Guantanamo detainee cites POW stipulation in bid for freedom

[unhappycamper]

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-gitmo-lawsuit-20140204,0,7876888.story



Fawzi Odah of Kuwait, whose father worked with U.S. troops in the 1991 Gulf War, contends in a lawsuit he should be freed when America withdraws from Afghanistan.

Guantanamo detainee cites POW stipulation in bid for freedom
By Richard A. Serrano
February 3, 2014, 9:09 p.m.

WASHINGTON — A Kuwaiti detainee at Guantanamo Bay is mounting a novel legal challenge to win his release, arguing in a federal lawsuit that he should be freed when U.S. combat troops pull out of Afghanistan because international law stipulates that prisoners of war be returned home once a conflict is over.

The lawsuit is the latest attempt in a 12-year struggle by the Odah family of Kuwait to secure the release of a dozen Kuwaiti young men who were captured in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and brought to the terrorist prison in Cuba.

Though 10 have been released over the years, two remain in Guantanamo, including Fawzi Odah, 36, who is the son of Khalid Odah, a U.S.-trained Kuwaiti air force colonel who worked with American troops in the 1991 Gulf War to help organize his country's resistance against Iraq.

The Odah family maintains that Fawzi Odah was captured after performing charitable work in Afghanistan. His father has told The Times that Fawzi was helping refugees in Afghanistan when U.S. bombs struck the area. Fawzi and the others were mistakenly arrested in the post-Sept.11 chaos and taken to Guantanamo, the family says.

[libodem]

1. I hope he gets justice

Gitmo is a disaster of epic proportion.