Gulet Mohamed, a Virginia teenager, arrived at Dulles International Airport Friday morning, ending a month of harrowing experiences abroad. Mohamed was detained in Kuwait where he allegedly endured torture by Kuwaiti interrogators and alleged illegal questioning by the FBI. Until his family sued the U.S. government, he could not return to the United States even as a deportee due to his name appearing on the U.S. "no-fly" list.
Mohamed's family filed suit in the federal district court in Alexandria, Va. alleging violation of the teen's 14th Amendment rights by the U.S. government. Judge Anthony Trenga declared Mohamed's placement on the "no-fly" list a "clear violation" of his right to return to the U.S., WUSA reported.
Trenga declined to rule in the case in light of a Justice Dept. promise that the boy would be allowed to board a plane Thursday but said he was prepared to hold a hearing Friday if that didn't happen.
Mohamed is a 19-year-old American citizen. He traveled to Yemen to study Arabic in March 2009, according to the Washington Post, but within 3 months went to live with family in Somalia.
Mohamed's case may be part of a larger pattern of overseas detainment of Muslim Americans orchestrated to allow federal officials to question travelers without affording them their right to counsel. One of Mohamed's attorneys, Gadeir Abbas of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, contends that the Federal Bureau of Investigation attempted to question his client overseas even after Mohamed asserted his right to counsel. The Justice Dept. has denied allegations of "proxy detainment," insisting that the U.S. government has no control over the actions of foreign governments.
But Mohamed's lawyers contend that Kuwaiti interrogators possessed unpublished information about Mohamed and his family life in Northern Virginia that could only have come from U.S. government sources.
The FBI repeatedly visited Mohamed while he was in detention, Mohamed's lawyers said. And despite his invoking his right to remain silent and his right to counsel, FBI agents threatened that he would not be allowed to return home unless he answered their questions, his lawsuit alleges.
Mohamed's lawyers allege that he was tortured while in detention, beaten with sticks, forced to stand for hours on end, and threatened with electrocution.
Mohamed's reported experience is similar to that of other Muslim U.S. citizens who have been detained by foreign governments and denied the right to board a plane home. In his case, air travel was the only possible means of returning home. Under Kuwaiti law, he was subject to deportation and Kuwaiti immigration law requires people being deported to travel on a direct flight to their home country.
Mohed Mohamed, Gulet's brother, provided Kuwaiti deportation officials with a $1500 plane ticket for a direct flight to Dulles Sunday night. But when the officials arrived at the airport with Mohamed, he was not allowed to board the plane and was returned to detention due to his name appearing on the U.S. government's "no-fly" list.
A commenter identifying himself as "Litbrit" on the Cogitamus blog claimed to have gone to high school with Gulet Mohamed and said Mohamed is "harmless." The blog commenter compared Mohamed's detention to someone sharing a ride on a Metro car with the Unabomber, then being accused of affiliation.
On Tumblr, another blogger likewise professed Mohamed's innocence. "Lostthoughts" posted in part:
"Gulet Mohamed went to high school with my brother and I was friends with his older brother. He is pro-America and anti-terrorism and I am shocked that this is happening to him..."
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in June, challenging the government's use of the no-fly list to deprive citizens of constitutional rights.
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Hello, I am the writer named litbrit, of Cogitamus, and I just wanted to correct the above post, where you claim I said something I didn't. Also, I am a "she", not a "he". That comment was not made by me, but rather, by one of our readers, at a post by Lisa Simeone, and this reader says he went to school with Mr. Mohamed and is harmless. We have no way of verifying Mr. Mohamed's harmlessness, of course--I am fifty, so for me to have attended school with a young man who is currently still in his teens is kind of impossible!--but both Ms. Simeone and I are in agreement with Glenn Greenwald that his treatment was improper, unethical, likely illegal, and that his constitutional rights were violated. We are very glad that he is home now and hope that his attorney can sort out what happened, and hopefully prevent this from happening to citizens in the future.
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