Legal Logjam May Be Ahead

Through referrals from trade groups, cultural organizations, universities and other lawyers, the attorneys cobbled together a small pool that is largely unchanged since they first started visiting the prison. The interpreters, who live across the United States, travel back and forth to Guantanamo and get paid for travel days. Soon, the lawyers said they were afraid to try new interpreters outside the small pool because the stakes of the initial visits are so high.

About 210 of the 265 prisoners -- from more than 30 countries -- at Guantanamo are represented by lawyers who are challenging their detentions before federal judges in U.S. District Court. The others have not filed lawsuits seeking to challenge their detentions.

During meetings, the interpreters said they improvise far more frequently than when they are working in courtrooms or for business meetings in the United States. And they also admitted to fudging what the lawyers are saying so they don't offend the detainees' sensibilities.

"Perhaps at Guantanamo, like no where else, the interpreter has to change the nuance of what is being said," said an Arabic interpreter, who requested that his name not be used because lawyers did not authorize him to be interviewed. "Culture, Islamic culture, is very important at Guantanamo. Sometimes the lawyer will make a politically incorrect statement. You raise your eyebrows, try to get their attention or get them to rephrase. . . . Or you leave things out and tell the lawyer later what he should not have been saying."

Mahvish Rukhsana Khan, 29, of San Diego, became an interpreter after visiting Guantanamo as a law student helping detainees' attorneys. A fluent Pashto speaker, Khan visited Guantanamo every other week for a year before lawyers found others who could speak the language. The "list of interpreters is very limited," she said.

At Guantanamo, Khan said much of her time has been spent navigating the cultural divides and "being a buffer" between the volunteer lawyers, many from corporate law firms, and the detainees. Lawyers sometimes asked the detainees about their wives and daughters, a route of conversation that would make the prisoners uncomfortable, she said.

"It is good information to collect for an affidavit, but they are very private about women in their families," said Khan, who wrote a memoir published this year about her experiences as an interpreter, "My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me."

Eventually, Khan said she became close friends with the detainees and brought them food and showed them videotapes of their families that were made in Afghanistan. "They trusted me, and I helped bridge the gap," she said.

Julia Karpeisky, a Russian interpreter who lives in McLean, works with three inmates at Guantanamo. She said a major part of her job involves ensuring that lawyers are communicating in terms that the detainee can understand. Most have limited educations and are not familiar with the U.S. legal system, she said.

In one instance, a lawyer began to describe a recent victory at the U.S. Supreme Court, and the interpreter had to intervene to get him to explain things more simply. "These are corporate attorneys who are used to very bright clients," Karpeisky said. "I told them to start with how the court system works in very simple terms."

Staff writer Josh White and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.