Unhappy Anniversary

[November 14th, 2007]

As far as anniversaries go, Adel Hamad’s must be among the grimmest.

Two years ago this week, authorities with the U.S. Department of Defense signed a memo approving Hamad’s release from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where the 49-year-old Sudanese citizen has been held as an “enemy combatant” since 2002.

Today, he remains imprisoned for reasons that aren’t entirely clear.

“The evidence strongly supports the claim that he was never an enemy combatant,” says William Teesdale, one of Hamad’s attorneys from the Federal Public Defender’s office in Portland.

Teesdale says new information in his client’s case could play a small role in the latest U.S. Supreme Court review of how the government treats all its enemy combatants.

Last month, an Army major who participated in the Combatant Status Review Tribunal proceeding that originally determined Hamad was an “enemy combatant” gave a sworn statement with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that the proceeding was fundamentally flawed.

Among other things, the major said higher-ups on the chain of command influenced the results of the cases. (The identity of the major is being concealed for undisclosed reasons.)

Those views are significant because the major—a lawyer and one of two military officials directly involved with the tribunals to speak out against them—witnessed 49 of the tribunals, according to Scotusblog.com, which covers the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court may reference this lawyer’s statement after hearing arguments on Dec. 5 in reviewing the Bush administration’s claims that it has the power to hold enemy combatants indefinitely without charges.

It’s been a long journey until this point. The Supreme Court has twice struck down the administration’s contention that Guantánamo prisoners lack the right to challenge their detention. And twice the administration has worked around the courts to maintain the president’s authority.

While Hamad awaits a favorable Supreme Court outcome, the Department of Defense has announced what amounts to both good and bad news for Hamad in his appeal of his detention.

For more than a year, Hamad’s attorneys have sought a new tribunal to consider new evidence that Hamad isn’t an enemy combatant.

After the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed on Oct. 31 to hear arguments on two legal claims from Hamad’s attorneys, the Defense Department agreed to a new tribunal for Hamad.

The good news is the tribunal represents an opportunity for Hamad to clear his name. The bad news is the process will delay his release. Also, no one is sure if the tribunal will be fair.

“Hamad is into his sixth year of detention at Guantánamo,” Teesdale says. “And now we’re back to square one.”

What happens next is being watched closely by a group of Portlanders who have created Project Hamad online at projecthamad.org to collect support for detainees.

Last month, participants organized a letter-writing party and mailed the results to Hamad, a hospital worker who was captured in Pakistan, where he had moved to earn more money.

Hamad supporter Laura Moulton also sent an “anniversary” card to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reminding her of Hamad’s detention.

“We imagined by now that he would be out,” Moulton says. “It’s the most impossible thing to

think about.”