Abdallah al-Ajmi

Abdallah al-Ajmi
Detained at	Guantanamo
ISN	220
Charge(s)	no charge, held in extrajudicial detention

Abdallah Saleh Ali Al Ajmi is a Kuwaiti citizen, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo detainee ID is 220. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts reports that he was born on August 2 1978, in Almadi, Kuwait.

On September 2 2003 attorney Thomas Wilner filed a Petition for writ of Certiorari on behalf of Al Ajmi and eleven other Guantanamo detainees.

In April 2008 Al Ajmi was reported to have conducted a suicide attack in Iraq..

Identity

Captive 220's name was listed inconsistently.

• He was named Abdullah Saleh Ali Al Ajmi on the unclassified dossier the Department of Defense was forced to release to the Associated Press in early 2005.
• He was named Abdallah Salih Ali Al Ajmi on the Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his Administrative Review Board.
• He was named Abdallah Saleh Ali Al Ajmi on the official lists released on April 20 2006 and May 15 2006.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

Al Ajmi chose not to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. But the Associated Press acquired a copy of the unclassified dossier from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, which included his Unclassified Summary of Evidence memo.

Allegations

The allegations against Al Ajmi were:

a. The detainee is a Taliban fighter:

1. The detainee went AWOL from the Kuwaiti military in order to travel to Afghanistan to participate in the Jihad.
2. The detainee was issued an AK-47, ammunition and hand grenades by the Taliban.

b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.

1. The detainee admitted he was in Afghanistan fighting with the Taliban in the Bagram area.
2. The detainee was placed in a defensive position by the Taliban in order to block the Northern Alliance.
3. The detainee admitted spending eight months on the front line at the Aiubi Center, AF.'[sic]
4. The detainee admitted engaging in two or three fire fights with the Northern Alliance.
5. The detainee retreated to the Tora Bora region of AF and was later captured as he attempted to escape to Pakistan.

Earned mention in the "No-hearing hearings" study

According to the study entitled, No-hearing hearings, Al Ajmi was the first captive to have his Tribunal convened. His Tribunal was convened on August 2 2004.

The study notes:

"For that first hearing, the personal representative met with the detainee on July 31, 2004, two days after the CSRT procedures were promulgated. This was the only meeting between this detainee and his personal representative and it lasted only 10 minutes, including translation time. On Monday, August 2, 2004, two days after the meeting between the personal representative and the detainee, the CSRT Tribunal was empanelled, the hearing held, the classified evidence evaluated and the decision issued. This detainee did not participate in his CSRT

hearing."

Administrative Review Board hearing

Hearing room where Guantanamo captive's annual Administrative Review Board hearings convened for captives whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal had already determined they were an "enemy combatant".

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat -- or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

The factors for and against continuing to detain Al Ajmi were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3 2006.

The following primary factors favor continued detention:

A. Al Ajmi is a Taliban fighter:

1. Al Ajmi went AWOL from the Kuwaiti military in order to travel to Afghanistan participate in the Jihad.
2. Al Ajmi was issued an AK-47, ammunition and hand grenades by the Taliban.

B. Al Ajmi participated in military operations against the coalition.

1. Al Ajmi admitted he was in Afghanistan fighting with the Taliban in the Bagram area.
2. Al Ajmi was placed in a defensive position by the Taliban in order to block the Northern Alliance.
3. Al Ajmi admitted spending eight months on the front line at the Aiubi Center, Afghanistan.
4. Al Ajmi admitted engaging in two or three fire fights with the Northern Alliance.
5. Al Ajmi retreated to the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan and was later captured as he attempted to escape to Pakistan.

C. Al Ajmi is committed to jihad.

1. Al Ajmi went AWOL because he wanted to participate in the jihad in Afghanistan but could not get leave from the military.
2. In Aug 2004, Al Ajmi wanted to make sure that when the case goes before the Tribunal, they know that he now is a Jihadist, an enemy combatant, and that he will kill as many Americans as he possibly can.

D. Upon arrival at GTMO, Al Ajmi has been constantly in trouble. Al Ajmi's overall behavior has been aggressive and non-compliant, and he has resided in GTMO's disciplinary blocks throughout his detention.

E. Based upon a review of recommendations from U.S. agencies and classified and unclassified documents, Al Ajmi is regarded as a continued threat to the United States and its Allies.

The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

• No information available.

Al Ajmi's answers to the factors favoring continued detention

Al Ajmi answered each of the factors favoring his continued detention in turn.

• Al Ajmi denied participating in Jihad.
• Al Ajmi stated he went to Pakistan to learn and memorize the Koran -- he never traveled to Afghanistan.
• Al Ajmi denied any contact with the Taliban. He acknowledged that he had previously confessed to the allegations he was being asked to comment on -- but those were false confessions:

  "These statements were all said under pressure and threats. I couldn't take it. I couldn't bare [sic] the threats and suffering so I started saying things. When every detainee is captured they tell him that he is either Taliban or Al-Qaida and that is it. I couldn't bare [sic] the suffering and threatening and the pressure so I had to say I was from Taliban [sic]."

• Al Ajmi denied participating in military operations against the coalition.
• Al Ajmi denied being placed in a defensive position by the Taliban:

  "I am not an enemy combatant. I said this only because I was under pressure and threats and suffering."

• In response to the allegation that he admitted spending eight months in the front line at the Aiubi Center in Afghanistan, Al Ajmi responded:

  "I never entered Afghanistan. I never fougth with anyone. My intentions were to stay four months only but under the circumstances I had to stay for eight months. I never fought. My intentions were never to go to Afghanistan my intentions were to go to Pakistan.

• Al Ajmi denied participating in firefights, and he denied admitting he participated in firefights.
• In response to the allegation that he fled through Tora Bora Al Ajmi said he had never heard of Tora Bora.
• Al Ajmi asserted the group he went to study with, is a peaceful group.
• In response to the allegation that "In August 2004 Al Ajmi wanted to make sure that when the case went in front of the tribunal, that the tribunal members know that he is now a Jihadist, and enemy combatant and that he would kill as many Americans as he possibly can," Ajmi replied:
• "That is impossible that I would say such a thing. How could I fight the Americans? They were with me in the military in Kuwait. I would've fought them in Kuwait not here. How can I fight them here? How can I try to kill them here?"
• Al Ajmi denied being a trouble-maker in Guantanamo.
• In response to the recommendation that Al Ajmi was regarded as a continuing threat to the USA, Al Ajmi replied:

  "You are the judge and you are the president. You are everything here. You can do whatever you wish. I never meant harm to anybody. I never attacked anybody. I don't have a grudge against the Americans. It is up to you. You are the president and you will do whatever you wish.

Al Ajmi's responses to the questions from his Board's officers

Al Ajmi and one of the Board members had the following exchange:

Al Ajmi	My role was [sic] in this Tabligh [sic] to call people to pray, to do good. To let people know that there is an end to this world so they can pray and do well.
Board Member	Is it a religious organization?
Al Ajmi	Yes it is.
Board Member	Al Ajmi I believe that your dedication to your religion is genuine, what direction or path will that dedication take should you be released?
Al Ajmi	For peace.
Board Member	Ok, having said that I feel with that answer in mind than [sic] there is some sense of injustice on the part of your detention [sic]. Can that desire for peace and the anger you feel for the injustice coexist or live together?
Presiding Officer	Being detained here, does that affect your ideology of the peace concept that you just mentioned?
Al Ajmi	I don't blame the Americans for what they did by bringing us over here and detaining us over here. If I were in their place I would go out and look for terrorism all over the world like they did but I have a feeling it is going to be a just decision by the Americans. That is my feeling. I would do the same thing if I were in their shoes. I would capture the bad people, the terrorists and bring them over here and detain them.

Al Ajmi said he had never planned to go AWOL. He planned to go to Pakistan for religious study during his leave. He would have been back in time, except the war made travel for Arabs in Pakistan difficult.

Al Ajmi confirmed that he had never traveled to Afghanistan.

Repatriation and Acquittal

Al Ajmi was repatriated to Kuwait, and taken into Kuwaiti custody on November 3 2005.

Al Ajmi was freed, on bail, while he awaited trial. The five men trial began in March 2006, and were acquitted on July 22 2006.

The Washington Post reported that the two main charges were that the detainees had helped fund Al Wafa, an Afghan charity with ties to Al Qaeda, and that they had fought alongside the Taliban. Further, the prosecution argued that the detainees actions had endangered Kuwait's political standing and its relations with friendly nations.

The detainees' defense had argued that testimony secured in Guantanamo could not be used in Kuwaiti courts, because the detainees and interrogators hadn't signed them. Further, they had argued, the allegations the USA had directed at them weren't violations of Kuwaiti law.

Suicide Bombing after Release

On May 1, 2008, Al Ajmi's cousin told Al Arabiya television that Al Ajmi had carried out a suicide bombing in Mosul, Iraq.

See also

• Abdul-Aziz al-Shimmiri
• Adel Zamel Abdul-Mohsen
• Saad Madhi al-Azmi
• Mohammed Fnaitil al-Dehani