Appeals court delays Gitmo genital search ban

A federal appeals court is allowing the US government to continue genital searches of Guantanamo Bay detainees at least temporarily.
The court today granted the Obama administration's emergency motion for a temporary delay in enforcing Judge Royce Lamberth's order banning the practice.
The appeals court ruled just minutes after a scheduled telephone call between a detainee and his lawyer.
The military wanted that call to be conducted under rules Lamberth had banned including searching the detainee's groin area for contraband.
The government argued that Lamberth's order would weaken security at the US Navy base in Cuba by making it harder to prevent smuggling of contraband.

Lamberth had concluded that the motivation for the searches is not to enhance security but to deter the detainees' access to lawyers.