MICHELE NORRIS, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And I'm Melissa Block.
Now part two of our series about former prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Yesterday, we met a pair of men from Bahrain who spent four years at the U.S. prison camp in Cuba. Three more of their countrymen are still being held there.
Today, NPR's Jackie Northam reports on efforts in Bahrain to get those three men released.
JACKIE NORTHAM reporting:
Mr. ABDUL RASOOL AL BLOOSHI(ph) (Bahrain resident): This is my son. This is a Bahrain public card, an ID card, yes.
NORTHAM: Abdul Rasool Al Blooshi carefully unfolds a photocopy of his son's identity card, which he carries around with him in his wallet. Salah is a handsome 24-year-old with thick, black hair.
Mr. AL BLOOSHI: He get, always smiling. People used to call him helping hand man. Salah, helping hand.
NORTHAM: Blooshi says that his son's volunteer spirit is what took him from his home in Bahrain to Afghanistan in August 2001, one month before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He says he talked to Salah while he was in Afghanistan, but that changed in early October, when the U.S. launched strikes against Taliban and al-Qaida hideouts.
Mr. AL-BLOOSHI: Suddenly, the war started. There were no calls. We went crazy, you know, what's happening? There is no communication at all. We don't know what to do. Then, later on, after a month or so, we found out that they are in Guantanamo Bay.
NORTHAM: And that is were Salah Blooshi has remained for the past four and a half years. The U.S. Military says he's affiliated with al-Qaida. Blooshi has never been charged. His father says he's innocent. Like five other Bahrainis, he was handed over to the U.S. military by Pakistani authorities. In November, three Bahrainis were released. That gave hope that the other three would soon follow suit. But that hasn't happened. The U.S. Military says it continues to hold any detainee that is still considered a threat or has intelligence value.
But Sheikh Mohammed Khalid(ph) , a member of Bahrain's Parliament, says his country is a strong ally of the United States and that the Bahraini detainees should be given due process.
Sheikh MOHAMMED KHALID (Bahrain Parliament): (Through translator) The big shock which gives me, that how you leave them four years? This is the fifth year. And you cannot take your decision, are they innocent or guilty? Nothing, no judges, nothing, just to keep them in jail and leave them and forget them.
NORTHAM: Sheikh Khalid is spearheading a campaign to help release the remaining three Bahraini detainees.
Recently, Sheikh Khalid held a gathering at his spacious home in a Bahraini suburb. Local politicians, human rights activists and civil leaders, all men, sat amongst thick pillows and plush carpets and talked about the Bahraini detainees.
Sheikh KHALID: My question is, is the Bahraini government serious about this, or most of our government, they are very weak even to ask the American government to release its citizens.
NORTHAM: It's a long evening that included many trays of sweet pastries and many cups of even sweeter tea. In the end, the men decided to form a committee to push the government a bit harder to get the Bahrainis released, and a promise to keep the issue in the news.
Nabil Rajab, with the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, says it's taken a while. But now there's a groundswell to get the detainees released.
Mr. NABIL RAJAB (Bahrain Center for Human Rights): Today our civil society is stronger than four years ago. People are more aware. It's a humanitarian issue, it's not a terrorist issue. It's just, it's a violation of human rights, committed by United States government.
NORTHAM: The campaign got a boost with the arrival of three New York lawyers from Dorsey & Whitney who are representing the Bahraini detainees. About six journalists show up to hear the lawyers recount the frustration, anger and hunger strikes their clients have gone through at Guantanamo.
Attorney Joshua Colangelo-Bryan talks about his client, Juma Al Dossary(ph), who has tried to commit suicide at least a dozen times.
Mr. JOSHUA COLANGELO-BRYAN (Attorney, Dorsey & Whitney): Juma told me about being interrogated with Israeli flags wrapped around his body. He described being chained to the floor of an interrogation room, being beaten unconscious.
NORTHAM: Colangelo-Bryan says Al Dossary, like many prisoners at Guantanamo, is affected by the open-ended detentions.
Mr. COLANGELO-BRYAN: We knew that it was the isolation of being held alone in a cell that was the biggest factor in Juma's decision to try to kill himself. He said that he wanted to kill himself to show the world how intolerable the conditions at Guantanamo are.
NORTHAM: Reporters wanted to know more details about the prisoners' conditions and whether they would ever be released.
Unidentified Man #2: Are you losing hope of the release of the detainees?
Mr. COLANGELO-BRYAN: Not so much losing hope. I just - realistically assessing how long it takes.
NORTHAM: Some with a vested interest are also pushing to keep the Guantanamo issue alive. Abdullah Haji's brother Adel was held at the detention center for four years. During that time, Haji pressed the government for help and he's still actively working for the release of the remaining three detainees. Haji says the ongoing detentions are fueling an anger in Bahrain.
Mr. ABDULLAH HAJI (Bahrain resident): If the police hold you for a couple of days and then they release you, seriously, what would you think? You would talk, at least for the next two months, talking about the incident that has happened to you. Imagine holding people for four years, Bahraini. Bahrain is a small community. Everybody knows everybody here. Everybody helps everybody. Of course there is an anger.
NORTHAM: That anger is focused solely on the U.S. government. And that presents a problem for Bahrain. There's a huge American influence in Bahrain. You see it in the shops, at cinemas and at restaurants. There's an economic pact between the two countries. The U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain and it's considered an important ally in the so-called war on terrorism.
Pushing for the release of its citizens held at Guantanamo creates a delicate situation for the Bahraini government. Sheikh Adbulhadi Marhoun(ph), a member of Parliament, says the government should do more to secure their release.
Sheikh ABDULHADI MARHOUN (Bahrain Parliament): (Through translator) We should enter into a dialogue, not merely the United States giving orders to Bahrain to do one thing or the other.
NORTHAM: But at least one of the Bahraini detainees, Juma Al Dossary, is being held at Guantanamo's Camp Five, which is for those prisoners considered to have high intelligence value. The U.S. Military and the FBI say Al Dossary is implicated in, among other things, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombings that killed 19 Americans and that he trained at Al-Qaida camps.
Al Dossary's lawyer, Colangelo-Bryan, disputes those charges. Isa Al Merbati(ph), another Bahraini held at Guantanamo, is suspected of receiving weapons training in Afghanistan, and of being a member of Abu Sayyaf, an Islamist organization with links to al-Qaida. Merbati's lawyer, Christopher Karagheuzoff, also dismisses those charges.
Abdul Blooshi says it should be up to the Bahraini courts to investigate the allegations against the two men and his son Salah.
Mr. BLOOSHI: Okay, has he been charged for anything for a year or so? He can spend the year here. At least we can see him, not being put in a cage like an animal. At least we can see him once in a month.
NORTHAM: Right now, Blooshi cannot talk to his son, much less see him. Still, Blooshi plans for Salah's release, a new apartment, a bride and some grandchildren. And he hopes that whatever it took to get the last three Bahraini detainees released will also work for his son.
Jackie Northam, NPR News.
BLOCK: And you can hear Jackie Northam's previous report on two former Guantanamo detainees at our Web site, NPR.org.
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