Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Seattle Times
December 14, 2007 By Ben Fox, Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A Sudanese aid worker whose detention without charge at Guantánamo inspired a well-organized campaign for his release — including a YouTube video featuring actor Martin Sheen — returned home Thursday after more than five years in custody.
The U.S. announced late Wednesday that Adel Hassan Hamad, along with another Sudanese detainee and 13 Afghans, had been released, reducing the number of men still held at Guantánamo to about 290.
Hamad and Sudanese detainee Salim Mahmoud Adam spoke to reporters at the Khartoum airport, complaining of their treatment at Guantánamo and expressing fear about the health of a fellow Sudanese prisoner — a journalist from Al-Jazeera TV — who is on a hunger strike at the U.S. military prison in Cuba.
Later, Hamad spoke by telephone with his American lawyers while spending his first hours of freedom at home with his wife and four daughters.
"It is an overwhelming experience after more than five years in prison," said Steven Wax, part of a team of attorneys from the Federal Public Defender's office in Portland, which represented Hamad.
At their client's request, the lawyers will continue to press the military to reverse its finding that the aid worker was an "enemy combatant" who had to be detained at the U.S. Navy base.
"He wants justice, and that means clearing his name," Wax said.
The Oregon lawyers also represent Chaman Gul, one of the Afghans transferred out of Guantánamo on Wednesday. That detainee was sent to the Policharki prison outside Kabul, they said.
Hamad, 49, who was arrested in Pakistan in July 2002, had been cleared by a military review panel for transfer from Guantánamo more than two years ago. His attorneys think his release was delayed in part because of tension between the U.S. and Sudanese governments over the Darfur conflict.
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, said the U.S. had reached a "significant milestone" in reducing the number of detainees at Guantánamo to fewer than 300. The government is negotiating with countries to accept dozens more.
Hamad was accused of having ties to organizations that provided financial and logistical support to jihadists and al-Qaida, but his lawyers insisted he had no connection to terrorism.
One of the three U.S. military officers who presided over the tribunal that designated him an enemy combatant concluded there was no evidence that Hamad had engaged in wrongdoing. The officer called his detention "unconscionable."
The campaign for his freedom was particularly well-organized, with a Web site and YouTube videos — including the one featuring Sheen, who complains Hamad was being held despite the fact that "all the evidence gathered confirms he is an innocent man, a hardworking hospital administrator."
Hamad worked as a hospital administrator for the World Assembly of Muslim Youth in Chamkani, Afghanistan, and Peshawar, Pakistan, according to his lawyers.
December 14, 2007 By Ben Fox, Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A Sudanese aid worker whose detention without charge at Guantánamo inspired a well-organized campaign for his release — including a YouTube video featuring actor Martin Sheen — returned home Thursday after more than five years in custody.
The U.S. announced late Wednesday that Adel Hassan Hamad, along with another Sudanese detainee and 13 Afghans, had been released, reducing the number of men still held at Guantánamo to about 290.
Hamad and Sudanese detainee Salim Mahmoud Adam spoke to reporters at the Khartoum airport, complaining of their treatment at Guantánamo and expressing fear about the health of a fellow Sudanese prisoner — a journalist from Al-Jazeera TV — who is on a hunger strike at the U.S. military prison in Cuba.
Later, Hamad spoke by telephone with his American lawyers while spending his first hours of freedom at home with his wife and four daughters.
"It is an overwhelming experience after more than five years in prison," said Steven Wax, part of a team of attorneys from the Federal Public Defender's office in Portland, which represented Hamad.
At their client's request, the lawyers will continue to press the military to reverse its finding that the aid worker was an "enemy combatant" who had to be detained at the U.S. Navy base.
"He wants justice, and that means clearing his name," Wax said.
The Oregon lawyers also represent Chaman Gul, one of the Afghans transferred out of Guantánamo on Wednesday. That detainee was sent to the Policharki prison outside Kabul, they said.
Hamad, 49, who was arrested in Pakistan in July 2002, had been cleared by a military review panel for transfer from Guantánamo more than two years ago. His attorneys think his release was delayed in part because of tension between the U.S. and Sudanese governments over the Darfur conflict.
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, said the U.S. had reached a "significant milestone" in reducing the number of detainees at Guantánamo to fewer than 300. The government is negotiating with countries to accept dozens more.
Hamad was accused of having ties to organizations that provided financial and logistical support to jihadists and al-Qaida, but his lawyers insisted he had no connection to terrorism.
One of the three U.S. military officers who presided over the tribunal that designated him an enemy combatant concluded there was no evidence that Hamad had engaged in wrongdoing. The officer called his detention "unconscionable."
The campaign for his freedom was particularly well-organized, with a Web site and YouTube videos — including the one featuring Sheen, who complains Hamad was being held despite the fact that "all the evidence gathered confirms he is an innocent man, a hardworking hospital administrator."
Hamad worked as a hospital administrator for the World Assembly of Muslim Youth in Chamkani, Afghanistan, and Peshawar, Pakistan, according to his lawyers.