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Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari

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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]

Faiz Muhammed Ahmed Al Kandari
Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari's official Guantanamo identity portrait, showing him wearing the white uniform issued to "compliant" captives.
Born (1977-06-03) 3 June 1977 (age 47)[1][2]
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Detained at Guantanamo
ISN552
Charge(s)Charged October 2008, charges dropped
StatusReleased on 8 January 2016

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]

Detention in Bagram

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Combatant Status Review

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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]

  • Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari was listed as one of the captives who had faced charges before a military commission.[8]
  • Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... are members of Al Qaeda."[8]
  • Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... traveled to Afghanistan for jihad."[8]
  • Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges that the following detainees stayed in Al Qaeda, Taliban or other guest- or safehouses."[8]
  • Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... took military or terrorist training in Afghanistan."[8]
  • Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... were at Tora Bora."[8]
  • Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari was listed as one of the captives whose "names or aliases were found on material seized in raids on Al Qaeda safehouses and facilities."[8]
  • Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari was listed as one of the captives who was a member of the "al Qaeda leadership cadre".[8]
  • Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari was listed as one of the captives "currently at Guantánamo who have been charged before military commissions and are alleged Al Qaeda leaders."[8]

Hearsay evidence

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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:[9]

"Indeed, the evidence considered persuasive by the Tribunal is

made up almost entirely of hearsay evidence recorded by unidentified individuals with no first hand knowledge of the events they describe."

The study commented:[9]

"Outside of the CSRT process, this type of evidence is more commonly referred to as 'rumor'."

Comment from his lawyer Lieutenant Colonel Barry D. Wingard

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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:

"There simply is no evidence other than he is a Muslim in Afghanistan at the wrong time, other than double and triple hearsay statements, something i have never seen as justification for incarceration, let alone eight years."[11]

Mistreatment while in detention

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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:

"What do I feel? You know a mother's heart. I cry all the time and I never sleep at night."

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

"My first thought was that there is no way the United States government sank so low as to show my client to the world, caged like a circus animal."[14]

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

"Respect us or kill us. It is your choice. The US must take off its mask and kill us."

Habeas Corpus

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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.[15]

"The Department of Justice has been doing everything in its power to delay and obstruct these cases," said Cynamon

Cynamon's clients were picked up in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in the period after the 2001 U.S invasion of Afghanistan.

"They're not doing anything to move the case along, and doing everything to avoid it."

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

"None whatsoever."

In even more Habeas Corpus news, a Federal Judge in Washington is on a tear against alleged bad lawyering by the Justice Department.[16]

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.

"The responsibility lies with the higher ups in the Justice Department who have been pursuing a very aggressive and very successful strategy of delay for months"

Attorney Matthew Maclean said.

"The Supreme Court said in June of last year we were entitled to prompt habeas corpus review. ... Last month, ... for the first time in seven years, [the prisoners] were allowed to see the accusations against them."

US v. Al Kandari

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On 22 October 2008, the Office of Military Commissions filed charges against him.[17][18]

Joint Review Task Force

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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.[19][20][21][22] 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.[23] 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

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The first review was not convened until November 20, 2013.[24] 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

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In July 2013, Cynammon said the Obama administration was renewing repatriation negotiations after "years of radio silence".[25]

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.[26]

References

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  1. ^ "JTF- GTMO Detainee Assessment" (PDF). Department of Defense. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
  2. ^ Guantanamo Detainee Profile
  3. ^ OARDEC (15 May 2006). "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  4. ^ "The Guantanamo Docket - Faiz Mohammed Ahmed al Kandari". Projects.nytimes.com. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  5. ^ Fayiz Muhammad Ahmad Jamal Muhammad Al Kandari, The Daily Telegraph, 27 April 2011
  6. ^ "Pentagon repatriates last Kuwaiti prisoner at Guantanamo Bay - The Washington Post". The Washington Post.
  7. ^ Jenifer Fenton (16 August 2011). "Ten years on, Kuwaiti inmates fear indefinite Guantanamo detention". CNN. p. 2. Archived from the original on 19 January 2013. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Benjamin Wittes; Zaathira Wyne (16 December 2008). "The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study" (PDF). The Brookings Institution. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 May 2017. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  9. ^ a b c Mark Denbeaux, Joshua Denbeaux, David Gratz, John Gregorek, Matthew Darby, Shana Edwards, Shane Hartman, Daniel Mann, Megan Sassaman and Helen Skinner. "No-hearing hearings" (PDF). Seton Hall University School of Law. p. 17. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ "Gitmo detainees denied witnesses: Lawyer calls legal proceedings 'shams,'". NBC News. 17 November 2006. Retrieved 2 April 2007. The analysis of transcripts and records by two lawyers for Guantanamo detainees...
  11. ^ a b Lillian Thomas (10 May 2009). "Military attorneys risk careers to criticize practices at Guantanamo". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. 1. Retrieved 10 May 2009.
  12. ^ Barry Wingard (1 July 2009). "No Justice Today At Guantanamo". Washington Post. Retrieved 1 July 2009. [1]
  13. ^ Jenifer Fenton. "Kuwaiti families in legal limbo at Guantanamo - Features". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  14. ^ "Outrage Over Pentagon's Guantanamo "Propaganda" Video". Truth-out.org. Archived from the original on 22 November 2011. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  15. ^ Zachary Roth (10 April 2009). "Not Just State Secrets: Obama Continuing Bush's Stonewalling On Gitmo Cases, Lawyer Claims". TPMMuckraker. p. 1. Retrieved 10 April 2009. 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."
  16. ^ Josh Gerstein (6 April 2009). "Judge riled at DOJ in Gitmo case". Politico.com. p. 1. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  17. ^ "Kuwaiti Guantanamo detainee charges dropped". GulfNews.com. 30 June 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  18. ^ Carol Rosenberg (22 October 2008). "Pentagon accuses 2 Kuwaitis of war crimes". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 23 October 2008. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
  19. ^ Andy Worthington (25 October 2012). "Who Are the 55 Cleared Guantánamo Prisoners on the List Released by the Obama Administration?". Retrieved 19 February 2015. 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.
  20. ^ Andy Worthington (11 June 2010). "Does Obama Really Know or Care About Who Is at Guantánamo?". Archived from the original on 16 June 2010. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
  21. ^ Peter Finn (22 January 2010). "Justice task force recommends about 50 Guantanamo detainees be held indefinitely". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 4 May 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
  22. ^ Peter Finn (29 May 2010). "Most Guantanamo detainees low-level fighters, task force report says". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 10 May 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
  23. ^ "71 Guantanamo Detainees Determined Eligible to Receive a Periodic Review Board as of April 19, 2013". Joint Review Task Force. 9 April 2013. Archived from the original on 19 May 2015. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  24. ^ "Periodic Review Secretariat: Review Information". Periodic Review Secretariat. Archived from the original on 15 April 2016. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  25. ^ "Obama pledge to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees sparks diplomatic maneuvering for detainees". Fox News. 13 July 2013. Archived from the original on 13 July 2013. Retrieved 13 July 2013. 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.
  26. ^ "Kuwait Re-Affirms Keenness on Releasing Last Kuwaiti Detainee from Guantanamo". Qatar News Agency. 14 May 2015. Archived from the original on 14 May 2015. 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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