KUWAIT CITY, 18 January 2005 — A Kuwaiti heading a group lobbying for the release of his countrymen being held as suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay urged their US captors yesterday not to torture prisoners. Khaled Al-Odah’s comments follow the return to this Gulf state Sunday of the first of 11 Kuwaitis being held at the US Navy detention facility in Cuba since their arrest in Afghanistan during the US-led war on terror following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Nasser Al-Mutairi, 27, was briefly reunited with his younger brother at an undisclosed Kuwaiti airport before officials took him into custody for questioning about his detention and arrest in Afghanistan. It is unclear when he will be returned to his family.
Kuwait is one of the United States’ closest Middle Eastern allies, but Odah’s group has been lobbying fiercely for the release of its citizens captured after the attacks in New York and Washington. The group’s campaign to secure the release of detained Kuwaitis has been fueled by claims that some Guantanamo detainees have been mistreated by US military personnel while in custody.
“Stop torturing our sons,” Odah said during a press conference after Mutairi’s release. “(How can) a country that considers itself a beacon for human rights, freedoms and human dignities do this.” Odah, whose son Fawzi is among the remaining 10 Kuwaitis in US custody, cited recently released FBI documents that allege numbers prisoner abuse allegations at Guantanamo. US officials in Kuwait were not immediately available for comment.
The US Army says it will investigate the abuse allegations, but the military maintains most incidents occurred in 2002 when the prison was just opening, and that some of the interrogation techniques labeled as “aggressive” are no longer in use.
The American Civil Liberties Union last month released e-mails in which the FBI accused interrogators of inserting cigarettes in prisoners’ ears and shackling them into a fetal position for hours, forcing them to soil themselves. “We believe that our sons have had their share of these barbaric actions ... by investigators and guards,” Odah said without specify alleged abuses of Kuwaitis.
Tom Wilner, a lawyer appointed by Odah’s group and the Kuwaiti government, said in a conference call from Washington that what he knows about prisoner mistreatment at Guantanamo makes him “terribly embarrassed and very ashamed” as an American. “I can tell you that all of the prisoners at one time or another have been treated very badly,” he said.
Odah said he spoke briefly with Mutairi after his return and the former detainee told him the remaining Kuwaiti prisoners in Guantanamo were “well” and “comfortable.” Mutairi’s release was a “ray of hope” for the freeing of the others, said Odah.
