Casio F91W

The Casio F91W is an inexpensive quartz digital watch, manufactured by the Japanese firm Casio. It has a 1/100 second stopwatch with a capacity of up to 59'59.99" and measuring modes of net time, split time, and 1st-2nd place times. There are the options of an hourly time "beep" and a daily alarm. It has an automatic calendar, although adjustment for leap-years is not supported as the watch does not record the year.

The manufacturers say the watch is accurate to +/-30 seconds per month. It uses a CR2016 battery, with a claimed battery life of approximately seven years (assuming 20secs of alarm and 1sec of backlight usage per day). The watch case measures 37.5 x 33.5 x 9.5mm and weighs 20g. The manufacturer's module number for this model (stamped on the stainless steel rear of the watch case) is 593. The watch is water resistant. This means 'splashproof' only, not 'waterproof' which would include swimming or showering.

Since the watch was introduced it has only been updated once. The change was to the backlight which went from the standard light in older watches to the blue 'micro-light' seen in most of today's watches.

The watch is controlled by three pushbuttons. The upper left button turns on the backlight, cancels the alarm, and is used for selecting settings. The lower left button cycles the modes of the watch: → Alarm → Stopwatch → Time adjustment and back to the normal time display. The button on the right is the function button: when used after pressing the lower left mode button it starts and stops the stopwatch, or changes the settings currently being adjusted; but when pressed alone switches between the 12 and 24 hour modes.

The time or date is adjusted by pressing the lower left button three times to bring the watch to time adjustment mode. This causes the seconds to flash on the display. The top left button is pressed to cycle through seconds, hours, minutes, month, date, day, and normal mode. The right button is then pressed to adjust the flashing value displayed. When the adjustments are finished, the bottom left button is pressed repeatedly until the watch returns to normal mode.

The watch's display shows the day of the week, day of the month, hour, minute, seconds, and the signs for PM (or 24-hour clock), alarm signal, and hourly signal (double 'beep on the hour).

In stopwatch mode, minutes, seconds and one-hundredths of a second are shown and a lap feature is available.

This watch is widely available throughout the world in various packaging, popular in U.S Army including a version with a chrome case and strap available in the USA at Fry's and other outlets.

Claimed use in terrorism

This model of watch is notable because United States intelligence officials have identified it as the watch that terrorists use when constructing time bombs. [http://motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/07/detainee_sidebar.html "Why Am I in Cuba?"] , "Mother Jones (magazine)",
July 12 2006]
Ahmed Ressam, the "millennial bomber", bought two Casio F91Ws. [http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/7879445/detail.html Guantanamo Captives Jailed Because Of Digital Watches] , "WCVB", March 10 2006]

According to the allegations used to justify the continued detention of one of the captives, these watches were given to some attendees at Al-Qaeda's Al Farouq training camp. [http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_mar05.pdf#216 Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf)] prepared for Sabri Mohammed Ebrahim Al Qurashi's "Combatant Status Review Tribunal" - October 13 2004 - page 216] At least four of the Guantanamo detainees found with such a watch are also listed as having been to Al Farouq.

When the Department of Defense was ordered by US District Court justice Jed Rakoff to release the documents from Guantanamo detainees' Combatant Status Review Tribunals it became known that at least ten of the Guantanamo detainees were listed as having been wearing this model of watch when they were captured. [ [http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2006/0203nj4.htm Empty Evidence (02/03/2006)] , "National Journal"]

Although none of the captives who remained in detention when the Combatant Status Review Tribunals began in August 2004 were being held solely for possession of this watch, this is used as the main allegation against them, as this link was highlighted in the Denbeaux study compiled by lawyers for two detainees. It is said that having this watch was being used as "proof" of the captives' status as enemy combatants. Those that say otherwise point to the fact that eighteen captives known to have faced the allegation of owning this watch all faced other allegations as well. However, this 'evidence' still remains the main allegation against them.

Casio officials declined to be interviewed about the U.S. intelligence accusations. [http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/7879445/detail.html Guantanamo Captives Jailed Because Of Digital Watches] , "WCVB", March 10 2006] Casio did, however, issue a statement in which it said the watch "has no exclusive technology," and asserted that "Casio continues to work closely with all government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security to help limit any potential threats and deal with security concerns."

Detainees who testified to their surprise and confusion over this allegation have described their watches, and those descriptions have not matched the description of the F91W. Their descriptions have mentioned built-in compasses and calculators -- features the F91W lacks.

Detainees listed as having a Casio watch

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176 || Majid Aydha Muhammad Al Qurayshi |
* In 2006. during his second annual Administrative Review Board, Majid Aydha Muhammad Al Qurayshi faced a new justification for continuing to detain him ] ] :quotation
Shortly after receiving the money for the components, Barhoumi, Noor al Deen and other individuals staying at the house went into downtown Faisalabad with a five page list of electrical equipment and devices for purchase which included, "inter alia, " electrical resistors, plastic resistors, light bulbs for circuit board lights, plastic and ceramic diodes, circuit testing boards, an ohmmeter, watches, soldering wire, soldering guns, wire and coil, six cell phones of a specified model, transformers and an electronics manual.

An article published in the "Washington Post" in 1996 reported that Abdul Hakim Murad, Wali Khan Amin Shah, and Ramzi Ahmed Yousefhad developed techniques to use Casio digital watches to detonate time bombs that didn't look like traditional time bombs.cite news
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/twa800/bomb.htm
title=New Devices May Foil Airline Security
pages=A01
publisher=Washington Post
author=R. Jeffrey Smith
date=Sunday, July 21 1996
accessdate=2008-03-14
quote=] The article stated: quotation|At the heart of each device was a timer built by rewiring a commonly available Casio digital watch, which could be connected to a stabilized form of liquid nitroglycerin stored in a bottle ostensibly filled with contact lens solution. The stabilizer for the nitroglycerin looked like cotton, and Murad told interrogators that "nobody can think that it's . . . explosive."

References

External links

*http://www.casio.com/products/Timepiece/Classic/F91W-1/
*http://www.coursestuff.co.uk/ENVT1010/designed-world/casio.htm