Al-Alwi arrived at Guantanamo on January 17, 2002, and has been held at Guantanamo for 22 years, 11 months and 2 days.[4]
In January 2010, the Guantanamo Review Task Force recommended he should be classed as a "forever prisoner", one who has not committed a crime but is too dangerous to release. In his 2015 Periodic Review Board hearing, intelligence analysts no longer alleged that he was one of Osama bin Laden's bodyguards, now claiming that he "had spent time" with some of those bodyguards.
Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still
held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain
common allegations, with al-Alwi listed as one of those:[11]
who "The military alleges ... are associated with both Al Qaeda and the Taliban."[11]
who "The military alleges ... traveled to Afghanistan for jihad."[11]
who "The military alleges that the following detainees stayed in Al Qaeda, Taliban or other guest- or safehouses."[11]
who "The military alleges ... took military or terrorist training in Afghanistan."[11]
who "The military alleges ... fought for the Taliban."[11]
who "The military alleges ... were at Tora Bora."[11]
whose "names or aliases were found on material seized in raids on Al Qaeda safehouses and facilities."[11]
who "The military alleges that the following detainees were captured under circumstances that strongly suggest belligerency."[11]
who "The military alleges ... served on Osama Bin Laden's security detail."[11]
who was one of the "82 detainees made no statement to CSRT or ARB tribunals or made statements that do not bear materially on the military's allegations against them."[11]
In a separate ruling, the court also found that Hisham Sliti, "were part of or supported the Taliban", and thus could continue to be held in US custody.[13][14][15] The New York Times called the two rulings: "the first clear-cut victories for the Bush administration", while Andy Worthington noted they represented a "disturbing development".[16] Glaberson reported that Leon stated he did not have to take a position on the Bush administration's claim Al Alawi was an Osama bin Laden bodyguard, that there was enough evidence he had supported the Taliban to confirm his designation as an "enemy combatant".[13]
In December 2014, President Barack Obama announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.[6] Al-Alwi then filed a new petition for habeas corpus, arguing that the government's authority to detain him “unraveled” when President Obama declared an end to hostilities.[6] In February 2017, District Judge Leon again denied al-Alwi's petition, finding that hostilities were nevertheless ongoing.[6][19]
In August 2018, a unanimous panel of the D.C. Circuit again affirmed, in an opinion by Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson.[6][20] She reasoned that the 2001 AUMF had not expired, that the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 had further authorized detentions, and that the international law of war permitted detention of enemy combatants as long as "active combat" continued.[6]
Al-Alwi then petitioned for a writ of certiorari from the Supreme Court.[7] In June 2019, the Court denied that petition, with Justice Stephen Breyer including a statement arguing that the Court should at some point consider the constitutionality of continued detentions in a later "appropriate case".[7][21]
Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment
When he assumed office in January 2009 PresidentBarack Obama made a number of promises about the future of Guantanamo.[25][26][27]
He promised the use of torture would cease at the camp. He promised to institute a new review system. That new review system was composed of officials from six departments, where the OARDEC reviews were conducted entirely by the Department of Defense. When it reported back, a year later, the Joint Review Task Force classified some individuals as too dangerous to be transferred from Guantanamo, even though there was no evidence to justify laying charges against them. On April 9, 2013, that document was made public after a Freedom of Information Act request.[28]
Al-Alwi was one of the 71 individuals deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release. Obama promised that those deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release would start to receive reviews from a Periodic Review Board. Al-Alwi was approved for transfer on December 27, 2021.[29]
Analysts still continued to assert that he was one of the "dirty thirty", a group of thirty individuals, captured together while fleeing to Pakistan, who analysts maintained were all Osama bin Laden bodyguards.[30]
Periodic Review
Al-Alwi's Guantanamo Review Task Force had concurred with earlier review boards, and recommended he be classed as too dangerous to release, although there was no evidence to justify charging him with a crime.[30]Carol Rosenberg, of the Miami Herald, wrote that the recommendation from his Periodic Review Board concluded that he was "probably not" one of Osama bin Laden's bodyguards, but that he seemed to have "spent time with" them.[30]
Medical condition
As of 2015, al-Alwi is recognized as one of the camp's long-term hunger strikers.[5]
Camp authorities published the weight records from the first four years.[31]
Those records show al-Alwi's weight being recorded 53 times. His weight was only recorded twice during the camp's first well-known hunger strikes, in 2005, where his weight dropped to 117 and 118 pounds. But a hunger-strike he began in 2013 has left him weighing less than 100 pounds.
Al-Alwi described his hunger strike as a form of peaceful protest.[5]
In 2013, a new warden was appointed to the camp, ColonelJohn Bogdan.
Under his administration, guards fired upon the captives for the first time. Al-Alwi was one of the captives guards shot.[5] He described being shot with rubber coated steel bullets in April 2013.
Robert Durand, a camp spokesman, asserted guards were provoked, and that they only fired "four less than lethal rounds".[32]
Al-Alwi described being fired upon without warning when he and other men were preparing for communal prayers.[5]
According to al-Alwi's account, he was hit by more than four munitions. According to al-Alwi, his wounds were either inadequately treated, or not treated at all.
Artworks
In the late 2010s, al-Alwi began making artworks from materials available to him in the prison.[33][34][35] The sculptures that result, mainly in the form of model ships and boats, were made from scrap plastic, fabric and wood.[36][37] In 2017 several of his sculptures were displayed as part of an exhibition at the City University of New York Law School School of Law.[33][34]
^ abWilliam Glaberson (2008-12-30). "Judge Agrees With Bush in Ruling on 2 Detainees". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-12-31. A federal judge in Washington ruled Tuesday that the government was properly holding two Guantánamo detainees as enemy combatants, the first clear-cut victories for the Bush administration in what are expected to be more than 200 similar cases.
^ abcCarol Rosenberg (2016-09-30). "New Guantánamo intelligence upends old 'worst of the worst' assumptions". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2016-10-01. Retrieved 2016-12-05. Yemeni Moath al Alwi got to Guantánamo the week Camp X-Ray opened and was profiled seven years later as a veteran jihadist, combatant in the battle for Tora Bora and former Osama bin Laden bodyguard — a member of the "Dirty 30." A July 2015 intelligence profile prepared for that file review said that, before his capture by Pakistani forces in December 2001, Alwi was "probably not" one of bin Laden's bodyguards but concluded he was "an al-Qaida-affiliated fighter who spent time with" bin Laden's security detail.
