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Gouled Hassan Dourad (Somali: Guuleed Xasan Duurad, Arabic: جوليد حسن دوراد‎), born 1974, is a citizen of Somalia who is currently held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantánamo Bay detainment camps in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 10023.

Gouled Hassan Dourad arrived at Guantanamo on September 6, 2006, and has been held there for 17 years, 6 months, and 13 days.[1][2]

Early life[]

Gouled was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. When the Somali Civil War erupted in 1991, his parents sent him to Germany where he lived in a refugee camp.[3][4] He traveled to Sweden and gained asylum there in 1993. In 1994, he attempted travel to the United States but was turned back in Iceland on account of his fraudulent passport.

Alleged ties to terrorism[]

According to American counter-terrorism officials, while in Sweden, Gouled attended a Somali mosque, whose imam arranged for Gouled and his friend, future AIAI bombmaker Qasim Mohamed, to train in Afghanistan before joining the Somali war effort.[3] Gouled trained at the Khalden camp in weapons and explosives from January through October 1996, and at another camp in Khost in assassination techniques for several months. By late 1996 he returned to Somalia.

American counterterrorism officials assert Gouled became a member of AIAI in 1997 out of a commitment to support the Somali war against Ethiopia and to win the Ogaden region of Ethiopia back to Somalia.[3] He fought against the Ethiopians in Ogaden off and on from 1997 to 2002 and trained AIAI fighters. He allegedly became associated with al-Qaeda because its members were in Somalia and his AIAI cell supported the al-Qaeda. Gouled was introduced to Abu Talha al-Sudani, who came to Mogadishu to hide following the Mombasa attacks in November 2003, in early 2003 by his AIAI cell leader. Gouled was recruited to work for al-Sudani, in part, because he had trained in Afghanistan: spoke Arabic, English, some Swedish and Somali, and had a high-school education.

According to the United States Director of National Intelligence, Gouled was the head of the Mogadishu-based facilitation network of al-Itihaad al-Islamiya (AIAI) members that supported al-Qaeda members in Somalia.[1] Gouled was a member of a small, selective group of AIAI members who worked for the East African al-Qaida cell led by Abu Talha al-Sudani. Gouled's responsibilities included locating safehouses, assisting in the transfer of funds, and procuring weapons, explosives and other supplies.[1] Gouled was privy to several terrorist plots under consideration by his AIAI cell, including shooting down an Ethiopian jetliner landing at an airport in Somalia in 2003 and kidnapping Western NGO-workers in Hargeysa, Somalia, in 2002 as a means to raise money for future AIAI operations.[1]

Following Gouled's arrest, AIAI terrorists on March 19, 2004, tried unsuccessfully to kidnap a German aid worker and murdered a Kenyan contract employee in Hargeysa.[1]

Combatant Status Review[]

Main article: Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Dourad was among the 60% of prisoners who participated in the tribunal hearings.[5] A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee. The memo for his hearing lists the following allegations:[6]

a. The detainee was recruited by a senior al Qaida operative who participated in the 1998 bombing of the United States embassy in Kenya and the 2002 Mombasa, Kenya, attacks. This senior al Qaida operative considered himself the senior al Qaida officer for the Horn of Africa.
b. The detainee was identified as a prominent Al-Ittihad al-Islami jihadist faction member.
c. The United States Department of Homeland Security Terrorist Organization Reference Guide placed Al-Ittihad al-Islami on the Terrorist Exclusion List. An organization placed on the Terrorist Exclusion List is known to commit or incite to commit acts which can cause death or serious bodily injury, prepares or plans a terrorist activity, gathers information on potential targets for terrorist activity, or provides material support to further terrorist activity.
d. The Al-Ittihad al-Islami jihadist faction suffered significant blows and setbacks with the arrest of the detainee and three other individuals.
e. As of 2004, the Al-Ittihad al-Islami jihadist faction in the Horn of Africa was affiliated with al Qaida and were in direct contact with Pakistan-based al Qaida operatives.
f. The detainee was a well-trained fighter, who trained in guerrilla warfare tactics, explosives, and marksmanship in the tribal border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the early 1990s. The detainee later trained at the Al-Ittihad al-Islami training camp in Lugh, Somalia.
g. In 2002, the detainee participated in Al-Ittihad al-Islami operations in Mogadishu, Somalia, which involved killing Ethiopian nationals and individuals believed cooperating with the Ethiopians.
h. The detainee was named an al Qaida Djibouti cell leader and senior facilitator.


Transcript[]

Gouled Hassan Dourad chose not to attend his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[7] But his Personal Representative read a statement on his behalf:

3.b

I am not a member of any Al-Ittihad al-Islami jihadist faction. However, I did fight jihad alongside Al-Ittihad against Ethiopians, which is my right to do.

3.e

I was arrest and detained in 2004. And even before 2004, this did not concern me because I was not a member of Al-Ittihad and I did not have any knowledge of such an affiliation.

3.f

My training was solely for the purpose of fighting in Somalia, but not against Americans. I never had training in Lugh, Somalia. Why would I need training there if I already had training in Afghanistan?

3.g

I never participated in Al-Ittihad al-Islami operations in Mogadishu, Somalia against Ethiopians. There never were such operations. If Ethiopian military members came to Mogadishu, I would defend against them. That is my right to do as a Somali, but it is against my religious beliefs to fight against civilians.

3.h

This statement is not true.

The Department of Defense announced on August 9, 2007 that all fourteen of the "high-value detainees" who had been transferred to Guantanamo from the CIA's black sites, had been officially classified as "enemy combatants".[8] Although judges Peter Brownback and Keith J. Allred had ruled two months earlier that only "illegal enemy combatants" could face military commissions, the Department of Defense waived the qualifier and said that all fourteen men could now face charges before Guantanamo military commissions.[9][10]

Mother's appeal[]

On November 23 2009 Africa News published a profile of Gouled's mother, Adar Mohammed Yusuf, who asserted that he was innocent.[11] Adar said her son was captured by a Somali warlord in 2004.

Adar was quoted as saying:

"If my son is a terrorist, why isn't he charged accordingly in a court of law. I am calling on the Somali government and human rights groups to look at my son’s case.”

Africa News reports Goulad was captured by the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, which was associated with the CIA.[11] Africa News reports that Goulad was one of dozens of captives apprehended by the Alliance.

Goulad's mother asserted that he had four children.[11]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Office of the Director of National Intelligence (2006-09-06). "Biographies of High Value Terrorist Detainees Transferred to the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay" (PDF). Press release. http://www.dni.gov/announcements/content/DetaineeBiographies.pdf. Retrieved 2006-12-16. 
  2. Guantanamo Docket: Gouled Hassan Dourad [1] Margot Williams 2008-11-03
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Gouled Hasan Dourad". Countering Terrorism Center. Archived from the original on 2009-08-31. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ctc.usma.edu%2Fharmony%2Fprofile_pdf%2FGouled_Hasan_Dourad.pdf&date=2009-08-31. 
  4. "Gouled Hasan Dourad". United States Department of Defense. 2009-09-06. Archived from the original on 2009-08-31. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.defenselink.mil%2Fpdf%2Fdetaineebiographies1.pdf&date=2009-08-31. 
  5. OARDEC, Index to Transcripts of Detainee Testimony and Documents Submitted by Detainees at Combatant Status Review Tribunals Held at Guantanamo Between July 2004 and March 2005, September 4, 2007
  6. OARDEC (April 25, 2007). "Summary of Evidence for Goulad Hassan Dourad". Department of Defense. pp. pages 1–3. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/ISN10023.pdf#1. Retrieved 2007-05-09. 
  7. OARDEC (April 28, 2007). "Verbatim transcript for detainee 10023". Department of Defense. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/transcript_ISN10023.pdf#1. Retrieved 2007-05-09. 
  8. Pentagon: 14 Guantanamo Suspects Are Now Combatants [2] Lolita C. Baldur Thursday, August 9, 2007 mirror
  9. Charges Dismissed Against Canadian at Guantanamo [3] Sergeant Sara Wood June 4, 2007
  10. Judge Dismisses Charges Against Second Guantanamo Detainee [4] Sergeant Sara Wood June 4, 2007
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 ``Release my son in Guantanamo`` [5] Muhyadin Ahmed Roble 2009-11-23

External links[]


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