Ali Husein Muhammad Shaaban

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Ali Husein Muhammad Shaaban is a citizen of Syria, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Shaaban's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 327. The Department of Defense reports that Shaaban was born on March 6, 1982, in Utaiba, Syria.

[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 his 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.

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

[edit] allegations

The allegations that Shaaban faced during his Tribunal were:

a. associations

1. The Detainee left Syria on 3 July 2000, traveled through Turkey and Iran, and arrived in ]]Afghanistan]].
2. The Detainee resided for approximately one year, with five to six other Syrians, in a house rented by a Syrian in Kabul, Afghanistan.
3. Four of the Syrians from the house (including the Detainee) have been captured and are being held by the United States and coalition partners.
4. The Detainee fled to Afghanistan to join a Syrian camp under the supervision of a leader allied with Usama Bin Laden.
5. The Detainee reportedly attempted to convince his brother to receive flight training in the United States.
6. The Detainee received basic training on the Kalashnikov rifle.

b. hostile activity

1. The Detainee left Kabul, after its fall to the Northern Alliance, and stayed in a trench that was supplied with food, water and weapons.
2. The detainee stated that there were three Yemenis in the trench that had Kalashnikov rifles.
3. When the bombing campaign started, the Detainee drove with three others to unidentified mountains in the direction of Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
4. The Detainee and three others surrendered to Pakistani authorities when the group arrived in Pakistan.

[edit] testimony

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Ali Husein Muhammad Shaaban's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 77-86