Lt. Col. Barry Wingard: "They will just keep him detained forever"

By GottaLaff

My very conscientious, very diligent friend Lt. Col. Barry Wingard was interviewed by the Kuwait Times. Here are some excerpts to remind everyone what Fayiz al-Kandari is up against:

According to Wingard, the US government has gathered new evidences against Al-Kandari that are allegedly classified. This means that the defense can only see it in an' extremely redacted form.'

For example," said Wingard, "one of the two charges pressed by the prosecution against Al-Kanderi is that he has 'conspired' with the Taliban or Al-Qaeda, and that he provided material support to the Taliban or Al-Qaeda, without specifying how exactly he did any of these things."

Barry says that the government is very aware that they have no provable case.

"They can't get him convicted neither at federal courts, nor in military commission, which is the system that they've invented. So they will just keep him detained forever." [...]

"He is amazingly strong and resilient. They tried to break him in too many different ways. They've been completely unsuccessful. He exercises, teaches the illiterate people in his block how to read, it freaks them out." [...]

One of the conditions that the US government has placed on Kuwait to release its Gitmo detainees is to build a rehabilitation center. This is meant to help them reintegrate into society. Yet, despite the fact that the rehabilitation center is ready, Kuwait still has two of its citizens detained at the Guantanamo Bay naval base.

I think the question now is does the US government trust the Kuwaiti government to be able to handle these two guys in this rehabilitation center that is located in the center of the Kuwaiti jail," said Wingard. He added that Kuwaitis have complained about the American demands, and that Americans have been changing their stance. They require additional conditions to be met beyond the establishment of a rehabilitation center. "I have no idea what they require," said Wingard. "But I do know that the list continues to be added on. [...]

"The people of Kuwait need to get involved in this issue and to try to bring home Kuwait's sons because there are Kuwaiti citizens who are have been serving the ninth year in prison without any charges pressed against them."

You can read the whole thing here. It's hard to imagine how difficult this must be for Fayiz. Nine years.

Nine. Years.

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All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

Lt. Col. Barry Wingard is a military attorney who represents Fayiz Al-Kandari in the Military Commission process and in no way represents the opinions of his home state. When not on active duty, Colonel Wingard is a public defender in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.