Abdul Hakim Bukhary

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Abdul Hakim Bukhary is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 493.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
- 1.1 Transcript
2 Administrative Review Board hearing
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with their hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved.

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.

According to the BBC Bukhary had been jailed by the Taliban for expressing approval of Ahmed Shah Massood, a Northern Alliance leader assassinated on September 9, 2001.^[2]

Bukhary had originally traveled to Afghanistan to help the Taliban. But

Bukhary had previously fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. ^[3] He told his tribunal he: "... was once ready to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. But the former holy warrior has told his American captors he now loves democracy – and that hardline Taliban fighters prompted his conversion."

To comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, during the winter and spring of 2005, the Department of Defense released 507 memoranda. Those 507 memoranda each contained the allegations against a single detainee, prepared for their Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The detainee's name and ID numbers were redacted from all but one of the memoranda. However 169 of the memoranda had the detainee's ID hand-written on the top right hand of the first page corner. When the Department of Defense complied with a court order, and released official lists of the detainee's names and ID numbers it was possible to identify who those 169 were written about. Abdul Hakim Bukhary was one of those 169 detainees.^[4]

a. The detainee is a member of al Qaida:

The detainee traveled from ###### ###### ###### ###### ###### to Afghanistan after 11 September 2001, to participate in armed jihad against the United States.
The detainee met Usama Bin Laden in Afghanistan.
The detainee attended the al Qaida training camp at al Farouq for one day.
The detainee stayed at a guest house in Afghanistan.
The detainee admits long time affiliations with Jama'at Tablighi [sic].
Detainee stayed with Jama'at Tablighi [sic] prior to 11 September 2001.
Jama'at Tablighi, a Pakistan based Islamic missionary organization is being used as a cover to mask travel and activities of terrorists including members of al Qaida.

b. The detainee engaged in hostilities against the United States and its coalition partners:

The detainee was part of a group of mujahideen [sic] that defended the Kandahar airport.

[edit] Transcript

Bukhary chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[5]

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't 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.

Bukhary chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[6]