Khalid Hassan Husayn Al Barakat

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Khalid Hassan Husayn Al Barakat is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] Al Barakat's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 322. American intelligence analysts estimate that Al Barakat was born in 1975, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
- 1.1 allegations
- 1.2 testimony
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 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 Barakat chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[2]

[edit] allegations

The allegations Al Barakat faced during his Tribunal were:

a. Associations

The Detainee was second in command of his group in Tora Bora.
The Detainee trained at al Farouq and Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The Detainee has met Usama Bin Laden.
The Detainee's name was found on an Internet web-site listing of captured Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters.
The above-mentioned website's stated goal was to publish the names to place pressure on the home countries and Pakistan to release the "prisoners,"
The Detainee's name was found on a computer server hard drive of Arabs incarcerated in Pakistan recovered during a raid on a suspected Al Qaeda safe house in Islamabad, Pakistan.
One of Detainee's known aliases was on a list of captured Al Qaeda members discovered on a computer hard drive associated with a senior Al Qaeda figure.
One of Detainee's known aliases and corresponding "trust" account were found on computer media seized during raids on Al Qaeda-associated safe houses.