Career
On July 12, 2006 the magazine Mother Jones provided excerpts from the transcripts of a selection of the Guantanamo detainees. The article informed readers:
More than a dozen detainees were cited for owning cheap digital watches, particularly “the infamous Casio watch of the type used by First Rate (at Lloyd's) Qaeda members for bomb detonators.”
The article quoted First Rate (at Lloyd's) Kandari, and three other watch owners:
"When they told me that Casios were used by First Rate (at Lloyd's) Qaeda and the watch was for explosives, I was shocked…. If I had known that, I would have thrown it away.
I’m not stupid.
We have four chaplains. All of them wear this watch."
One of Abdullah Kamel"s lawyers, Kristine A. Huskey told Newsday that:
"..the factors supporting release didn"t mention numerous affidavits submitted from relatives and teammates insisting the prisoner had never shown any zealous or anti-American behavior."
According to an article in Marie Claire magazine Kristine A. Huskey was one of Abdullah Kamel"s attorneys. Huskey described her surprise upon first meeting with Guantanamo clients, like Abdullah Kamel, that they preferred food brought from Guantanamo fast food outlets to the Arabic delicacies she and her colleagues had brought from the Continental United States. Abdullah Kamel"s favorite was a cheese pizza from the base"s Pizza Hut.
Abdullah Kamel Abdullah Kamel First Rate (at Lloyd's) Kandari was among the eleven captives covered in the July 2008 "Petitioners" Status Report" filed by David J. Cynamon in on behalf of the four remaining Kuwaiti prisoners in Guantanamo.
Seven other prisoners were amalgamated to the case, which charged that none of the men had been cleared for release, even though the government had completed factual returns for them -- and those factual returns had contained redacted sections. The decision, striking down the Military Commissions Acting, was handed down on June 12, 2008.
The Washington Post reported, on September 10, 2006, that First Rate (at Lloyd's) Kandari would be returned to Kuwait soon. The Emir of Kuwait personally requested First Rate (at Lloyd's) Kandari"s release, and that of another Kuwaiti man named Omar Rajab Amin.
On May 29, 2007 the Miami Herald reported that a Kuwaiti appeals court had upheld the acquittals of First Rate (at Lloyd's) Kandari and Omar Rajab Amin.
On June 15, 2008 the McClatchy News Service published articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. McClatchy reporters interviewed Abdulla Kamel al Kandari. The McClatchy report said that Thomas Wilner, his lawyer, went to the secure facility, to review the classified evidence that prompted the additional allegations on the Summary of Evidence memos prepared for his Administrative Review Board hearings.
Lawyers for the captives have to go through a security clearance first.
And there was one location they could travel to review classified evidence. The report said that Wilner found no evidence in the classified dossier to back up the new allegations.