Abdullah Kamel Abdullah Kamel Al Kandari

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Abdullah Kamel Abdullah Kamel Al Kandari is a citizen of Kuwait held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 228.

Al Kandari was born in 1973, and was married in 1996. Al Kandari worked for eight years, in the Kuwaiti Ministry of Electricity and Water, as an electrical engineer. He supported his wife, their children, his father-in-law, sister, and her children.

[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 his 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.

Casio F91W, in daily alarm mode. The watch is currently set to ring an alarm, and flash its light, at 7:30am.

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to 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 a 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 Kandari agreed to cooperate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[2]

The Associated Press submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for Al Kandari's dossier, and made it available for download.

[edit] Allegations

The allegations against him were:^[2]

a. The detainee is a member of al Qaeda:

1. Detainee traveled to Afghanistan, via Iran, after 11 September 2001, with approximately $15,000 U.S. dollars.
2. Detainee was captured with a Casio watch, model F-91 W, a common watch used by al Qaeda to detonate improvised explosive devices.
3. One of the detainee's known aliases was on a list of captured hard drives (sic) associated with a senior al Qaeda member.

[edit] Al Kandari's travel to Afghanistan

Al Kandari acknowledged traveling to the area of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He said his purpose was humanitarian aid. He acknowledged taking $15,000. $13,000 of which he used to aid refugees, reserving $2,000 for his return to Kuwait. He had never traveled to Pakistan or Afghanistan before. And didn't know anyone associated with al Qaeda or the Taliban.

Amnesty International says he was captured during a sweep when Pakistani authorities arrested all foreigners.

[edit] Al Kandari's Casio watch

Al Kandari seemed surprised that his possession of his watch was regarded as evidence that he was a security threat. He said that his model was very common and popular in Kuwait because it had a feature that helped the owner know what direction Mecca was, in order to perform their daily prayers.

The Tribunal asked Al Kandari if he had ever modified his watch. He said the only work that had ever been performed on it was a simple replacement of a worn out battery.

The Tribunal officers asked Al Kandari if his watch had a feature that helped him pray to Mecca. His watch did have that feature. The Tribunal documents refer to him owning a Casio F91W watch. The F91W does not have the Mecca prayer feature, and costs about a quarter as much as the models that do have this feature.

When transcripts from detainees CSRTs and ARB hearings were made public on March 3, 2006 it became known that at least a dozen detainees remained in detention, in part, because they wore a Casio watch.

[edit] Al Kandari's aliases

The unclassified portion of Al Kandari's dossier says his known aliases were found on captured Al Qaeda hard drives.

Al Kandari asked the name that was found on the computer. The unclassified portion of his dossier doesn't list any of those aliases. But the various documents refer to him by many different names, with no explanation for the discrepancy. Those names are:

During the summarized transcript of the questions the Tribunal asked Al Kandari he told the officers that his name was a very common one in Kuwait.

Another Kuwaiti, Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari, was told: "The detainee’s name appeared on a list of captured mujahidin found on a hard drive with is associated with Khalid Shaykh Muhammad (KSM)."^[3]

[edit] Al Kandari's testimony

Al Kandari agreed to give a statement to the Tribunal. In it he said:

• His desire to go to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was prompted by reports in the Islamic press that, following the American attack, millions of refugees were trying to leave. The reports said the refugees weren't being allowed the border, and were suffering in ad hoc refugee camps. Because the charities he usually donated to had no facilities to help the refugees he decided to go himself.
• The first leg of his journey, the trip from Kuwait, to Iran, to Takat Afghanistan was successful. He carried a letter, written in Pashtu, explaining his goal. He found a local man, who bought food and blankets for the refugees.
• The return leg of his journey he described was a disaster. Even though his passport had a stamp showing he crossed from Iran to Afghanistan, they wouldn't allow him to cross back in. They were stopping all Arabs at the border. (Iran and Afghanistan are not Arabic countries.)
• After the fall of the Taliban things were very dangerous for foreigners in Afghanistan. Many ordinary Afghans had resented the ties the Taliban had with al Qaeda, and its foreign leadership. Foreigners risked robbery, kidnapping and murder.
• Al Kandari managed to make it across the Pakistani border. But he didn't have legal travel documents for Pakistan.
• Al Kandari was captured in Pakistan. He was told he would be provided consular access, but was handed over to American authorities instead.

[edit] Questions for the family of Abdullah Al Kamel

The documents in Al Kandari's dossier include 12 biographical questions security authorities asked of his family. This is unusual. Other detainee's dossiers don't contain similar questions. The list of questions

[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.

The factors for and against continuing to hold Al Kandari were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.^[4]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

1. Detainee traveled to Afghanistan, via Iran, after 11 September 2001, with approximately 15,000 U.S. dollars.
2. After attempting to flee Afghanistan three times, the detainee paid two men each 100 U.S. dollars to smuggle him across the border into Pakistan. After a couple of days in the vicinity of the Pakistani Border, an unknown Pakistani man took the detainee to a Pakistani prison.

b. Training

In 2000, the detainee traveled to Afghanistan and attended a basic training course at a Libyan training camp.

c. Connections / Associations

1. The detainee has extensive connections to several al Qaida members and an affiliationn with the al Wafa organization. (Executive Order 13224 designates al Wafa as a global terrorist entity)
2. The detainee's associate encouraged the detainee to travel to Afghanistan on two separate occasions.
3. That associate is a leader of a Mujahiden group, Tabligh, in Kuwait who conducted meetings and collected money for Usama Bin Laden through a Sheik at a local mosque. This individual is also described as the legal advisor and close friend to Usama Bin Laden.

d. Intent

The detainee traveled to Afghanistan the second time sometime after September 11, 2001. The second time he was encouraged to go there to fight. He stayed in guesthouses in Kandahar where he heard a speech given by Usama Bin Laden.

e. Other Relevant Data

1. Detainee was captured with a Casio watch, model F-91W, a common watch used by al Qaida to detonate improvised explosive devices.
2. One of the detainee's known aliases was on a list of captured hard drives associated with a senior al Qaida member.
3. The detainee's name and photograph is found on a foreign state service product that depicts the relationship between al Qaida elements and Kuwaiti extremists.
4. The detainee's name was found on a list of captured al Qaida and Taliban fighters that were captured trying to flee Afghanistan.
5. The detainee's name was found on a computer server hard drive recovered during a raid of a suspected al Qaida safehouse in Islamabad, Pakistan.
6. The detainee's name was found on a list of 324 Arabic names recovered from safehouse raids associated with suspected al Qaida in Karachi, Pakistan.

[edit] The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

a. The detainee stated that he was, "carried away with emotion" when he saw the poor children in Afghanistan, citing this as his reason for travel.

b. The detainee denied involvement with the Taliban or al Qaida and having knowledge of the attacks in the United States prior to their execution on September 11. The detainee also denied knowledge of any rumors or plans of future attacks on the United States or its interests.

[edit] Transcript

Al Kandari chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[5]

Included with the transcript from Al Kandari's testimony was 93 pages of submission from his habeas corpus lawyers. Those documents include:

• A letter from his wife, describing the desperate need, she, their children, and the rest of his family felt for the return of her husband.
• A letter from his elderly mother, describing her need for his return.
• A letter from one of his children, wishing for his return.
• A letter from his sister, Deena Kamel Abdullah, who described how helpful Abdullah was to her. She had been separated from her husband for seven years, and her brother Abdullah had supported her financially, until she could find work, he had helped her find work, and had helped and encouraged her to continue her education. He had served as a substitute father for her children, who miss him much more than they miss their real father. He had provided the same kind of kind, generous support to their parents, and to their other siblings.

[edit] Testimony

[edit] Press reports

On July 12, 2006 the magazine Mother Jones provided excerpts from the transcripts of a selection of the Guantanamo detainees.^[6] The article informed readers:

More than a dozen detainees were cited for owning cheap digital watches, particularly “the infamous Casio watch of the type used by Al Qaeda members for bomb detonators.”

The article quoted Al Kandari, and three other watch owners:

"When they told me that Casios were used by Al Qaeda and the watch was for explosives, I was shocked…. If I had known that, I would have thrown it away. I’m not stupid. We have four chaplains [at Guantanamo]; all of them wear this watch."

The Washington Post reported that Al Kandari would be returned to Kuwait soon.^[7] The Emir of Kuwait personally requested Al Kandari's release, and that of another Kuwaiti man named Omar Rajab Amin.

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ ^{a b c} documents (.pdf) from Abdullah Kamel Abdullah Kamel Al Kandari's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - mirror - pages 30-37
3. ^ Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari Administrative Review Board - page 31
4. ^ Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Abdullah Kamel Abdullah Kamel Al Kandari Administrative Review Board - pages 11-13
5. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Abdullah Kamel Abdullah Kamel Al Kandari's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 74
6. ^ "Why Am I in Cuba?", Mother Jones (magazine), July 12, 2006
7. ^ Two Kuwaitis to leave Guantanamo soon: group, Washington Post, September 10, 2006

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[edit] External links

• Amnesty International's summary of Al Kandari's case