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Keeps on tickin'

From testimony given between 2004 and 2005 at military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay by prisoners who were wearing Casio watches when they were arrested. Casio's F91W is an inexpensive digital watch with an alarm that has occasionally been used to set off improvised explosive devices. At least 20 million such watches have been sold worldwide in the last decade. The documents were obtained by the Associated Press in May, in response to a FOIA request.

I am a bit surprised as to this piece of evidence. Millions and millions of people have this type of Casio watch. If that is a crime, why doesn't the United States arrest and sentence all the people who own them? This is not a logical or reasonable piece of evidence.

We have two watches in Kuwait: Fossil and Casio. This watch has a compass that shows the direction of Mecca. I am Muslim and pray five times a day. I need it. Many people in Kuwait have this watch. We have four chaplains at Guantánamo, and all of them wear this watch. It's not tied to an Al Qaeda company, is it?

When they captured me in Pakistan, I had a watch. But because I did not know how to read and write the English language, I do not know the name of the watch or the model. I can tell the watch is mine only by looking at it.

I like my watch because it is durable. It has a calculator and is waterproof, and before prayers I have to wash all the way up to my elbows.

I had a watch business in Pakistan. Before that I was making hats in my home country. Then the [redacted] took over and opened factories and everything became automatic. I didn't really have a chance to make that much of a profit or anything like that. I didn't sell a lot of watches. They weren't really good watches. They were really cheap watches. I used to have one on my wrist, but you guys have it now. It had a battery and was kind of like the watch that he [a member of the Tribunal] is wearing. It said, “Made in [redacted].”

It is a black, plastic watch, made in Taiwan or Japan. Pakistan, really, is the terrorist country. You should take care of this first, then let the people have this watch.

It's a watch; I use it like a watch.

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SEE ALSO: Courts-martial and courts of inquiry; Cuba; Evidence (Law); Guantánamo Bay; Wrist watches

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