Al Khadr Abdallah Muhammed Al Yafi

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Al Khadr Abdallah Muhammed Al Yafi is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 034. American intelligence analysts estimate Al Yafi was born in 1970, in Lawdar, Yemen.

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

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 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 Tribunal. 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.

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. Al Khadr Abdallah Muhammed Al Yafi was one of those 169 detainees.^[2]

[edit] Allegations

a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida:

Detainee traveled to Afghanistan in 1999.
Detainee studied for six months at the Dimaj Institute.
The Dimaj Institute is a known terrorist training center.
Detainee was in Tora Bora.
Detainee was seen in Kandahar circa 1999.
Detainee possibly was seen at the al-Zubayr guesthouse (associated with al Qaida) before 11 September 2001.
Detainee, reflecting on his time in Afghanistan, could not name one of the smaller villages or towns in which he claimed to have taught the Koran, nor could he name one person he had met, including one of his students.
Detainee served in the Yemeni military in the infantry unit from 1985-1987. He was trained to use the Kalashnikov rifle, handguns, and various other weapons.