Released Guantanamo Detainee Became Suicide Bomber
A Kuwaiti detainee released from Guantanamo Bay became a suicide bomber in one of three suicide attacks last month in the Iraqi city of Mosul, according to the U.S. military.
Officials identified the man as Abdullah Salim Ali al-Ajmi, released in 2005 after spending three years at Guantanamo, the New York Times reports.
Al-Ajmi returned to Kuwait and entered Iraq through Syria. Military spokesman Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon said he is one of several Guantanamo detainees who apparently returned to life as a combatant. A Kuwaiti court released al-Ajmi after acquitting him on charges he supported al-Qaida, the Associated Press reports.
Al-Ajmi’s American lawyer, Thomas Wilner, told AP his client may have become “radicalized” because of his incarceration at Guantanamo. The military says al-Ajmi was an enemy combatant when he was captured in Afghanistan and he had a history of discipline problems at Guantanamo.
Wilner said al-Ajmi appeared at one meeting with a broken arm, an injury the detainee attributed to rough treatment by guards who tried to stop him from praying. “I don’t know whether the experience of being kept down there in isolation radicalized him,” Wilner said.
Wilner, a partner at Shearman & Sterling, told the Times in a story published yesterday that he has been warned to be careful about his electronic communications. Several lawyers assert they fear their phone calls are being monitored by the government.
