DELIVERY OF DIPNOTE ON BAHRAINI DETAINEES AT GTMO

S E C R E T MANAMA 000089 SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/ARPI, S/WCI E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/23/2016 TAGS: KAWC PREL PTER ASEC OPDC BA OFFICIALS CTR BILAT SUBJECT: DELIVERY OF DIPNOTE ON BAHRAINI DETAINEES AT GTMO REF: A. STATE 10487 ¶B. MANAMA 0063 ¶C. 05 MANAMA 1886 Classified by DCM Susan L. Ziadeh for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (S) The Ambassador January 21 delivered Ref A diplomatic note concerning the health, treatment, and status of the three remaining Bahraini detainees at Guantanamo to Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa in a meeting covering several issues (septels). Shaikh Khalid asked about the timing of the next Administrative Review Board (ARB) sessions for the three. He emphasized that Bahrain had done its part to keep the three detainees who returned to Bahrain in November under control by monitoring their communications, including phone calls, and restricting their travel and contacts. A friend of one of the returnees had begun to talk to him about jihad, and the security services picked up the friend, told him he would be prosecuted if he continued this sort of talk, and the man stopped. Shaikh Khalid said that former detainee Abdulla Al Noaimi had married since his return and the Al Khalifa family was looking for a bride for Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa. ¶2. (S) Shaikh Khalid pledged that if the remaining three detainees returned to Bahrain, the government would maintain the same sort of continuous monitoring on them. The GOB is being blamed for not doing enough and is coming under pressure from the media, lawyers, and families to gain the detainees' return. He requested that the U.S. authorities not wait a full year before doing ARBs for Al Dossari, Al Balushi, and Al Murbati, and hold the sessions as soon as possible. He stressed that both the U.S. and Bahrain "need to put this issue behind us." MONROE