Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Abdul Ghani the 41 year old Afghanistani detainee currently held in the US Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, has been featured in an article by Lt Col Barry Wingard published in Close Guantanamo  titled ‘Why Not Release Abdul Ghani?’. Wingard states “…Abdul Ghani, a man by all accounts guilty of nothing more than mistaken identity and kept ten years without trial for having a common name and being in the wrong place at the wrong time? …Before his capture, Abdul farmed and hustled to make ends meet by harvesting pomengranates and collecting metal for resale in the local markets. All of the villagers in Khoshab are anxious for Abdul Ghani’s return. He continues to maintain a good reputation, and the villagers support his release and would support him in becoming reintegrated into his former profession as a farmer. He intends to once again become a valued member of the local village community, and will remain under the supervision of his brothers and village elders. His fiancée, a lady who has patiently waited for him through all these years is even more anxious for the day Abdul Ghani returns and they are able to begin their lives together anew. Abdul Ghani is nothing more than a hard working farmer and active member of his local village. For ten years, that simple lifestyle has been disrupted unnecessarily, and the time has long since passed for his return home. He has patiently waited for his release while maintaining his Afghan honor, and is ready to return to an active life of community involvement and farming his lands. Essentially, he is eager to reclaim the life that has been taken from him during all these years of captivity…his captors may have the money and power, but we have the truth.”

Inspired by Barry Wingard, CloseGuantanamo ow.ly/lDZEc Image source CloseGuantanamo ow.ly/lDZe3

David H Remes the 58 year old American lawyer recognized for his human rights work notable for volunteering to serve as a pro bono attorney for some of the captives held in extrajudicial detention in the US Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba has published an article titled ‘The Tragic Death of Adnan Latif: What is the Military Trying to Hide?’ on Firedoglake by Jeff Kaye. Remes states “…Truthout first reported, the US military began saying that my client Adnan Latif, a Yemeni at Guantanamo, who died in his cell on September 8, committed suicide by overdosing on medication he smuggled into his cell. On Saturday, December 15, the military further stated that acute pneumonia was a contributing factor in Adnan’s death. The government’s theory doesn’t stand up. It leaves urgent questions unanswered. …is it plausible that Adnan smuggled medication into his cell, much less kept and used it? Or did the military, perhaps, plant medication in his cell to facilitate his suicide? (Other detainees have reported such apparent suicide prompts.) Did Adnan actually commit suicide, or was he forced to take the medication? Was he tricked? Did he even die of overmedication? What medications was Adnan administered? In what doses and on what schedule? How were the medications administered—By injection? Orally? If orally, how were they administered—As pills? Capsules? Liquids? Solutions? Where were the medications administered—in Adnan’s cell? The hallway? A dispensary? Somewhere else? …the military disclosed, out of the blue, that acute pneumonia was a contributing factor in Adnan’s death. Why did the military wait to disclose that information? The military continues to withhold the other information in the autopsy report. Why the selective disclosure? And how could the military have discharged from the hospital a man with acute pneumonia? …The autopsy report undoubtedly answers many of these questions. Yet the military will not release the report. Why is the military stonewalling? What is the military trying to hide?”

Inspired by Jeff Kaye, Firedoglake ow.ly/jBeGb Image source Twitter ow.ly/jBeCh

Omar Deghayes the 43 year old Libyan with residency status in the UK, having been arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and  taken into US military custody, was sent onto Guantanamo Bay detention camp where he was blinded permanently in one eye after a guard used fingers to gouge his eyes. Deghayes had moved temporarily to Pakistan with his Afghan wife and child, where he was arrested along with his family by bounty hunters in Pakistan and taken to the Bagram Internment Facility, prior to being sent onto Cuba. His wife and child were later released. Deghayes states “…troops marched into his cellblock ‘singing and laughing’ before spraying his face with mace and digging their fingers into his eyes as an officer shouted ‘More! More.’ …My eye has gone a milky white color… Matt Sledge in an article for Huffington Post states “…spending six years in Guantanamo. He was never charged with or convicted of any crime, but it took strenuous pressure from United Kingdom authorities to win his release during the waning days of the Bush administration. Since then he has transformed himself into an anti-Guantanamo campaigner in the UK. He has mixed feelings about the camp’s recently passed 11th anniversary. “To an extent it’s good because it does make people aware that Guantanamo still exists,” Deghayes said. But for Deghayes the anniversaries take on a more personal meaning than an excuse for speech making or press releases. …whenever such an anniversary rolls around, “All this comes back to memory, the mistreatment there.” Obama, he said, has been “a real big disappointment to many of the human rights groups and people who care about justice.” “Look at the people who committed all the crimes before Obama. He said let’s look forward and we don’t want to bring justice. That’s turning a blind eye, I don’t think anybody can excuse that.”

Inspired by Matt Sledge, Huffington Post ow.ly/hYADV Image source Tobias Klenze ow.ly/hYAqg

Fawzi [Fouzi] Khaled Abdullah Fahad Al Odah the 35 year old Kuwaiti citizen and teacher held in the US Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba for the past 11 years without charge has been featured in the New York Times. Fawzi traveled to the Pakistan/Afghanistan border area in order to undertake charitable outreach work. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Fawzi fled Afghanistan, intending to return home to Kuwait, however having crossed the border into Pakistan he was captured by Pakistani bounty hunters who handed him along with eleven other Kuwaitis over to American authorities. The Kuwait Freedom Project established to seek the release of Fawzi and other Kuwaiti detainee’s reports that Fawzi spent his summers traveling in poor nations to educate less fortunate students, and along with his family have built libraries and wells in Africa. They’ve sponsored orphans in countries including Albania. Fawzi has not had any weapons training or experience, writing to his parents in 2002 stating, “Now I am detained by the American forces and investigations are still going on…I will be established as innocent soon, and then I will return back to you…” Fawzi’s father, Khalid Al-Odah, is the head of the Kuwaiti Family Committee, an organization formed by relatives of the detainees to advocate for their just treatment under the U.S. judicial system. The elder Al-Odah is a former member of the Kuwaiti Air Force, who trained with American servicemen in the United States and flew missions with them as an ally in the Persian Gulf War of 1991. … The U.S. Government contends that Fawzi’s true purpose in Afghanistan was to join the Taliban and al Qaeda referring to “additional incriminating evidence” discovered since his capture, however the nature of that evidence is redacted in the unclassified version…”

Inspired by Project Kuwaiti Freedom ow.ly/hMvRJ Image source Wikipedia ow.ly/hMvQa