DOHA, Qatar, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- On Jan. 11, 2002, the first photographs of 20 blindfolded, manacled men in orange jumpsuits being offloaded from a C-141 transport plane in Cuba after a 15-hour flight from Kandahar, Afghanistan, stunned the world and sparked a torrent of international criticism.
But other flights would soon follow, eventually filling the Camp Delta detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with around 660 men.
The images of the hooded and manacled men, prisoners taken during the successful U.S. military operations against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, triggered a global debate about the legality of the detentions and the status of the inmates of Camp Delta, as U.S. officials insisted that as associates of terrorism the detainees were not entitled to the protections normally accorded prisoners of war.
Lawyer Najeeb bin Mohammad Ahmed al-Nauimi, a former minister of Justice in Qatar, decided to try to defend the men designated by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as "unlawful combatants" and "detainees."
Since al-Nauimi began his lonely crusade, he has sent out a flurry of some 12,000 e-mail messages, faxes and phone calls and now represents the families of 96 men interned at Camp Delta. Desperate family members have sought al-Nauimi out; in a number of cases they are fearful their own governments won't help their loved ones, while others are afraid to grant al-Nauimi power of attorney.
Al-Nauimi's academic credentials are impressive, including a law degree from Egypt's Alexandria University and a doctoral degree in International Law from Scotland's Dundee University. He is also a member of Amnesty International, the human rights organization that defends prisoners of conscience worldwide.
America's slippery road into international legal limbo began on Nov. 13, 2001, the day Northern Alliance troops captured Kabul from Taliban forces. The same day President George W. Bush issued a presidential directive, "Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism," directing the secretary of Defense to "take all necessary measures to ensure that any individual subject to this order is detained in accordance with section 3," which allows for individuals to be "detained at an appropriate location designated by the Secretary of Defense outside or within the United States."
Al-Nauimi is doing his work for the detainees for free. A number of lawyers initially approached him about working together, but backed off when they learned he was doing it pro bono. He estimates the age of his 96 clients ranges from 18 to 33 years old and notes most went to Afghanistan and Pakistan in July-August 2001. Al-Nauimi dismisses the idea most could have joined al-Qaida or the Taliban and been trained in such a short time. Instead, he says, many were engaged in charity work required by their faith when they got caught up in the tides of war.
When asked how many detainees were at Camp Delta, al-Nauimi replied, according to his contacts, there were "more than 600. They (the Pentagon) mention 660 at DefenseLink.com. There are more because there were many people who were arrested after Afghanistan and Pakistan ... We believe that there are over 700-something maybe to 800. We think that it more than what has been stated."
When asked about the list of detainees United Press International published Feb. 4, al-Nauimi noted his intelligence listed 12 or 13 Sudanese in Camp Delta, not five as reported by UPI.
He also said he believed Libya has more than two (Tripoli's figures) of its citizens in Camp Delta. Al-Nauimi also thought UPI's figure of two Syrians was too low, placing the actual number at five or six.
On Saudi detainees, al-Nauimi noted UPI's figure of 160 and commented that while Riyadh officially puts the number of Saudi detainees at 127, "our information" lists 150 names.
In discussing UPI's number of 82 Pakistanis, al-Nauimi replied, "They told me, I said there are 84/85. They said 'no, no, no. There are more.' How would I know?"
Al-Nauimi thought UPI's single Spanish detainee was too low, placing the actual number of Spaniards at "around six." He also said there were Lebanese in Camp Delta, but did not have a precise figure. In discussing the UPI list, al-Nauimi said of the UPI research, "You did good."
When queried about the statements in UPI's article where an official at the Yemeni Embassy cast doubt on the number of Yemeni nationals detained at Guantanamo, al-Nauimi replied, "No, No. Not accurate. For example, officially, non-officially in fact, they tried to bring the Yemenis to 85 detainees. The Yemenis themselves, families are telling me, "no, there are more than 85 detained there.'" When told that UPI had determined that 110 Yemeni were being held in Guantanamo al-Nauimi replied, "Maybe that's correct."
Al-Nauimi also spoke at length about al-Jazeera's Sudanese cameraman Sami al-Haj, who was freed last week. Al-Nauimi noted when al-Haj was detained in December 2002 in Pakistan, he had been in Afghanistan covering events there for over two months, and his broadcasts were seen around the world. When he attempted to receive a visa to re-enter Afghanistan in December 2001 and continue his work, he was arrested in a joint Pakistani-FBI operation despite having his media credentials. They told him, "We just want to make sure that your passport is really a genuine one." The next thing his wife knew was when he called her from Kabul, where he said he had been taken for verifying his passport. He told her, "Soon I will be released, I'll be back." She never heard his voice from that day.
Al-Nauimi also noted that he is a member of Amnesty International, and will participate in an international conference on the Yemenis detained in Cuba in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in April. He has also founded a committee called "The Committee for the Defense of the Detainees." He said he had two lawyers agree to work with him and noted a number of detainees' families, besides the ones he represents, have also retained counsel.
When al-Nuaimi held his first meeting in May 2002 with Defense Department officials, "they just listened." While al-Nauimi was promised on his second visit he could meet some detainees, the meetings never took place. Al-Nauimi said, "I think that there were objections." Things have now progressed to the point where he is in discussions with the Defense Department to act as the detainees' general counsel.
While the Pentagon has made every effort to convince the public the entire operation has been smoothly organized and run, in one case al-Nauimi's remarks seemed to indicate the opposite was true. Military authorities determined Yaser Esam Hamdi was in fact an American citizen of Saudi descent born in east Baton Rouge, La., on Sept. 26, 1980.
After discovering Hamdi's American nationality, the Defense Department flew him on April 2, 2002, to Washington to be transferred to custody of the Department of Justice. Hamdi was the first Camp X-Ray detainee to be transferred from Cuba. While on the runway in Washington, Justice Department officials asked for al-Hamdi's file, only to be informed there was none. When informed by Justice Department officials they could not take custody of Hamdi without documentation but instead would have to release him, Hamdi was subsequently transferred to the Navy brig in Norfolk, Va.
Al-Nauimi noted justice was beginning to move, and trials may begin as early as the end of March. Al-Nauimi's own preference for the trial venue is the International Court of Justice in The Hague, but he is prepared to represent his clients in whatever venue the U.S. government eventually chooses.
The Bush administration is in a legal tangle of its own making. Washington refuses to release the names, nationalities or even numbers of the detainees on grounds of secrecy.
The ongoing legal limbo of the Camp Delta detainees has strained relations with such close allies as Britain and Canada, and finally led to agreements to return the British nationals -- apparently as a special favor to a close ally -- to British custody. The negative effect on public opinion in less friendly countries is not easy to measure, but the detention has provoked strong criticism of the detentions in newspaper editorials around the world.
Italy's la Reppublica has urged: "It is absolutely essential, for the ultimate success of the fight against terrorism, that the detention, the trials, and the verdicts are not only humane, but exemplary of everything that the rhetorical formula of 'Western civilization' represents." Spain's el Mundo said the transfer of the detainees to Guantanamo was "a medieval deed and discredits any government." The Saudi Riyadh Daily said in an editorial "While the human rights record of the Americans remains more or less unblemished in general terms, it is truly appalling that they have sought, as reports indicate, to bury human decency when it comes to the Afghan prisoners."
