At Guantanamo Bay, genital searches can continue, judge says

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The Obama administration wants to continue conducting searches of the genital areas of detainees prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, deeming them essential to the security of the facility, so Wednesday it appealed a ruling of a federal judge who called the practice "religiously and culturally abhorrent." U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth last week ordered guards at Guantanamo Bay to stop using their hands to conduct groin searches and to revert to an earlier method of shaking detainees' pants to dislodge any contraband. But in a declaration to the appeals court seeking a stay of Lamberth's CTRL + Click to follow link" target="_blank" href="http://www.scrib..., Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, who leads the U.S. Southern Command, essentially rebuked the chief judge and said he considers "prohibiting the search of the areas between detainees' waists and knees" an" unacceptable risk to the military personnel under my command." The appeals court granted the stay Wednesday.