Shawali Khan

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Shawali Khan is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] Khan's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 899. American intelligence analysts estimate Khan was born in 1963, in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
2 Administrative Review Board hearing
3 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.

Khan chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[2]

[edit] Witness request

Khan had requested two witnesses, who were ruled “not reasonably available”, because attempts to access those witnesses, through diplomatic channels, failed.

[edit] Allegations

a. Detainee is allied with al Qaida and the Taliban.

Detainee's uncle was the commander of a known terrorist organization.
Detainee was a member of the same terrorist organization.
Detainee worked for this known terrorist organization as an operator on the communications system.
The terrorist organization is led by an individual that has been found to be allied with al Qaida and the Taliban,
This terrorist organization is led by an individual who was formally designated by the U.S. Government as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist."
Upon capture, numerous weapons were found on the detainee's family orchard to include two tanks, rockets, Kalashnikovs and other guns.
A search of the detainee's house revealed receipts and paperwork showing a transfer of weapons, including Kalashnikov rifles, a rocket and three machine guns, from his uncle to another individual.
The detainee was also found with a fifty-meter spool of detonation cord.

[edit] Testimony

[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.

Khan chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[3]