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 Al Qaeda members for bomb detonators."
The article quoted Al Kandari, and three other watch owners:
When they told me that Casios were used by Al 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:
Meetings with attorneys
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 US. Abdullah Kamel's favorite was a cheese pizza from the base's Pizza Hut.
Repatriation
The Washington Post reported, on September 10, 2006, that Al Kandari would be returned to Kuwait soon. The Emir of Kuwait personally requested Al Kandari's release, and that of another Kuwaiti man named Omar Rajab Amin.
Acquittal confirmed
On May 29, 2007, the Miami Herald reported that a Kuwaiti appeals court had upheld the acquittals of Al Kandari and Omar Rajab Amin.
The McClatchy interview
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.
