Ali Abdullah Ahmed

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Ali Abdullah Ahmed (Arabic: علي عبدالله احمد) (January 12, 1970 – June 10, 2006) (also transliterated as Salah Addin Ali Ahmed Al-Salami) was a citizen of Yemen who was held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] His Guantanamo detainee ID number was 693.

On June 10, 2006 the DoD reported that three Guantanamo detainees, two Saudis, and one Yemeni committed suicide.^[2] DoD spokesmen refrained from releasing the dead men's identities.

Main article: Guantanamo suicide attempts

The next day, June 11, 2006, Saudi authorities released the names of the two Saudi men.^[3] Later that day the DoD released the names of all three men.^[4] The dead Yemeni man was identified, for the first time, by the DoD, as Ali Abdullah Ahmed. The dead Saudis were identied as Yasser Talal Al Zahrani and Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi.

1 Official account
2 Hunger strike and forced feeding
3 Murder suggestions
4 Post-mortems
5 Combatant Status Review Tribunal and Administrative Review Board hearing
6 References

[edit] Official account

The Washington Post reported that the DoD allege Ahmed: "was a mid- to high-level al-Qaida operative who had key ties to principal facilitators and senior members of the group." -- and that "Throughout his time in Guantanamo, he had been non-compliant and hostile to the guard force,"

The Washington Post reports that Ahmed was a "long-term hunger striker." -- There were several widespread hunger strike during 2005. A widespread hunger strike that began in late May 2005 or early June 2005 came to a negotiated end on July 28, 2005. Detainees report the camp authorities had agreed to several key concessions, and that they were forced to resume the hunger strike on August 8, 2006.

Initially the DoD reported that none of the three dead men had legal representation.^[5] However, on June 14, 2006 the DoD had to acknowledge that Ahmed did have legal representation. But they had yet to give his lawyers the clearance required to visit with him.

Mani Al-Utaybi's legal team reported that they had waited over nine months for the DoD to grant them clearance to see Al-Utaybi.^[6] They said that the DoD would not allow them to correspond with Al-Utaybi, because they claimed his legal team did not know the DoD's official spelling of Al-Utaybi's name.

[edit] Hunger strike and forced feeding

At its height more than 100 detainees participated in this hunger strike. The Department of Defense's position was that detainees did not have the right to refuse medical treatment and began force-feeding detainees. Detainees complained that the force-feeding were administered in a particularly brutal manner.

Approximately three dozen detainees remained participating in this hunger strike in January 2006, when the DoD instituted a new measure -- the use of "restraint chairs". Detainees would be strapped immobile in the restraint chairs, during the force-feeding, and for a period of time afterwards. The DoD explained they took this message so the detainees could not induce vomiting and void the force-fed formula before they began to really digest it. Detainees claimed that the force-feeding caused them extremely painful cramps, and that they would be held in restraint for hours, even if they soiled themselves. The DoD said their policy authorized restraining the detainees immobile for only 45 minutes following the end of the force-feeding.

All but four of the hunger strikers ended their hunger strike after just a few days after the initiation of the use of the restraint chair in January 2006. The Washington Post reports that Ahmed continued his hunger strike from late 2005 to May 2006.

Ali Abdullah Ahmed and Yasser Talal Al Zahrani had previously been listed on the DoD's two official lists. The other Saudi, previously named as either "Maniy bin Shaman al-Otaibi" or "Mani bin Shaman bin Turki al Habradi", had not been previously listed on either official list.^[3]^[7]^[8]^[1]

[edit] Murder suggestions

On June 14, 2006, Ali Abdullah Ahmed's father claimed that his son couldn't have committed suicide, and alleges that he was instead "assassinated by American soldiers".^[9]

[edit] Post-mortems

All three of the families of the dead men have challenged the American post-mortems.^[10] The families all took steps to have second post-mortems after the bodies were returned to them.

Patrice Mangin, who headed the team that volunteered to examine Al Salami's body, said that it was routine to remove some organs that decay rapidly.^[10] Some family members had expressed concerns when the bodies were missing the brain, liver, kidney heart and other organs.

Mangin however said that the US authorities had kept Al-Salami's throat, and that his team couldn't state an opinion as to whether he hung himself until it was returned.^[10]

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal and Administrative Review Board hearing

In July 2004 the DoD conducted a Combatant Status Review Tribunal to determine if the determination that the detainee was an enemy combatant was indeed correct. In December 2004 the DoD started to conduct the first set of annual Administrative Review Board hearings, which could recommend that an enemy combatant should continue to be held in Guantanamo, or released, or transferred to the custody of their home country.

Detainees were offered a summary of the unclassified allegations against them, and were invited to explain why they shouldn't be considered an enemy combatant, or why they shouldn't be considered a threat. Ahmed chose not to attend his Tribunal and his hearing.^[11]