Nicholas Kristof wrote an article in today’s New York Times, When We Torture, that mentions Adel Hamad’s unconscionable detention. The article focuses on the treatment of one of the other Sudanese detainees, Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj, who remains in Guantanamo to this day. He has been on a hunger strike protesting the abuse he has suffered during his six year detention.
One indication that the government doesn’t take its own charges seriously, the lawyers say, is that the United States offered al-Hajj a deal: immediate freedom if he would spy on al-Jazeera. Al-Hajj refused.
Kristof continues:
Al-Hajj cannot bend his knees because of abuse he received soon after his arrest, yet the toilet chair he was prescribed was removed - making it excruciating for him to use the remaining squat toilet. He is allowed a Koran, but his glasses were confiscated so he cannot read it.
All this is inhumane, but also boneheaded. Guantánamo itself does far more damage to American interests than al-Hajj could ever do.
To stand against torture and arbitrary detention is not to be squeamish. It is to be civilized.
It is well worth the read (click on the title above to open a link to it.)
Since returning to Sudan, Adel has continued to pursue justice for the detainees who remain at Guantanamo uncharged. He is also fighting in U.S. court on two fronts. 1)He is trying to clear his name as an enemy combatant through a habeas corpus petition. Work and travel restrictions still remain until his name is officially cleared. 2)He is suing in U.S. court for compensation for his 5 year incarceration without evidence ever being brought against him.
Amazingly, Adel Hamad harbors no ill will towards America. In this article he eloquently states his case with the following quote:
“We don’t want animosity, we just want to respect America again,” says Hamad, speaking in English phrases he learned while in prison. “The American conscience and the American people need to return to the great concepts established by the Founding Fathers, of freedom, democracy, equality, and justice. All these values and even the justice system are being shaken, played with.”
William Teesdale and Steve Wax have just got off the phone with Adel Hamad, back at his home in Sudan. Tired but happy, Adel expressed thanks to all of us, particularly about all the publicity generated around his case. Below is the press release just issued by Steve Wax of the Federal Public Defenders Office with more quotes from Adel Hamad from his home in Sudan:
The Federal Public Defender for the District of Oregon is pleased to
announce the repatriation of two of its clients from the United States prison at
Guantánamo - Adel Hassan Hamad to Sudan and Chaman Gul to Afghanistan.
Mr. Hamad had a joyful reunion with his family and friends early Thursday
morning Khartoum time. Speaking over the noise of the celebration, he told his
lawyers, “I thank God almighty and express my gratefulness to you. I can finally
see the light after the darkness.”
Mr. Hamad is an innocent hospital administrator and aid worker from Sudan
who spent nearly five years in Guantánamo after being arrested in his bed in his
home in Peshawar, Pakistan where he had been living with his family and working for an international charity. Since being assigned to represent Mr. Hamad in October 2005, Federal Defender Steven Wax and his staff have been working to clear his name. In August 2006, Federal Defender Investigator and Attorney William Teesdale traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan and obtained ten sworn statements from Mr. Hamad’s employer, doctors at the hospital, Afghan government officials, and his landlord. In April 2007, Mr. Teesdale and Mr. Wax traveled to Sudan and gathered additional evidence of Mr. Hamad’s innocence.
Mr. Hamad was approved for transfer from Guantánamo in November 2005. In addition to gathering evidence of his innocence, his attorneys worked hard at getting the Sudanese and United States government’s to agree on his repatriation. Mr. Hamad became one of the visible faces among the prisoners at Guantánamo as the story of imprisonment of this innocent man was spread around the world. While Mr. Hamad and his attorneys are thrilled that he is finally home, the fight to clear his name goes on. As Mr. Hamad told his attorneys, “I still want justice.” In the labyrinthine world of the military, his repatriation was called a transfer, not a release. He will continue to press the United States Military to hold a hearing based on the evidence of innocence submitted by his attorneys to clear his name. He will also continue to press the habeas corpus and Detainee Treatment Act cases pending in the District of Columbia courts through which he has been attempting to secure release and clear his name since 2005.
Chaman Gul, the Federal Defender’s other client released this week, is not as
fortunate as Mr. Hamad. He has been transferred to Unit D of the Policharki
prison recently built outside Kabul with United States assistance. All Afghans sent
back from Guantánamo in recent months have been locked up in Policharki. It is
not clear how much control the United States continues to have over them and
what rights they will have there.
Nearly 300 prisoners remain in Guantánamo, including three of the Federal
Defender’s original seven clients. The fight for their freedom and the fight to
restore habeas corpus rights goes on in the courts. Having twice rejected the
administration’s overly expansive view of its powers under the Constitution, the
Supreme Court heard arguments last week on a third round of litigation designed to restore the proper balance under our Constitution.
We finally have some great news to report. Adel Hamad is back in Sudan. Over two years after being cleared for transfer, Adel Hamad has finally arrived in Khartoum and was immediately released and allowed to reunite with his family. Earlier this week the U.S. government had announced the transfer of 15 Guantanamo detainees, two of them Sudanese. The Sudanese government believed that one of those detainees would be Adel Hamad but we had no confirmation that indeed he was on that plane until this morning. William Teesdale, his legal counsel from the Federal Public Defenders Office of Oregon, should be talking to him within the next hour or two.
We at Project Hamad want to thank everyone for your efforts and for keeping hope alive.
We will post again soon about the implications of Hamad’s release. His lawyers hope to press the U.S. government to still give Adel Hamad his new CSRT hearing so he can truly clear his name. And we must remember that Adel is only one of many detainees cleared for transfer long ago, but who remain in legal limbo at Guantanamo. Adel Hamad’s downstairs neighbor in Pakistan, Ameur Mammar, detainee #939, is just one of many examples. Lets keep them in our hearts while we celebrate Hamad’s release.
Today the Supreme Court hears arguments concerning the rights of detainees at Guantanamo. Because of this there has been a reemergence of interest in the media regarding Adel Hamad.
Project Hamad appeared on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Morning Edition with host April Baer. You can listen to the the program here: Portlanders Keep an Eye on Detainees’ Cases.
British journalist Andy Worthington wrote a piece entitled Guantanamo Whistleblower Launces New Attack on Rigged Tribunals, that appeared on Counterpunch and the Huffington Post. In this article he discusses the importance of the sworn testimony of Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Abraham in the upcoming Supreme Court cases. Adel Hamad’s lawyers obtained this sworn testimony on behalf of Adel Hamad’s case but because of how damning it is to the legitimacy of the Guantanamo tribunal system it should play prominently in the arguments on behalf of the detainees this week.
Lastly, we have put several of the important documents on the Project Hamad website. You can find them here.
They include the following as pdf documents:
1)Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham’s declaration about the serious flaws in the CSRT process. The declaration of an officer intimately involved in the Combatant Status Review Tribunal process, showing among other things that pressure was exerted to find all detainees as enemy combatants, and that evidence in favor of a detainee’s innocence was never reviewed. This declaration will play a role in the upcoming review of detainee rights by the Supreme Court.
2)Declaration of William Teesdale concerning the negotiations between Sudan and the State Department for Adel Hamad’s release. Many detainees cleared for release remain in Guantanamo. For years, the U.S. has blamed the detainee’s home country for this, claiming that the home country was unwilling to cooperate with the United States in repatriating their citizens. This document not only exposes the lie to this argument, but actually reveals the U.S. government’s continued efforts to delay and frustrate attempts by the Sudanese government to gain the release of their citizens.
3) Notice of Adel Hamad’s New Tribunal. A year has passed since new evidence was submitted in district court on Adel Hamad’s behalf. Only now, now that the court has agreed to hear oral arguments in Hamad v Bush, has the U.S. government suddenly agreed to a new tribunal for Hamad. It is probably both an attempt to avoid having a legal opinion go against them and an attempt to regain control of the process again. If Hamad ever gets this new Tribunal, and it is performed with some semblance of justice, it would be an opportunity to show that no evidence has been presented to lawfully hold him as an enemy combatant.
Adel Hamad’s lawyers have been working on two fronts simultaneously on his behalf. The first front, which we have discussed previously here at Project Hamad, is the attempt to expedite his release. It involved traveling to Sudan to discuss his situation with the Sudanese government. It prompted the Sudanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs to travel to the U.S. on behalf of the Sudanese detainees. It also raised the profile of Adel Hamad in his home country. During a visit to the Sudanese Embassy in Washington D.C., William Teesdale was shown a United States government document revealing that Hamad was approved for transfer to Sudan in November 2005, now two years ago, a fact that the U.S. government kept from Hamad’s own defense team.
The second front is the attempt to clear his name and remove the designation of “enemy combatant.” The Federal Public Defenders Office of Oregon filed a formal petition under the Detainee Treatment Act in D.C. court of appeals to challenge Mr. Hamad’s indefinite detention. They obtained a statement from the Army Major who sat on Hamad’s CSRT (and the CSRT of 48 others), calling his detention “unconscionable”. This Major gave sworn testimony in D.C. district court that was not only damning to the legitimacy of Adel Hamad’s detention, but to the entire Tribunal process’ legitimacy. Among other things, he cited that evidence in favor of detainees’ innocence was never reviewed, no training was given in how to weigh evidence, and pressure was applied from above to declare detainees as enemy combatants, so much so that detainees who were ruled non-enemy combatants were given new CSRTs to have the decisions reversed.
The pleading includee a new statement from Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, another officer formerly assigned to assist with the gathering of government information to be used in the tribunal review process. Below are two excerpts from his testimony:
“Not only was no independent effort ever made to verify or disprove claims of innocence, the detainees were unable to obtain evidence from witnesses they themselves identified.”
“Detainee claims of innocence often could have been corroborated or disproved by a few simple inquiries. For example, if a detainee told interrogators that he had worked at a hospital in Afghanistan, OARDEC could have required that an agency with regional or functional purview locate and obtain records from the hospital and interview personnel there.”
This new evidence was presented in November of 2006. Just now, a full year later, the circuit court granted oral arguments on Hamad’s case. The government responded by deciding to grant him a new CSRT and moved to stay the briefing. The timing is telling and consistent with other maneuvers by the government to forestall or avoid rulings that would inhibit Executive power. Only after the courts granted oral arguments did the government agree to grant a new CSRT. They apparently did not want these arguments to be made in court, and with the new CSRT they are again entirely in control of the process.
Thus, Adel Hamad remains in legal limbo. For the two years he has been on a transfer list. His lawyers attempts to get him a new CSRT hearing to clear his name went unheeded under the argument that he was being transferred soon, a statement belied by the sober fact that Hamad remains imprisoned to this day.. Now that the judicial system is ready to hear arguments that are damning to the administration’s position they are, all of a sudden,wanting to do a new CSRT in an attempt to make the arguments against them moot. It is unclear if the administration must adhere to any timetable with regards to Hamad’s new tribunal but we can hope that continued pressure from his legal team and from the public will make it that much more difficult to hold an innocent man for much longer.
We are writing today because there is a simple act you can do that can
make a world of difference.
We recently sat down with the lawyers of Adel Hamad to get an update
on his situation. We learned that the newest head of Guantanamo has
moved the vast majority of the detainees into 22 hour total lock down.
This is complete isolation from human contact with a mere 2 hours of
“recreation time” occurring in a small concrete room, not outdoors,
and often in the middle of the night. Needless to say, more and more
cases of psychosis and other significant psychiatric conditions are
arising from indefinite detention under these conditions.
Fortunately Adel Hamad is one of about 50 detainees not in lockdown
but morale is still at an all-time low. He has watched many
detainees, some of whom have actual evidence against them, get
released simply because the United States has good relations with
their home countries (Britain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia etc.). Others
like him—where the government has produced no evidence– hospital
administrators, fruit vendors, people turned in because of bounties
offered by the U.S. or Pakistanis simply for being foreigners or
looking different– remain at Guantanamo for no other reason than the
U.S. is not friendly with their country of origin.
Hamad’s lawyers have just now learned, from their recent trip to
Sudan, that he was cleared for transfer in November of 2005, TWO YEARS
AGO. The U.S. government never shared this information with his own
defense team and obviously do not seem to feel any obligation to
expedite the release of a man that they have charged with no crime.
But we aren’t writing you to share yet another piece of depressing
news you can do nothing about. For the last 10 months we have been
encouraging Project Hamad members to write Adel Hamad at Guantanamo,
to make sure the U.S. government knows he has not been forgotten. We
were operating under the assumption that he might never see the
letters. But he mentioned them to his lawyers as the only bright spot
in an otherwise grim existence.. A parish from the midwest that had
organized a letter writing campaign on his behalf, has received
letters back from Hamad, thanking them, and wishing them well.
We are hoping that you will take a moment, with the two year
anniversary of his “transfer approval” approaching, and write Adel
Hamad.
Adel Hamad (ISN 940)
Camp Delta
P.O. Box 160
Washington DC 20053
USA
Happy 5th Anniversary for Adel Hamad! July 18th marks five years at Camp Guantanamo.
Join Project Hamad in sending out anniversary cards to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Sec. of Defense Robert Gates and others, to commemorate Adel Hamad’s five
years behind bars with no charge.
The good news: Adel Hamad is on the release list!
The bad news:
Adel Hamad has been on the release list for many months and possibly internally for years with no end in sight. Additionally there’s no guarantee that he won’t face further prosecution or detention if he returns to Sudan.
Help us send anniversary cards now so you don’t have to send the 10-year…
Who to send anniversary cards to:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20520
Navy Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris
Commander Joint Task Force Guantánamo
Department of Defense
Joint Task Force Guantánamo
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba
APO AE 09360
Fax: +1 305 437 1241
Email: harrishb@jtfgtmo.southcom.mil
Salutation: Dear Rear Admiral
Brigadier General Cameron Crawford
Deputy Commander United States Southern Command
3511 NW 91st Ave., Miami, FL, 33172-1217
USA
Fax: +1 305 437 1077
Salutation: Dear Brigadier General
Email via: http://www.southcom.mil/home/
The Honorable Robert M. Gates
Secretary of Defence
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington DC 20301, USA
Fax: + 1 703 697 8339
Email via: http://www.defenselink.mil/faq/comment.asp
Salutation: Dear Secretary of Defense
Laura, David and Ben.
p.s. NPR recently featured a piece about a poetry collection by Guantanamo inmates being published by University of Iowa. Many of the poems were scratched out in white styrofoam cups after their pencils were removed. Pre-order a copy here: Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak
“Poems from Guantanamo brings to light figures of concrete, individual humanity,against the fabric of cruelty woven by the ‘war on terror.’ The poems and poets’ biographies reveal one dimension of this officially obscured narrative, from the perspective of the sufferers; the legal and literary essays provide the context which has produced–under atrocious circumstances–a poetics of human dignity.”–Adrienne Rich
Also, British writer and historian Andy Worthington sent us a link to his piece on Guantanamo whistle-blowers. His book, The Guantanamo Files tells the stories of Guantanamo detainees and is due out in October.
The good news: