching how to poison U.S. reservoirs and bomb U.S. gas stations -- will be able to meet with lawyers if they so choose. Lawyers for Khan have said that they have received high-level security clearance in an effort to meet with him and that they have been told they will see him soon. But they worry that Khan has not received correspondence they have sent him, as they just received two postcards Khan sent them in May and June.

In the postcards, Khan pleads with CCR to help him. He alternately thanks them for "fighting for me" and calls his situation an "emergency matter." In careful English script, Khan, a Saudi who went to high school in Baltimore, expressed futility, saying he has "no idea what's going on out there" because "I have no access to outside world." He also expressed hope, telling his lawyers: "Keep trying, don't give up."

The postcards are adorned with a U.S. stamp showing a serene beach with palm trees, and the address area shows that they come from "GTMO," the military's shorthand for the detention facility.

"I just wanted to send thank you note for fighting for me and doing your best to get me out from here," Khan wrote in a May postcard CCR provided to The Post. "Please! Don't give up. Keep trying. I hope, we will meet some day. I will have justice if not here then hereafter."

In a June postcard, Khan wrote that he has tried to contact "DoD, CIA, FBI and even President" to allow him to meet with his lawyers. "I've gone on strikes, protests, cooperation, non-cooperation but still no response. Please do your best to reach out to me. I need to talk to you, it is an emergency matter."