US Extra-territorial detainees Wiki
Register
Advertisement
No Title

No Title

No information

Mohammed Ahmed Said Haidel is a citizen of Yemen currently held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 498. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate that he was born in 1978, in Ta'iz, Yemen.

As of October 20, 2010, Mohammed Ahmed Said Haidel has been held at Guantanamo for eight years five months.[2]

Press reports[]

On July 12, 2006 the magazine Mother Jones provided excerpts from the transcripts of a selection of the Guantanamo detainees.[3] Haidel was one of the detainees profiled. According to the article his transcript contained the following comment:

"When I was in the Kandahar prison, the interrogator hit my arm and told me I received training in mortars. As he was hitting me, I kept telling him, “No, I didn’t receive training.” I was crying and finally I told him I did receive the training. My hands were tied behind my back and my knees were on the ground and my head was bleeding. I was in a lot of pain, so I said I had the training. At that point, with all my suffering, if he had asked me if I was Osama bin Laden, I would have said yes…. Am I an enemy of the United States? I never knew any Americans until I came to this prison. Americans should know who their real enemies are. What is my crime for being here for three years? That is all I would like to say."

Combatant Status Review Tribunal[]

File:Trailer where CSR Tribunals were held.jpg

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a 3 x 6 meter trailer. The captive sat with his hands cuffed and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.[4] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.[5]

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

Summary of Evidence memo[]

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Mohammed Ahmed Said Haidel's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 8 October 2004.[6][7] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. The detainee supported the Taliban and associated with al Qaida:
  1. The detainee arrived in Afghanistan from Yemen via Pakistan.
  2. The detainee traveled to Afghanistan for military training to prepare to fight.
  3. The detainee stayed at an Arab guesthouse in Kandahar.
  4. The detainee provided general information about an al Wafa office in Kabul.
  5. Al Wafa has been designated as a terrorist organization.
  6. The detainee trained at al Farouq.
  7. The detainee received weapons training for the Kalishnikov rifle, the PK rifle, and rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
  8. The detainee received mortar training while serving in the back lines.
b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.
  1. The detainee fought for the Taliban.
  2. The detainee fought at the front line against the Northern Alliance.
  3. The detainee was in Tora Bora during the U.S. air campaign.
  4. The detainee was injured by a bomb blast in Tora Bora.
  5. The detainee was captured by Northern Alliance forces during his retreat from Tora Bora.


Testimony[]

Haidel chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[8] On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a three page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[9]

Administrative Review Board hearing[]

File:ARB trailer.jpg

Hearing room where Guantanamo captive's annual Administrative Review Board hearings convened for captives whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal had already determined they were an "enemy combatant".[10]

Detainees who were determined to have been classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings.[11] The Administrative Review Boards were not authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they were not authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat—or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

First annual Administrative Review Board[]

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Mohammed Mohammed Ahmen Said's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 28 September 2005.[12] The three page memo listed fourteen "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and six "primary factors favor[ing] release or transfer".

Second annual Administrative Review Board[]

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Mohammed Mohammed Ahmen Said's second annual Administrative Review Board, on 7 June 2006.[13] The three page memo listed eight "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and ten "primary factors favor[ing] release or transfer".

References[]

  1. OARDEC (May 15, 2006). "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf. Retrieved 2007-09-29. 
  2. ' [1] The New York Times
  3. "Why Am I in Cuba?", Mother Jones (magazine), July 12, 2006
  4. Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
  5. "Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials". United States Department of Defense. March 6, 2007. http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=3902. Retrieved 2007-09-22. 
  6. OARDEC (8 October 2004). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Haidel, Mohammed Ahmed Said". United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 26–27. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/000400-000499.pdf#26. Retrieved 2008-04-21. 
  7. OARDEC (8 October 2004). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- name redacted (published March 2005)". United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 103–104. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_mar05.pdf#103. Retrieved 2008-04-21. 
  8. OARDEC (date redacted). "Summarized Statement". United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 9–11. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/Set_31_2145-2265.pdf#9. Retrieved 2008-04-21. 
  9. US releases Guantanamo files [2] April 4, 2006
  10. Review process unprecedented [3] Spc Timothy Book Friday March 10, 2006
  11. OARDEC provides recommendations to Deputy Secretary of Defense [4] Army Sgt. Sarah Stannard October 29, 2007
  12. OARDEC (28 September 2005). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Said, Mohammed Mohammed Ahmen". United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 60–61. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_1_Factors_000394-000494.pdf#60. Retrieved 2008-04-21. 
  13. OARDEC (7 June 2006). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Said, Mohammed Mohammed Ahmen". United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 82–84. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_2_Factors_499-598.pdf#82. Retrieved 2008-04-21. 

External links[]


{{{header}}}
{{{body}}}
{{{header}}}
{{{body}}}
Advertisement