Adil Kamil Abdullah Al Wadi

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Adil Kamil Abdullah Al Wadi is a citizen of Bahrain, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.[1] Al Wadi's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 060. American intelligence analysts estimate that Al Wadi was born in 1964, in Muharak, Bahrain.

Contents

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with their hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved.
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Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with their hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved.

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions from captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

Al Wadi chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[2]

[edit] Allegations

The allegations Al Wadi faced, in the "Summary of Evidence" presented to his Tribunal were:[3]

a. The detainee associated with al Qaeda:
  1. The Detainee traveled to Afghanistan via Iran in late September or early October 2001.
b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.
  1. The Detainee was a fighter at Tora Bora.
  2. Detainee was captured by the Pakistani military after leaving Afghanistan.

Al Wadi denied association with Al Qaeda.[4] He acknowledged traveling to Afghanistan in the early fall of 2001. He denied being a fighter in Tora Bora, and said he had never heard of Tora Bora before his interrogation.

He denied that the Pakistanis captured him.[5] He said he willingly sought out the Pakistani Police after crossing the border and escapinf from Afghanistan.

Al Wadi asserted he chose to go to Afghanistan, to give humanitarian aid, after watching television accounts of panic and poverty of Afghani refugees.[5]

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat -- or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

Al Wadi chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.[6]

Al Wadi started his hearing expressing his confusion as to why he wasn't allowed any kind of legal representative. The Presiding Officer pointed out that he could have asked for acquaintances to submit letters to the Board. Al Wadi replied he understood that, but asked how he could figure out what issues those letters should address, or indeed, how he could possibly defend himself, when the allegations against him were classified, and he was not allowed to know what they were.

[edit] Factors for and against Al Wadi's continued detention

Most detainee's transcripts broke down the factors for and against the detainee into categories. Al Wadi's transcript did not preserve those classifications.

  • The detainee traveled to Afghanistan via Iran in late September or early October 2001.
  • The detainee was a fighter at Tora Bora.
  • The detainee has been disruptive and aggressive while in detention.
  • The detainee was captured by the Pakistani Military after leaving Aghanistan.

[edit] testimony

Al Wadi acknowledged that he traveled to Afghanistan via Iran shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001. But he denied traveling to Afghanistan to fight. He traveled to Afghanistan because he was moved by the plight of Afghan refugees.

Al Wadi denied being disruptive. He described, in detail, the single incident that might have been at the root of this allegation. A guard had desecrated his Koran, by stomping on it. Some of the pages were soiled by bootprints. He regarded that Koran as desecrated, and he didn't want to keep it. He explained his concern to the Muslim chaplain, Yusuf, who was sympathetic, but had to inform him that the General had ordered that every detainee had to have a Koran, even if if had to be forced on him. Al Wadi said that a sympathetic translator agreed to give his Koran to another detainee who didn't have one, and was willing to accept one that had been stepped on.

Al Wadi described how the Prison's riot police entered his cell, spraying a choking aerosol that suffocated him, and then administered a brutal beating, in order to force a Koran on him. Following the beating they left the Koran, but further punished him by removing all his belongings, his clothes, mattress, bedding and toiletries.

Al Wadi said after this incident he didn't have any other confrontations with any guards. He said he didn't initiate any conversations, but he could tell that some of the guards were basically decent people. The others he tried to avoid as much as possible.

Al Wadi disputed the description that he was captured by Pakistani military. He said he walked directly up to the border crossing point. He said he had his passport, and all his travel documents were in order. He didn't feel he had anything to hide.

[edit] Release

Al Wadi, and the other five Bahrainis, are represented by Joshua Colangelo-Bryan.

The Gulf Daily News announced on November 5, 2005 that Adel had been released, and was one of three Bahraini detainees on their way home.[7][8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
  2. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Adil Kamil Abdullah Al Wadi's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 55-76
  3. ^ Allegations, found on page 30 of Al Wadi's, Combatant Status Review Tribunal
  4. ^ Summarized transcripts, found on page 12 of Al Wadi's, Combatant Status Review Tribunal
  5. ^ a b Summarized transcripts, found on page 13 of Al Wadi's, Combatant Status Review Tribunal
  6. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Adil Kamil Abdullah Al Wadi's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 30
  7. ^ Free, at last! , Gulf Daily News, November 5, 2005
  8. ^ Three Bahraini Guantanamo detainees return home, WFOR, November 5, 2005

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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