Ibrahim Mahdy Achmed Zeidan

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Ibrahim Mahdy Achmed Zeidan is a citizen of Libya, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Zeidan's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 761. The Department of Defense reports that Zeidan was born on November 6, 1976, in Sorman, Libya.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
2 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 tribunal 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.

[edit] Allegations

A memorandum summarizing the evidence against Zeidan prepared for his Combatan Status Reiew Tribunal, was among those released in March of 2005.^[2] The allegations Ibrahim Mahdy Achmed Zeidan faced were:

[edit] Testimony

a. The detainee is a member of al Qaida:

The detainee attended al Qaida's al Faruq camp in Afghanistan in 2000.
The detainee appeared in an al Qaida movie about the USS COLE bombing.
The detainee attended passport-forging class paid for by al Qaida.
The detainee received weapons training at al Qaida's al Ghuraba camp in Kabul.
The detainee attended counterintelligence training in Kabul.
The detainee was captured with a Makhab al-Khidmat-inscribed Quran.
Makhab al-Khidmat is a terrorist organization.

Zeidan chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[3]

[edit] Statement

Zeidan denied all the allegations against him. He repeatedly blamed Abu Zubaydah for making false allegations against him. Abu Zubaydah has been identified as a senior al Qaeda leader.

In his testimony Zeidan refers to an allegation, that he believed stemmed from Abu Zubaydah, that he participated in a propaganda film about the USS Cole bombing. He denied participating in this film. He also denies another allegation he believes stems from Abu Zubaydah, that he attended a forgery course.

Zeidan said Abu Zubaydah's confessions had falsely implicated many other detainees. He said: "We heard from the interrogators themselves that they used unusual methods to get information from him."

Zeidan denied the allegation that he attended the al Ghuraba training camp. He denied attending counterintelligence training in Kabul.

Zeidan said that he suspected that a Jordanian friend of his, named Anwar Abu Faris, who was captured shortly after him, was tortured after being sent to Jordan. He suspected that the false allegation about counter-intelligence training came from him.

Zeidan said that the Makkab al-Khidmat-inscribed Koran was given to him when he requested one when he was first captured. He stated that the Makkab al-Khidmat organization folded 15 years ago, when he was a little boy. He also said, that to the best of his knowledge, the organization had been a humanitarian one.

[edit] testimony

In answer to questions Zeidan said:

He traveled to Afghanistatn, from Jordan, in 2000, to visit his brother, a teacher of sharia law.
He paid for his travel from his savings. He had worked as a painter in Jordan, and had been well-paid.
Although the Department of Defense identifies Zeidan as a Libyan, he said he was a Jordanian subject.
He acknowledged receiving military training in Jordan -- it was mandatory for all teenagers.
When asked how he knew Abu Zubaydah had been tortured he said he knew:
- because his interrogators, and other detainees interrogators had said so.
- because other detainees had been shown photographs, showing Abu Zubaydah's torture scars.
- becaise a detainee said he had read an American magazine and that: "he read that American interrogators said he was under psychological pressure and was in a special holding place."
He said he had never met Abu Zubaydah.
When asked what made him suspect his friend was tortured in Jordan

“I did not see him being tortured, but I know that torturing is common in Jordan. It does exist 100 percent in Jordan. They say in front of the world that they do not torture people but it has been proven that they do. When the Jordanian Delegation came here, they told me they would beat me when I leave here. I was being threatened here. Also, the people that were captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan were subject to torture. They were tortured in Pakistan and Baghram, and everywhere, we know that. In Kabul there is a prison called the Darkness prison, torture is a known thing.”