Ghassan Abdallah Ghazi Al Shirbi

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Ghassan Abdallah Ghazi Al Shirbi is a Saudi who is detained in Camp Delta, at United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.^[1] He has allegedly been named the "electronic builder" and referred to as a right hand man of Abu Zubaydah by fellow Guantanamo inmates. His detainee ID number is 682.

Ghassan was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He studied in the United States, at Arizona's Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.^[2] His English is fluent.

He is a self-proclaimed mujahideen. He was captured by Pakistani forces during a raid at Faisalabad, Pakistan in March 2002. In testimony before the Combatant Status Review Tribunal in Guantanamo, he accepted the title "enemy combatant" as well as all 15 charges against him. Upon dismissal from the room, Ghassan chanted "May God help me fight the infidels or the unfaithful ones."

On November 7, 2005, the United States charged Ghassan and four other detainees. They will face a trial before a military commission. Ghassan, Jabran Said bin al Qahtani, Binyam Ahmed Muhammad, and Sufyian Barhoumi face conspiracy to murder charges. Omar Khadr faces both murder and conspiracy to murder charges.

Al-Sharbi wants to decline legal representation.^[3] His lawyer, Bob Rachlin, is trying to arrange for Al-Sharbi to talk, by phone, with his parents, hoping they will be able to convince him to accept Rachlin's legal assistance.

On April 27, 2006 al Sharbi acknowledged membership in al Qaeda, and told his military commission:^[2]

"I came here to tell you I did what I did and I'm willing to pay the price"
"Even if I spend hundreds of years in jail, that would be a matter of honor to me,"
"I fought the United States, I'm going to make it short and easy for you guys: I'm proud of what I did."

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal allegations
- 1.1 Allegations
2 Al Sharbi's statement to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal
3 Administrative Review Board hearing
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal allegations

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.

Al Shirbi chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[4]

[edit] Allegations

During his Combatant Status Review Tribunal the allegations against al Sharbi were:^[4]

a The detainee is associated with al Qaida:

The detainee was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
In August of 2001 the detainee traveled from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Faisalbad Pakistan.
The detainee lived in a safe house with senior al Qaida operative in Pakistan until the time of the detainee’s capture.
The detainee was captured by Pakistani forces in a March 2002 raid of the safe house in Faisalbad, Pakistan.
Abu Zubaydah is a senior Al-Qaida lieutenant.
The detainee taught English to other guest [sic] at the safe house in Faisalbad, Pakistan.
The detainee received specialized training on remote control devices for use in explosives to detonate bombs against Afghani and United States forces.
The detainee received military training, including Basic Weapons (use, operation, and assembly/disassembly of assault rifles, UZI, Kalishnikov, Seminovs, M-16 and RPGs), Basic Warfare Tactics (tactical movement, concealment and mine avoidance) and navigation (navigation using compass, watch, stick in the ground against sunlight method and celestial methods) at a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.
Usama Bin Laden visited a Terrorist training camp in Afghanistan about ten times while the detainee was receiving training at that camp.
The detainee was observed chatting and laughing like pals with Usama bin Laden during Bin Laden’s visit to the particular terrorist training camp.
The detainee pressured another man to swear bayat ot Usama Bin Laden during a face-to-face meeting at that particular terrorist training camp.
The detainee admittedly supports the jihad and Chechens in the fight against the Russians.
The detainee wanted to be a mujihadeen freedom fighter.
In December 2001, the detainee was one of approximately 100 mujahideen near Birmal, Afghanistan.
The detainee is called the “electronic builder” by GTMO detainees, and is known as “Abu Zubaydah’s right hand man”.

[edit] Al Sharbi's statement to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal

During the portion of his Tribunal where he was permitted to give a statement he offered a couple of hundred words of criticism of the United States, and of Capitalism. Although he speaks fluent English he chose to give his statement in Arabic, and his translator had to ask him to pause several times, so they could catch up.

He ended his statement saying:

“Your culture chose to review the enemy combatant status. Your status as enemy combatants does not need a court. For your culture, the enemy combatant is Mulslims Islam. Enemies yes, combatants no, you only wear the uniform of what you call a coalition forces what I call traitors. I do not have anything to add and I do not want to say anything more then this and I do not want to hear more than this.”

When he finished his Tribunal's President told him she presumed he was finished, and tried to tell him what the next steps in the process would be. Al Sharbi started to chant at the same time. He chanted through her concluding remarks.

The Tribunal reconvened, in open session, shortly after al Sharbi had been removed, so the translator's translation of his chant could be recorded in the unclassified portion of his dossier. He chanted: “May god help me fight the infidels or the unfaithful ones”

[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.

Al Sharbi chose not to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.