A military defense lawyer asked the Pentagon on Wednesday to move the trial for an alleged bodyguard of Osama bin Laden to the US, saying difficult access for witnesses and the media make it impossible to hold it fairly at Guantanamo Bay.

The announcement came as the Pentagon expelled two reporters from Guantanamo Bay while trying to cover an investigation into the suicides of three men at the prison.

In this April 6, 2006 file photo, reviewed by US military officials, a detainee walks and others sit, as a guard looks on standing next to a hut, within the fenced in grounds of the maximum security prison at Camp Delta, at the Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base, Cuba. Three detainees at Guantanamo Bay apparently committed suicide amid protests of the US military prison by inmates, the Defense Department said Saturday June 10, 2006. [AP]

Army Maj. Tom Fleener suggested the trial for Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman al-Bahlul could safely be held at Navy bases in the United States where there are fewer restrictions on the defense and the media.

"They are making it difficult on purpose for the media to attend these trials and it's not right," said Fleener, who filed a change of venue motion with the Office of Military Commissions.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, said the reporters from the Miami Herald and the Los Angeles Times were ordered to leave because they were authorized only to cover military commission hearings, which were canceled because of the suicides last weekend. A third reporter from The Charlotte Observer, who was there to write a profile of a base official, cut his visit short after his access was restricted, Gordon said.

At least one reporter, from the Herald, had obtained permission from officials at the base to visit Guantanamo after the hearings were canceled, but that was overruled in Washington, he said.

Herald Executive Editor Tom Fiedler said in a statement: "The fact that the Pentagon declined to allow us to continue to stay was disappointing for us because we believe this is an important story for our readers and of interest to both the American public and the international community."

The military has denied requests from other news organizations, including The Associated Press, to visit the base this week to cover the investigation into the suicides.

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