Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari Explained

Faiz Muhammed Ahmed Al Kandari
Birth Date:3 June 1977[1] [2]
Id Number:552
Charge:Charged October 2008, charges dropped
Status:Released on 8 January 2016

Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari (born 3 June 1977) is a Kuwaiti citizen who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba, from 2002 to 2016.[3] He has never been charged with war crimes.[4]

The US Department of Defense reports he was born on 3 June 1977, in Kuwait City.[5]

Kandari was transferred to Kuwait on 8 January 2016.[6]

Combatant Status Review

His Combatant Status Review Tribunal accused him of the following: "The detainee (Al Kandari) recruited personnel to participate in jihad in Afghanistan … traveled into Afghanistan and received weapons training at the Khaldan training camp. Osama bin Laden personally provided religious instruction and trainee (sic) at this camp."[7] He has always denied the accusations and said: "I looked at all the unclassified accusations; I was laughing so hard." and "All this happened in a period of three months … I ask, 'Are these accusations against Faiz or against Superman?' It seems to me that whoever wrote these accusations he must (have) been drinking and he must have been drunk when he wrote it."

Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:[8]

Hearsay evidence

Lawyers for two Guantanamo detainees organized a study entitled, No-hearing hearings, which cited as an example of a detainee for whom all the evidence against him was "hearsay evidence".[9] [10]

The study quoted the Tribunal's legal advisor:The study commented:

Comment from his lawyer Lieutenant Colonel Barry D. Wingard

Lieutenant Colonel Barry Wingard lead attorney from the Office of Military Commissions, published an article about citing hearsey evidence against his client.[11] Lieutenant Colonel Wingard said "Vague charges made it difficult to defend his client after he was assigned in October to represent a Kuwaiti named Fayiz". In trying to prepare his case, Lieutenant Colonel Wingard said:

Mistreatment while in detention

Lieutenant Colonel Barry Wingard and Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari, pertaining to the harsh treatment and enhanced interrogation techniques that Faiz was continually subjected to. The abuse included sleep deprivation, physical abuse, being placed in stress position, sexual humiliation, and the use of extreme temperature, loud music and dogs.[12] [13]

Ask about the alleged mistreatment his mother who has not seen her son for 10 years his mother said:

In November 2011 Wingard expressed as well outrage over a propaganda video that the DOD had published.

Speaking while on a hunger strike in protest against his indefinite detention, Faiz said:

Habeas Corpus

In a recently conducted interview with TPMmuckraker, Mr. David Cynamon—a lawyer for four Kuwaiti Gitmo detainees who are bringing habeas corpus claims against the government.[14] Cynamon's clients were picked up in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in the period after the 2001 U.S invasion of Afghanistan. Asked whether he had observed a shift of any kind in the government's approach since the Obama administration came into office, Cynamon flatly replied

In even more Habeas Corpus news, a Federal Judge in Washington is on a tear against alleged bad lawyering by the Justice Department.[15] In a stinging order issued today, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly refused to reconsider an earlier and similarly scathing order requiring the Justice Department to replace the government's attorney responding to challenges several Kuwaiti men have brought to their imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay. How mad was the judge? Her salvo Monday uses the words "shockingly revisionist," "flippant" and "disingenuous" to describe the government's handling of the litigation. Attorney Matthew Maclean said.

US v. Al Kandari

On 22 October 2008, the Office of Military Commissions filed charges against him.[16] [17]

Joint Review Task Force

On 21 January 2009, the day he was inaugurated, United States President Barack Obama issued three Executive orders related to the detention of individuals in Guantanamo.[18] [19] [20] [21] That new review system was composed of officials from six departments, where the OARDEC reviews were conducted entirely by the Department of Defense. When it reported back, a year later, the Joint Review Task Force classified some individuals as too dangerous to be transferred from Guantanamo, even though there was no evidence to justify laying charges against them. On 9 April 2013, that document was made public after a Freedom of Information Act request.[22] Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari was one of the 71 individuals deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release.Obama said those deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release would start to receive reviews from a Periodic Review Board.

Periodic Review Board

The first review was not convened until November 20, 2013. The review was convened on 12 June 2014. Its recommendation that he should be released was made public on 14 July 2014.

Renewed repatriation negotiations

In July 2013, Cynammon said the Obama administration was renewing repatriation negotiations after "years of radio silence".[23]

In May 2015, Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti Minister of Interior, and Deputy Prime Minister traveled to Washington DC to renew Kuwait's interest in release.[24]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: JTF- GTMO Detainee Assessment. Department of Defense . 2023-02-04.
  2. https://www.prs.mil/portals/60/documents/ISN552/140611_U_ISN552_Government_Summary_PUBLIC.pdf Guantanamo Detainee Profile
  3. Web site: List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006. OARDEC. United States Department of Defense. May 15, 2006. 2007-09-29.
  4. Web site: The Guantanamo Docket - Faiz Mohammed Ahmed al Kandari . Projects.nytimes.com . 2014-06-20.
  5. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wikileaks-files/guantanamo-bay-wikileaks-files/8477125/Guantanamo-Bay-detainee-file-on-Fayiz-Muhammad-Ahmad-Jamal-Muhammad-Al-Kandari-US9KU-000552DP.html Fayiz Muhammad Ahmad Jamal Muhammad Al Kandari
  6. News: Pentagon repatriates last Kuwaiti prisoner at Guantanamo Bay - The Washington Post. The Washington Post.
  7. News: Ten years on, Kuwaiti inmates fear indefinite Guantanamo detention . https://archive.today/20130119150432/http://articles.cnn.com/2011-08-16/world/kuwaiti.guantanamo.detainees_1_qaeda-kuwait-tora-bora . dead . January 19, 2013 . August 16, 2011 . Jenifer Fenton . 2 . CNN . 2011-08-18.
  8. Web site: The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study. The Brookings Institution. 2008-12-16. Benjamin Wittes. Zaathira Wyne. 2010-02-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20170519100934/https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/1216_detainees_wittes.pdf. 2017-05-19. live.
  9. Web site: No-hearing hearings. 17. Mark Denbeaux, Joshua Denbeaux, David Gratz, John Gregorek, Matthew Darby, Shana Edwards, Shane Hartman, Daniel Mann, Megan Sassaman and Helen Skinner. Seton Hall University School of Law. April 2, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20080802031333/http://law.shu.edu/news/final_no_hearing_hearings_report.pdf. August 2, 2008. dead.
  10. News: Gitmo detainees denied witnesses: Lawyer calls legal proceedings 'shams,' . . November 17, 2006 . The analysis of transcripts and records by two lawyers for Guantanamo detainees... . 2007-04-02 .
  11. Web site: Military attorneys risk careers to criticize practices at Guantanamo. Lillian Thomas. 1. May 10, 2009. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 2009-05-10.
  12. News: . 2009-07-01 . No Justice Today At Guantanamo . Washington Post . 2009-07-01. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/30/AR2009063002897.html
  13. Web site: Jenifer Fenton . Kuwaiti families in legal limbo at Guantanamo - Features . Al Jazeera English . 2014-06-20.
  14. Web site: Not Just State Secrets: Obama Continuing Bush's Stonewalling On Gitmo Cases, Lawyer Claims. Zachary Roth. 1. 2009-04-10. TPMMuckraker. 2009-04-10. In the interview Mr. Cynamon said that the Justice Department has been consistently dragging its heels in the case, denying detainees their basic due process rights and furthering what he called the "abandonment of the rule of law."
  15. Web site: Judge riled at DOJ in Gitmo case. Josh Gerstein. 1. 2009-04-06. Politico.com. 2009-04-06.
  16. Web site: Kuwaiti Guantanamo detainee charges dropped . GulfNews.com . 2012-06-30 . 2014-06-20.
  17. News: Pentagon accuses 2 Kuwaitis of war crimes . . . 2008-10-22 . 2008-10-22 . live . https://www.webcitation.org/5bm5Q4vPa?url=http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/735909.html . October 23, 2008 .
  18. News: Who Are the 55 Cleared Guantánamo Prisoners on the List Released by the Obama Administration?. Andy Worthington. 2012-10-25. 2015-02-19. I have already discussed at length the profound injustice of holding Shawali Khan and Abdul Ghani, in articles here and here, and noted how their cases discredit America, as Khan, against whom no evidence of wrongdoing exists, nevertheless had his habeas corpus petition denied, and Ghani, a thoroughly insignificant scrap metal merchant, was put forward for a trial by military commission — a war crimes trial — under President Bush..
  19. Web site: Andy Worthington. Does Obama Really Know or Care About Who Is at Guantánamo?. June 11, 2010. July 21, 2010. 2010-06-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20100616161842/http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/06/11/does-obama-really-know-or-care-about-who-is-at-guantanamo. live.
  20. News: Justice task force recommends about 50 Guantanamo detainees be held indefinitely . Peter Finn . Washington Post . January 22, 2010 . July 21, 2010 . 2015-05-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150504225142/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/21/AR2010012104936.html . live.
  21. News: Most Guantanamo detainees low-level fighters, task force report says . Peter Finn . Washington Post . May 29, 2010 . July 21, 2010 . 2015-05-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150510052105/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/28/AR2010052803873.html . live.
  22. News: 71 Guantanamo Detainees Determined Eligible to Receive a Periodic Review Board as of April 19, 2013. Joint Review Task Force. 2013-04-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150519230955/https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1020057-guantanamo-parole-list.html. 2015-05-19. 2015-05-18. live .
  23. News: Obama pledge to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees sparks diplomatic maneuvering for detainees . . 2013-07-13 . 2013-07-13 . 2013-07-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130713193052/http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/13/obama-pledge-to-transfer-guantanamo-bay-detainees-sparks-diplomatic-maneuvering/ . dead . Cynamon said that's even though the Kuwaiti government built a rehabilitation center for former Guantanamo detainees at the request of Bush administration officials, after another former detainee carried out a suicide bombing that killed at least seven people in Iraq. The center, a section of the Kuwaiti central prison designed for medical and psychological treatment and religious counseling to ensure the detainees will peacefully reintegrate into society, has not been used..
  24. News: Kuwait Re-Affirms Keenness on Releasing Last Kuwaiti Detainee from Guantanamo. Qatar News Agency. 2015-05-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20150514111820/http://www.menafn.com/1094213268/Kuwait-Re-Affirms-Keenness-on-Releasing-Last-Kuwaiti-Detainee-from-Guantanamo. 2015-05-14. live . Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sabah, who met the joint committee for follow-up on the detainees' issue in Guantanamo in Washington last night, said in a statement to (KUNA) News Agency that the Emir of Kuwait devotes utmost concern for this case, personally following up on its developments and outcome of talks between Kuwaiti and US authorities in this respect..

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