Adil Kamil al-Wadi

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Adil Kamil Abdullah Al Wadi
Born: 1974 (age 33–34)
Muharraq, Bahrain
Detained at: Guantanamo
ID number: 060
Conviction(s): no charge, held in extrajudicial detention
Status Repatriated

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

Contents

[edit] Identity

Captive 60 was identified inconsistently on official Department of Defense documents:

  • Captive 60 was identified as Adil Kamil Abdullah Al Wadi on the six official lists of captives' names, published in September 2007.
  • Captive 194 was identified as Adel Kamel Abdulla Hajee on the official list of captives whose habeas corpus petitions should be dismissed following their transfer from US custody.[2]

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor. Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed. The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.(December 2007)Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.
Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.[3][4] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.[5]
The neutrality of this section is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.(December 2007)
Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.

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.[6]

[edit] Allegations

The allegations Al Wadi faced, in the "Summary of Evidence" presented to his Tribunal were:[7]

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.[8] 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.[9] 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 Afghan refugees.[9]

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

Hearing room where Guantanamo captive's annual Administrative Review Board hearings convened for captives whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal had already determined they were an "enemy combatant".
Hearing room where Guantanamo captive's annual Administrative Review Board hearings convened for captives whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal had already determined they were an "enemy combatant".[10]

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 detain %s were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.[11]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:'

a. Intent
  1. The Detainee traveled to Afghanistan via Iran in late September or early October 2001.
b. Commitment
  1. The Detainee was a fighter at Tora Bora.
  2. The detainee has been disruptive and aggressive while in detention.
c. Other Relevant Data
  1. Detainee was captured by the Pakistani military after leaving Afghanistan.

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

a. The detainee denies being a member of al Qaida.
b. The detainee denies fighting in the Tora Bora region.
c. The detainee cites that he was not captured by the Pakistani authorities; but, he turned himself in.

[edit] Transcript

Al Wadi chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.[12]

[edit] Confusion

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] 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 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.[13][14]

On Thursday August 23, 2007 the Gulf Daily News reported that Bahraini Member of Parliament Mohammed Khalid had called for the Bahrain government to provide financial compensation to the released men.[15]

[edit] Op-ed

Kamel Abdulla wrote an op-ed about his experiences in Guantanamo in The Media Line, on December 28, 2006.[16]

He wrote:[16]

  • The prison was under the control of Psychiatrists who tried their best to drive the captives crazy.
  • The captives weren't allowed sunlight. Their cells were under constant illumination from artificial light.

[edit] References

  1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
  2. ^ "Exhibit B: List Of Enemy Combatant Detainees With Pending Habeas Corpus Petitions Who Have Been Released From United States Custody", United States Department of Justice, April 17, 2007. Retrieved on 2008-05-05. 
  3. ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
  4. ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
  5. ^ Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials. United States Department of Defense (March 6, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-22.
  6. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Adil Kamil Abdullah Al Wadi's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 55-76
  7. ^ Allegations, found on page 30 of Al Wadi's, Combatant Status Review Tribunal
  8. ^ Summarized transcripts, found on page 12 of Al Wadi's, Combatant Status Review Tribunal
  9. ^ a b Summarized transcripts, found on page 13 of Al Wadi's, Combatant Status Review Tribunal
  10. ^ (Spc Timothy Book. "Review process unprecedented", The Wire (JTF-GTMO), Friday March 10, 2006, pp. 1. Retrieved on 2007-10-12. 
  11. ^ Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Adil Kamil Abdullah Al Wadi Administrative Review Board - pages 53-54 - January 28, 2005
  12. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Adil Kamil Abdullah Al Wadi's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 30
  13. ^ Free, at last!, Gulf Daily News, November 5, 2005
  14. ^ Three Bahraini Guantanamo detainees return home, WFOR, November 5, 2005
  15. ^ Geoffrey Bew. "Bay victims may get BD50,000", Gulf Daily News, August 23, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-08-23. 
  16. ^ a b Adel Kamel Abdulla. "Surviving after Guantanemo Bay", The Media Line, December 28, 2006. Retrieved on December 30.  - mirror

[edit] See also

[edit] External links